Nashville Country Music Half Marathon

I've always heard the Nashville Country Music Marathon is an awesome race, so this year when Stephanie asked me if I wanted to do the half, I was all in.  Last year the weather during this race was apparently a scorching 80 degrees, and this year it was a cool 55 degree rain.  And when I say rain, I mean the kind of rain that causes big puddles and small streams and never lets up.  Ok people, it poured. The ENTIRE race.

We started getting anxious this week when the forecast kept creeping up to an 80% chance of rain, but I honestly thought we would be ok.  Turns out the weather people actually know what they are talking about.  At 5am it was dry, by 6am it was sprinkling, and by 7am when the race started, it was a consistent rain.  Not a hard rain, but an annoying not-letting-up-rain.  They started 5 minutes late and let me tell you, that was the longest 5 minutes of the race just standing there getting wet and cold.  It felt so good to finally get running! (and closer to the finish line)

The course was quite hilly in the beginning I felt like, but the people and bands were amazing.  I was shocked at how many people still came out in the rain to cheer us all on.  It didn't seem like there were a lot of bands along the way, but we were grateful for those that did still come out.  The atmosphere overall was really fun!  And I actually ended up getting used to the rain and enjoying the race!  I never thought I would enjoy running 13 miles in rain, but it was fun.

I'm not going to lie though, I felt so bad for those people running the full marathon.  Bc around mile 11 or 12, it started down pouring.  I think the worst part about the water was whenever we would run uphill, the water would be streaming downhill... so of course our shoes were soaked within a mile or 2 in.  Swiftwick socks are amazing though and we managed to finish with 0 blisters.  

It was definitely a memorable run! Finished 1:48 and with the hills and rain, I started out knowing I didn't want to PR.... just wanted to keep a smile on my face and have fun despite the weather.  And we did.