City Running

   Tonight I met up with my FTP group for a run. One thing that's great about Nashville is that there are so many really cool places to run. We have parks, greenways, neighborhoods and city sidewalks. We have hills, flats and in-between. Want to run along the river? You can do that. Want to run part of the one of the hardest marathon courses in the US? You can do that, too.
   So tonight we met up at Centennial Park, which is in central Nashville for those of you who don't live here. One random thing about Nashville is that we have full-size replica of the Parthenon at Centennial Park.

Because nothing says Nashville like the Parthenon.

  

   Anyway, from Centennial Park, we headed out for the "Vandy route." This route heads up West End Avenue and around the Vanderbilt University campus. It's a loop that, other than the brief time in the park, is completely on busy city streets. This particular route is different than most other routes I do because it passes through two of the most traveled streets in Nashville - West End Avenue and 21st Avenue. So you're dodging pedestrians, waiting at stoplights and other things we normally don't do on our runs. But one thing I noticed tonight was all of the different scents of Nashville. Strange, I know, but you have to think about something when you're running, right?

   The first thing you smell when you leave the park is J. Alexander's, which just happens to be my favorite restaurant. Smells SOOOO good. Of course, it made us want to stop in and eat a boatload of french fries, which could defeat the point of the run. So we just kept going. You actually pass a lot of restaurants on this route  - Stoney River, Ruth's Chris Steak House, PF Chang's, Mellow Mushroom... it's definitely not a route to run if you're hungry. The scents just follow you throughout the run. The worst part is that you pass Krispy Kreme right towards the end of the run. That's just torture.

Ummm...Krispy Kreme...You know you want one! 

   Of course, you also get the scents of truck exhaust and random cigarettes when running in the city. Those kind of make me sick - especially when running. But fortunately, before too long, you come across another restaurant scent and you're good to go again.  :-)

   GREAT news on the TNT front - I hit $2,000!  THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Only $3,000 to go!! Click here to help!  http://pages.teamintraining.org/tn/nikewhlf13/kmylls