George Melichar | Jen Chooses Joy

I’ve run the Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon numerous times over the years. Hometown races are always fun! It’s a hilly course and the weather can be temperamental, but it’s fun running with friends and seeing so many familiar faces along the course.

I wasn’t sure what to expect this year after running Boston only 5 days prior. I didn’t commit to pacing anyone for the race, because I didn’t trust my legs. I went to the St. Jude shakeout run the day before the race and felt pretty good, so I decided to run the half marathon with the goal of having fun!

Race Day:

We stayed at the Omni Nashville. It’s located beside the start line and a short walk from the finish line. It also has a Bongo Java…perfect for pre-race breakfast!

Race essentials…

There was rain in the forecast, so we invited our friends to come up to our room to hangout before the race. It never rained a drop!!!

Our little gang headed to the start line…

and met up with more friends!

The CMM had 30,000 runners and almost 3,000 of those runners ran as St. Jude Heroes…incredible!

I got into my corral and ran into fellow Rock N Blogger George Melichar. He’s tough to miss!

The forecasted rain completely disappeared…woo hoo! However, we were left with a hot and humid race. I felt great for the first 7ish miles.

It’s a fun course with live bands playing throughout.

Fleet Feet Race Team member, Heather found me around the 10k mark and joined me for the rest of the race. She also ran Boston and was just running CMM 1/2 for fun. (PS. I would love to know what that guy beside us was thinking!)

I knew that it would be a tough run so close to Boston and IT WAS! Thankfully nothing on me hurt, but I felt like I was breathing hard and my heart was racing too quickly. This half felt like it took more effort than Boston.

This was the homestretch!