Tight Laces in 50 Places: Nashville race weekend

Talk about a weekend with some highs and lows. Without question the best part of it was traveling to Nashville to run this half with some from my running group. We've ran many races together but this was our first out of state. And here I thought they were already a fun bunch of ladies when just discussing my life over a Sunday morning jog. Throw in some country music with line dancing and it's a whole other story.

The low was certainly the terrible race day weather. We're not talking a light drizzle. We're talking a constant rain with some heavy winds to boot. It wasn't fun to run in. We got soaked. But, we got through it. The troopers of the day were definitely my friends Melissa and Susan. This was their first half marathon and they did it in some pretty challenging weather. Running your first half is already nerve wracking as it is. To do it under those conditions was impressive to say the least. They did great and I'm happy the weather didn't put a damper on their achievement.

Unfortunately, once the race was over getting back to the hotel then turned into an odyssey. I like to consider myself a veteran of the Rock n Roll Race series at this point. I've run quite a few. And they've always been well organized. So all this was a bit surprising. The shuttle "service" was terrible. We had to wait for nearly 45 minutes in the rain as shuttles were scattered about and staff were visibly organizing this on the fly. Once we got on ours everyone was clearly annoyed, wet, cold, and tired from running 13 miles. Moods weren't pleasant. So it didn't help when our driver refused to drop us off at our hotel (as we were told) due to "the street being closed off." The best part of this was when he dropped us off five blocks away and we then saw him driving right past our hotel on a street that was completely open. It was at that time I decided we were ready for our evening to start.

That night we all went downtown for some drinks, (I stuck with a Nashville favorite, Yazoo IPA), country music, and lots of line dancing. It was my first time line dancing and it was a blast. I was told I'm a natural.

A great weekend with great friends. With a little bit of luck it won't be the last race I run with this group during my challenge. As of yesterday I now have 30 to go so plenty of opportunities.

Up next: Massachusetts.