More non-self bragging: look what TRENT did! (Read 1189 times)

I'm so impressed with one of our fellow nutcases that I'm going to brag about him. I'm obviously talking about Trent. As some of you have probably noticed, he just finished his 47th marathon this month. Or something like that. But that's not what I'm bragging about. I hope all of you will go check out the marathon he organized. If you're anywhere near Nashville, I hope you'll come watch. But even if not, checking out the website he created and the run he organized is worth a look: http://www.harpethhillsmarathon.com/ It ain't easy organizing something like that, even if it's just 100 runners for now. I can barely organize my three dogs to go outside at the same time and take a crap together; organizing a marathon must have been a pretty daunting task. But it's not just the logistics that are impressive. You'll have to go see his website to see what I mean. It's the whole tone of the thing. I can't even put a finger on it, but it captures exactly why I love running. It's an attitude I can't define but recognize instantly. As if that weren't enough, Trent also came through for me when I was truly bummed about not being able to run a planned marathon in Memphis in December. I'd pretty much given up on running a marathon this winter (life/money/work/etc ... that kinda stuff) ... and I was kicking myself for not signing up for Trent's marathon, since it starts a mile from my house. Somehow, he managed to squeeze me in at the last minute. Which I truly appreciate, and which is really going above and beyond. Check out his site. And come to Nashville next year. I think it's going to be quite an experience. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ By the way, under the heading of "wow, it's a small world," Trent checked out the Huntsville Marathon results from last year and sent me the following. I'll omit the last names to protect the guilty. I'm Eric and he's Trent, obviously. Keep in mind I've never met the guy, except here. These are the age group results: Place Overall No Name Age City State Time 66 515 S. Trent 35 Nashville TN 4:21:19 67 519 Eric 36 Nashville TN 4:22:14 Figure the odds!

And who knows, maybe someday running Harpeth Hills will be my marathon goal...

Hmmm...road trip?! Trent's da man! My hat's off to race directors--you can tell when they have done their work...I predict his will be a "flying" success! k

I just got back from running the first 12 miles of Trent's course. Plus 3 to get there and back. And now I'd like to retract and rescind all of the above kind words. Trent is clearly a sick, twisted, sadistic bastard. Here's the elevation chart for his merry little jaunt. Notice the first mile and a half. Nice way to start a marathon. http://www.harpethhillsmarathon.com/PWPmaps/Elevation.JPG

Those are some beautiful pictures, it makes me want to walk it rather than run. Those hills are very deceptive I am sure. I would love to run that route but need to keep close to home, need to conserve money. I would love to do a few shorter races or one long race if I vacation out that way. It looks awesoem a great start now he needs to post a race on OnTheRunEvents.com to get some runners. Simon

Thanks folks!!! I am honored to be called a sick bastard in such company. Just remember, as JakeKnight knows, as bad as the hill is at mile 1, the hill at mile 18 is far worse And, believe it or not, there is a Springtime 5k/10k on part of the course. I have nothing to do with them, but they are respectable runs! And many of you probably recognize the look and feel of the elvation profile, inspired directly from this fantastic website: www.runningahead.com. You may have heard of it. The magic the webmaster there does makes me feel like a caveman. Or a monkey. Yeah, it makes me feel like a monkey. The park where we are holding the marathon really is a beautiful place and the hills there are in fact deceptively painful and fairly relentless. For every up there is a down. For every down an up. We put this together as a run for runners by runners, with a goal of making something really really tough and memorable. And, among the fools who have actually signed up to run this thing, there are in fact several first time marathoners. Silly silly folks Hey, JakeKnight, what did you run specifically? Oh yeah. And for next year, I may modify the website to use AJAX and div tags instead of frames. Milecollector, what do you think?

the problem is that it's the first hill

Just followed (I think) the first half of the course ... from Vaughn's Creek, up the Shell Hill cutthrough, and then around the Main Drive until I got back to Vaughn's Creek. If your map is right (and I didn't screw it up) it should have been 11-12 miles.

Vaughn's Creek through Shell Hill to the far side of the Main Drive is about 2.5 miles if you go from the parking lot. If you then go around to the stone gates and back to the sevice road, then out to your car, that is about 9.5 more miles. And they are not easy miles.

does it go right by the golf course? Down a hill and then up a really, really steep hill at that point? Because that, well, sucked.

Sounds right.

The part after the Stones Gate entrance was particularly fun, too.

Ahh yes, the oft-forgotten One Mile Hill.