Splish, splash, I was running a half

This past weekend marked a milestone.
I ran a race in my 10th state, and I returned to running endurance races with the completion of the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, Tenn.
This race will go down in the books as also one of the most miserable races I've ever run. It rained from start to finish, and when it wasn't raining hard, it was raining harder.
Even though I was honest in my assessment of how long it would take me to complete the half marathon -- 3 hours -- I was still placed in nearly the last corral, so I started the race a full hour after the elite runners.
Normally, I would not mind, but I was getting soaked.
I got up to Nashville on Thursday evening. My co-worker Dixie and I drove up together. She was running the half as well.
We parted ways along the highway. I met up with some of my running friends, including my running buddy Jessica, and continued on to downtown Nashville. Dixie was staying with friends in Franklin, Tenn.
I stayed right along Honky Tonk Row, right across from the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Some lovely sculpture at the Frist

We had dinner Thursday night at Southern Steak and Oyster, and wouldn't you know, look what I found there. You know I had to buy the Mizzou hot sauce.

Tiger hot sauce

Friday I picked up my race number and spent a couple of hours at the runner's expo, then had lunch at Demo's. I had the lasagna and some of the best chicken and rice soup.

Later that night, the friends I stayed with in the hotel room, Donna and Beverly, went back and picked up some soup and baked potatoes for each of us for Friday night -- a perfect pre-race dinner.

Saturday morning broke rainy. Thankfully, Jessica had called to say she bought a rain poncho for me to run in, and even though I had a lawn bag to run in, I swapped out into the rain poncho.

Meeting up with Jessica at the start

 Here I am before I swapped out into the blue rain poncho. I donated the garbage bag poncho to the guy standing next to me. I told him it was dry on the inside and he was happy to have it.
Before the start of the race, organizers had the runners take a moment to remember the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, and then we sang a loud-throated version of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline." It was quite moving.

Rocking the blue rain poncho

Ready to start

 It seemed to take forever for me to get to the starting line, and when I finally finished I saw that my start time was 7:58 am, almost a full hour after the start of the race. Being in the last corrals suck.
I wish I would say I really enjoyed this race, but the weather just made it miserable.
We ran down Broadway, past my hotel, and toward Honky Tonk Row, before we turned off. We ran by the Country Music Hall of Fame and the new convention center that is being built. I know we ran through Belmont University's campus, which was pretty -- what I could see of it. And we ran through some nice neighborhoods, too.
At one point, I ran by a tent that had Mizzou emblazoned on it. I wish I had taken a picture of that and lots more, but it was raining so hard I didn't want to get my phone wet, so hardly took any photos.
I had created a new playlist for this half marathon race. "Sweet Caroline" made the list, as did some Jimmy Buffett, and many country songs I like, such as those from the Zac Brown Band. My "final" song -- the one I knew I wanted to hear crossing the finish line -- was Rascal Flatt's song "Stand."
"'Cause when push comes to shove, you taste what you're made of. You might bend, till you break, 'cause it's all you can take. On your knees you look up, decide you've had enough. You get mad, you get strong, wipe your hands, shake it off, then you stand."
My goal for this race was to finish, and to finish in about 3 hours. Lo and behold, I completed in 2:56:02. When I got to mile 10 I knew I was right on target to finish in my goal time.
Funny enough, I saw three dimes and two pennies on the race course, but didn't pick up a single one. There were too many runners around me, and I was focused on finishing as soon as I could to get out of the wet.
I've never finished a race where my finger tips looked like prunes from being in the rain for so long. I don't even want to know what my toes looked like.
Here it is three days after the race and my running shoes are just now getting dry.
So here I am at the finish.

Holding my finisher's medal

Jessica and me at the finish

My new hardware

 I am so glad I ran this race. It wasn't the perfect of conditions, but it was a return to long distances for me. I didn't realize how much I missed distance racing until I was out there on the course. I felt pretty good the whole way. I knew I was going to finish, and other than my right knee feeling a little tender under the knee cap, I haven't felt too bad.
Turns out, I was a little bit country and I rocked and rolled the half marathon.