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

As 2009 comes to a close, I can now say that I have been running and joggling for more than a year!  It is hard for me to believe how much I now enjoy running and it has been a lot of fun joggling eight races this past year.

Joggling the 2009 Komen Race for the Cure

I just updated my upcoming races schedule and am excited about 2010.  My main goal is to joggle the Country Music Half Marathon again in April and to do significantly better than 2009 (i.e. less cramping and walking!).  Along the way, I’ll be joggling some of the same races I did this year.  A new addition to my race schedule is the Cherry Blossom 10-mile Run in Washington, DC, which will be my first race outside of the Nashville area.

I’d also like to mention that I am joining Run Barefoot to train for the half marathon.  No, we won’t be running barefoot, but we will be raising money for Barefoot Republic.  I’ll be writing more about this soon.

Enough about me.  What races are you looking forward to this coming year?

Today, I joggled my seventh 5k.  Many of the races I have run raise money for various causes.  In the past month or so, I have joggled several races with Team Catch It Early specifically for races that raise support and awareness for cancer.  Obviously, all types of cancer are serious, deadly, and require funding and research, but lung cancer stands out for me because I lost my father to this disease less than 3 years ago.

Earlier this week, I discovered the Hank Thompson Trek and Treat 5k which honors the Hendersonville mayor who died from lung cancer last year and raises money for Uniting Against Lung Cancer.

The mission of Uniting Against Lung Cancer is to fight lung cancer by funding innovative research and increasing awareness of the disease. In only six years of funding, Uniting and its partners have awarded over $5 million dollars in direct research grants to individual researchers at top cancer centers and raised awareness of lung cancer across the United States. The first nonprofit in the U.S. to identify and cultivate lung cancer research, Uniting has quickly become recognized as the “venture capital” source for lung cancer research in the U.S.

Uniting carries out is mission by:

• Awarding individual research grants
• Promoting and recognizing excellence in journalism about lung cancer to increase awareness about the disease
• Collaborating with other not-for-profit organizations seeking a cure for lung cancer
• Ending the smoking-related stigma that plagues victims of lung cancer diagnosis

Although the race is over (and I hope to have a race report up soon), you can still donate to Uniting Against Lung Cancer through my runner profile page.