Nashville Half Marathon (CMM) (Read 1461 times)

Is anyone doing this in April? Any tips?

Running the full this year. Tips - train well. If you live in a flat area, make sure you get used to running a few hills. It's nothing over the top, but lots of people who don't expect the hills usually complain about them.

The hills are not that big a deal at marathon pace. At half marathon pace, I imagine they are more noteworthy, but as makers says, nothing really extreme.

The hills really aren't that big of a deal. I didn't train for them. I live in a flat area and a participant from the year before had me in a xanax episode over the hills, but when the race started I didn't even notice them ... except for one long bridge which was a mild annoyance, and IIRC it was a downhill. Really the only issue that I had with this race is the sheer number of people running the half marathon in comparison to the marathon, and the number of them who have no idea what they are doing (there was a guy wearing flip flops and blue jeans in the 7:00-7:30 pace corrall). I am far from elitist but dodging people constantly for the first 10 miles of a marathon is not fun. The course is made up of out-and-backs, and there is one section where the "back" part is on the same road as the "out" part. They are right next to each other separated only by cones. So when you are running back, you have 12,000 15-minute milers bleeding into your lane and bumping into you. Despite my whining, it is an excellent race and Nashville is a great city to visit for any reason. It's a very interesting and scenic course (if you're not doing the full ... there are some really "wtf" moments between mile 13 and 23), and there is enough stuff to do in Nashville that you really can't go wrong.

I loved running the half there. It was way too crowded but if you put your cat-like ninja agility to work, it is fun to pass so many people. The Nashville folks out on their lawns cheering you on are very sweet also, especially the guy handing out mimosas.

Er....those in the last corrals have to wait somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour to start.

Ah, well then, that would make a difference!

I'm running the half again this year. I love Nashville and we're planning on relocating there sometime. Anyway, I didn't think the course was that hilly (I'm from Memphis and we're pretty flat). The things I remember from last year, other than the rainy turned humid weather, was the delay in getting to the finish line to get a shuttle to the start. Very stressful to be caught in traffic at 5:00 in the morning. Also, somewhere around mile 7 (?)they pass out oranges and the slippery peels are all over the street. The course was crowded but the crowds were a lot of fun. One guy had his own "water" station and was passing out cups of beer. Nicer course than Memphis - more to look at and less "industrial" type areas than Memphis. Towards the end, I really got hung up passing groups of walkers on the bridge but it was nice to be passing so many people that close to the finish.

pre-race traffic snafus seem to be the norm with Elite's races. You think they'd figure this out. Nope. (they *have* shown a capacity to learn and modify. For example, backintheday, they didn't corral the starts. CMM was really messy without corrals. So they can fix things. But traffic is a much more complicated beasty)