The Nashville Joggler

By now, I’m sure you have seen pictures of the flood that has devastated Nashville. Although my next blog post was going to be my race report from the Country Music Half Marathon, I wanted to share some of my thoughts over the past few days.

Nashville is the second largest city and the largest metropolitan area in the state of Tennessee. This post is about two ways that Nashville has become smaller to me.

Nashville By Foot

I have lived in Nashville for almost 10 years, but only started running and joggling less than two years ago. As I slowly increased my mileage and explored different running routes around the city, Nashville became a smaller city. Five years ago, I would never have considered traveling by foot from the Farmers’ Market up to MetroCenter. The only way to get downtown to the river front was to use some type of vehicle. But now, having navigated a good portion of Nashville by foot, I can’t help but feel more connected to these particular areas that were hit hardest by the flood.

Yesterday, after work, I went for my first run since the weekend. I ran a 5 mile out-and-back from my office to the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River downtown. It was my first time seeing the downtown flooding in person. Even though the waters had begun to recede, it was still hard to believe. Streets were underwater, emergency and cleanup vehicles were everywhere, and the pedestrians I passed were silent and somber. Traveling on foot, we had a shared experience that I would have missed had I been in a car.

Barefoot runners talk about feeling connected to the ground and the world around them in a new way. Despite having a shoe between my foot and the ground, running has connected me to a smaller Nashville.

View of 1st Ave from the pedestrian bridge

The Social Internet

Say what you want about social media, but one thing it does for sure, is connect people. As the rain poured down on Saturday, I was watching the local television coverage and checking Twitter. The television was great for providing live footage and radar maps, but Twitter was giving me personal accounts from all over town of how the rising waters were affecting people. On Sunday, I lost power in my apartment, but was able to use access the Internet on my phone to keep up with the latest news. As we slowly realized the magnitude of the devastation that was going on, an amazing thing happened. The people of Nashville united, the city became smaller, and we started the long process of recovery.

I won’t ramble on, as there are plenty of more interesting Nashville blog posts for you to read. I just wanted to share my perspective as a runner, joggler, and Internet geek. To my fellow residents, no matter who you are, We Are Nashville.

If you are just now learning of the incredible damage sustained in and around Nashville and are wondering how you can help, this Nashvillest blog post will point you in the right direction.

Today's front page of The Tennessean

Tomorrow is the half marathon! The forecast is still calling for thunderstorms in the morning, but hopefully, the worst of it won’t come until the afternoon.

Perry Romanowski, a joggler from Chicago, current holder of the joggling ultra-marathon world record, and whose blog was very influential in my getting into the sport, will be there tomorrow, too. I’m looking forward to finally meeting him. Not only is he joggling the full marathon, but he will be going much faster than me! You should definitely look out for him tomorrow.

I’m feeling a lot better about this race than last year. I ran 13.1 miles at the end of March with moderate success (walked a bit on the last few miles), and joggled the 10 mile Cherry Blossom Run a couple weeks ago with very little walking. So hopefully, I can at least do better than my dismal 2:47 performance last year.

Getting ready for tomorrow

Thank you to everyone who has donated to Barefoot Republic. We had our team dinner last night and we are all very encouraged by your support. You can still donate if you are interested.

I’d better write up my race report before the half marathon on Saturday!

This is a race report for the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run on April 11, 2010.

I grew up in the DC area, but didn’t start running and joggling until 8 years after moving to Nashville. My friend Stephanie told me she was entering the lottery to run the Cherry Blossom Run, and I realized that the 10-miler would fit in perfectly with my half-marathon training schedule. It would also give me a chance to see my family and an opportunity to run my first race outside of the Nashville area.

Since I started joggling, a couple friends from back home have told me about a joggler they often see at DC area races. I found out his name is Barry Goldmeier, and he runs the Cherry Blossom Run almost every year. I got in touch with him and planned to find him at the race.

I drove all day on Friday, two days before the race, to get to DC.  The weather was perfect for driving and thankfully, the nice weather stuck around through the weekend.  It was an early start on Sunday morning, since I needed to take the Metro to the starting line. The Metro opened two hours early that morning to accommodate the runners, so pretty much everyone on the Metro was a runner.

Runners on the Metro

Arriving at the race village, I found Barry juggling his trademark 5 red balls at the back of the starting lineup. We chatted briefly, but I had to go line up as the race was starting.

Starting Lineup

With a goal time of 1:45, I was starting in the second to last wave. I tried to be patient and not spend too much energy weaving through the crowded start, but eventually found myself jumping back and forth between the road and sidewalk to find some space to joggle. As I was only a half mile from the starting line, the elite runners were making their way through mile 5 coming the opposite direction on Independence Avenue. It was exciting to see these world-class runners in person.

After the first mile, as the course headed over the Memorial Bridge, it finally thinned out slightly and I could run comfortably at my pace. It was still pretty crowded for the rest of the race (there were over 15,000 runners), but manageable. As the miles went on, I started to notice how flat the course was. It was a welcomed change from the rolling hills of Tennessee. Also, running in a new location was exciting, and despite the fact that the cherry blossoms had peaked the previous week, the course was beautiful.

The last mile

Having waited almost two weeks to write up this report, the miles are all blurring together in my memory. At two of the water stops, I stopped to walk briefly. But other than that, I was able to keep a pretty steady pace through the entire race, which I was very happy about. It wasn’t until the tenth and final mile that my legs started to feel that familiar dead feeling I’ve been experiencing during my long training runs. Luckily, the last mile was lined with a lot of spectators (including my mom!). One of the great benefits of joggling is that random strangers will cheer for you. Not wanting to let them down, I picked up the pace (very slightly) and finished strong. My official time was 1:38:04.

After the race, I ran into Barry again. We were heading in the same direction, so we were able to chat about the finer points of joggling as we took the Metro home.

With the arrival of spring and warmer weather, I have been busy training for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and the Country Music Half Marathon. I’ve also been practicing and rehearsing for Juggleville, an annual juggling show I have been a part of for the past 5 years (which opens tonight!). Unfortunately, this means that this blog has continued to remain neglected. I say “unfortunately,” not because there are many of you out there interested in the adventures of this Nashville Joggler (yet), but because I have been procrastinating in my fundraising for a great cause while training for the half marathon with Team Barefoot.

No, I haven’t started joggling without shoes.  But, I am training to joggle the Country Music Half Marathon again, and have had the privilege of running and training with Run Barefoot.  We are a loosely-knit group of runners training together for either the full or half marathon and raising money for Barefoot Republic, a great organization that runs a summer camp and provides opportunities to children who might not otherwise be able to attend camp.  From their website:

Barefoot Republic seeks to celebrate diversity and build unity through a diverse platform of artistic, athletic and action adventure programs.

I am proud to support Barefoot Republic not only because I have benefited from being able to train with a group of runners (many of whom have much more running experience than me), but also because I believe in their mission and am excited about the opportunities they are providing for local children.  If you would like to donate to Barefoot Republic through our team fund to support this wonderful organization (or because you want to help me prove that I can simultaneously run, juggle, and raise money), please use the button below, or select the Run Barefoot Fund option on Barefoot’s donation page.

When completing your donation via PayPal, enter my name (Jason Tan) in the notes field.  If you would rather donate via check, just let me know.