Nashville Half Marathon

Get ready for lots of pictures.

Friday I was able to make it home between my work trip and leaving for Nashville.  That was so nice.

All three of us flew from Charlotte on three different airlines and we landed within 10 minutes of each other.  It was perfect.  We rented a car and checked in at the Marriott Renaissance which connects to the convention center where the expo is.  It also is one block from Broadway.  Tara hooked us up with a fab room on the concierge's level 24th floor.

Country Music Hall of Fame, top of it like a guitar.

 We walked down to the expo and got our race packets and a couple headbands from Sweaty Bands (best ever - they do not move!).

We even saw Christin, her husband and also Amanda there!

We grabbed a bite in the hotel bar.  Then we got ready and our friend from Charlotte's twin sister Maggie picked us up for dinner at Tin Angel.  It was so funny being with Maggie as she sounds and looks just like Emily.

4:30am came early.  Kristen hooked us up with a Platinum package where we got our own parking area and buses to the start line.  That was nice to have!  Here we are waiting in line for the buses.  (We parked at the finish and they bus you to the start).

We also got to go in a special tent at the start that had private porta potties (hot commodity), food and drinks. 

And before we knew it, we were off.  I started in corral 18, they started in 8 (I think).  35,000 of my closest friends. 

I will tell you, the race support on the course was amazing.  There were people lining the course the entire way.  Bands every mile at least, entertainment all over the place, folks tailgating in their front yard.  It was sooooo nice to have that.  I did resort to my ipod around mile 6 but that's because I was almost dying.  Ha!

Tara and Kristen killed the race in 2:11.  Wish I could kept up with them but they trained a lot harder than I did.  I'm sooo proud of them both!

Tara

I have a new respect for Kristen after only doing a half.  She's run a full in Richmond and had also done this half before.  Insaneness.

Coach Kristen

I was thrilled just to finish.  I had been sick all week so I coughed the ENTIRE race.  It was also 81 degrees when we were done...hot.  The hills were absolutely insane.  We heard this was only the 2nd year of this particular course and they had changed it to make it harder...umm yes you are one of the hardest in the country.  And unfortunately due to my (travel) schedule, I was literally only able to run twice a week to train, occasionally three times.  Soooo those are my excuses for my crappy time but oh well, I'm happy to be done!

Honestly I never thought I could ever run a half so I was sorta glad I did it.  :)

Oh and for some reason my GPS said 13.56 miles.  Hmmmmmm.  I know with weaving it could be a little more but 0.46 more? 

We met up at family meet up area C for Charlotte! 

And grabbed our free michelob ultra.

Sparkly medal!

We headed to Jimmy Johns for food then went back to shower and get cleaned up for the Rodney Atkins concert that night.

He was pretty fun to watch!

Then we headed to Legends, the Stage, Tootsies, Paradise Park Trailer Resort and a couple other honky tonk bars on Broadway.

Maggie and one of her friends met us out!

And then we headed home.  We think the beer was good for our bones because the next day, we could realllllly tell we ran a half marathon.

We had brunch with one of Kristen's sister's friends from Clemson and her boyfriend at Copper Kettle.  This was an amazzzzing brunch. 

We cruised to the airport and I moved very slowly from the rental car facility to the terminal haha. 

I'm still very slow to get around.  4 advil every 4 hours is assisting.

During the race I kept texting with my Dad about how horrible it was and I couldn't stop thinking that I would never do this again.  We'll see...I may be coming around about doing it once more.  But I may choose cooler weather and fewer hills! :)