Country Music Half-Marathon: Hills and More...

Headed down to Nashville this weekend with my good pal Ford to run the Country Music Marathon. This was a monstrous event with over 30,000 runners total competing in the full and the half marathon.
The race can only be described as tortuous. One thing I did not anticipate was the long arduous hills in the Nashville area. There were uphill sections of the course that stretched over a mile. In some of the residential areas there were steep grades to climb. On top of that, the temp was hitting 70 degrees mid-way through the race and continued to climb. The elements of heat and hills are something Columbus runners aren't as conditioned to and they really took their toll.
Regardless, I ran hard and did reasonably well considering the hilly course. There were 19,416 runners in the half-marathon and I finished 1,183 with a time of 1:45:48. Not the sub-100 minutes I had hoped for but nonetheless OK considering the evil hills.
Felt wasted and drained after the race so I drank two guiness which made me feel a little better for awhile. I took a nap and headed home. I love Nashville but next time I visit it'll be to drink beer and relax.

Lasalle Bank Columbus Half Marathon

I ran the Columbus Half marathon on Saturday morning. (Course Map | Virtual Tour) It was an enjoyable training run for me. Surprisingly I didn't do too bad considering my goal was not to push myself. I placed 338th out of 3107 runners. Another plus to this race was beating my Columbus half-marathon nemesis Andy Hyatt by a whopping 15 seconds. I took it easy the first 8 miles and then picked it up to about a 7:45 pace for the final few miles. I continue to be impressed with JBR racing -- they do a great job. I'm very sore today. My quads are tender to the touch but other than that I'm recovering quickly. I'm running the Nashville half in two weeks and my goal there will be to break 100 minutes. (1:40) If I can do that I'll have a new PR and a respectable time.

Chilling in the Executive Suite

So I acquired a couple tickets to the Christina Aguilera and Pussy Cat Dolls concert thanks to my new co-worker Eric. Normally I would never go see her in concert since I'm not gay but these tickets were for the Executive Suite at Nationwide Arena so I figured why not? Anyway it was a blast mainly because my good buddy Duane had tickets also. He brought his girl Angie along. We drank a bottle of Absolut which is really what made it fun. Actually the concert was kinda entertaining. The executive suite was pimp -- it was pretty cool to get the VIP treatment. Afterwards we went to the Lodge bar. I'm dragging today but overall it was a great time.