Nashville Bound

My wife and I are heading to Nashville tomorrow for the Country Music Marathon. I will be running in my second marathon ever. I ran my first almost two months ago. The Snickers Marathon Bar Albany Marathon had only a thousand runners. At that time, it was the largest event in which I had ever participated. It was a good flat course and a good temperature, but it was literally 100% humidity with zero precipitation.

The Country Music Marathon seems overwhelming even before I even show up to the starting corral. Besides there being 26,000 runners to navigate, 50 bands stationed around the course, and endless numbers of spectators, there is an mountain of paper work. I have a folder filled with maps, confirmation sheets, shuttle schedules, parking instructions, timing chip instructions and a final information packet.

It has been hard to recover from my first marathon, start building back mileage for this race, and then taper back down to make sure that I am rested enough. I have been doing a lot more cross training during my time between races. I have really started putting some significant miles on the bike and made my first visit to the pool Tuesday morning. All of this is looking forward to my first triathlon at the end of May. It is a modest sprint distance, but you have to start somewhere.

Also, this will be my last race in my Nike Max Moto +5 shoes. They have been a good shoe but I have run the soles off. I will have to see how they look after another 26.2 miles. Finally, here is a map of the race course. From what I understand it is different from last year but still has some scenic views and a great finish at LP Field.


photos and graphics from www.cmmarathon.com.