Pre-race
I’m excited and nervous 😩 about the race. I know I can finish… and I keep telling myself that I don’t have to PR. I decided to run marathons instead of halves because I wanted to take the pressure off myself. I need to honor that.
I’m nervous about how cold it is going to be. It is forecasted to be in the low 30’s at start, which is unseasonably cool. I thought I would beat the weather ❄️ if I ran southern states in the winter, and northern states in the summer. I’ve run in weather colder 🥶 than this… I just did not anticipate this. At least my mom warned me and I came prepared 🧤🧥
On another note… Nashville is not a cool city. I was here nearly 10 years ago for a bachelorette party. It seems like the city really ran with that concept, and invested on commercial country music. Other than the trashy bar scene, there is not much else. There are many high rises with multiple stores/restaurants on each floor. The self-guided city tour was mediocre at best. Well… I have a 1.5 days more to find its charm.
Post-race
I did it!! 🥳 It was a tough run though. I started out way too quick. My splits for the first half were between 7.30-8 😳 The course was mostly downhill at the beginning, which made the second half hard. Mile 13 was particularly cool. We ran around the bases ⚾️ in their minor league’s stadium, and you could see yourself on the Jumbotron 🤩 It was a nice mental break. Although the course was pretty flat, I had gone out too fast. My legs 🦵🏼and feet 🦶🏼 were feeling weird by mile 16. Not sure if it was the cold, or my legs were just worn out. They felt tingly, numb and crampy. It was definitely mind over matter for the last 10 miles. I forced myself not to walk. I was afraid I would not run consistently again if I let myself walk briefly. A guy ran up to me and said I made it look easy 😄 I replied that I always smile 😊 when I run to hopefully trick myself… if I have a good outlook, my body will follow and keep me going. That’s probably how I view life in general…
My mom said I looked better after the race this time. I certainly did not feel that way, but perhaps I forgot the pain. I’m really happy she was there… she is my biggest cheerleader 📣
The walk back to the hotel was not too bad. I felt discombobulated though when I got to the room. It took me quite a bit of time to get ready.
We went to Honky Tonk central. I thought I wanted that experience, but walked out immediately after walking in 😆 I do not enjoy dark bars during the day and having to scream over loud, live music 🎶 I like live music, but I can’t get into it if I’m not familiar with the band/song/music genre. We went instead to Acme Feed and Seed. It was a cool venue with a rooftop. The weather was perfect for sitting outside. With the sun ☀️, I was nice and warm without my jacket. That was a nice change from the previous day. I had a breakfast burrito that totally hit the spot. It was the perfect meal after a hard run.
Stephanie’s friend Cheri met us and took us around the older part of town. I liked those streets much better. It had the feel of what I thought Nashville would be like. The best part was I did not see one bachelorette party during that time.
We had a drink at a speakeasy-like place and then at our hotel’s rooftop bar. It was cute sitting in an old greyhound bus 🚌 for drinks 🍷 We had a fabulous lobster 🦞 roll at our hotel for dinner. The fries 🍟 that came with it were amazing. Stephanie met a girl at the bar from Maine. I think that will be my next marathon! She said it’s run along the Maine coastline.
