Trail of Tears!

7-mile race on the ‘Trail of Tears’ trail.

It was supposed to rain a bit this morning, but the weather appeared just fine. Diane was right on time, 6:00 am at my apartment. We met John and Keith on the way by Target. Subha was on her way, but later decided to meet us at I-24. John and Keith hopped into Diane’s car and we headed straight to “Tears of Trail”.

The weather was around 36, but it wasn’t snowing or raining. We could see a lot of waterfalls on the way, which looked like it had been raining somewhere. We started talking about the number of marathons and ultras each of us has run. What to say about John and Keith, two awesome people. Great runners. Keith has been running and winning a lot of races and scoring lots of points. John has run 20-some marathons and ultras. I could just sit and listen to their stories all day. We had some insightful conversations about a lot of things. I was amazed at how knowledgeable and yet humble John and Keith were. I’ve got a lot to learn from all of them.

Made a couple of stops at rest areas and also caught up with Subha on our way. After about a three-hour drive, we reached the race spot. There were a lot of runners already running around, stretching and warming up. While the others went to pick up their T-shirts, I was roaming around looking at the ‘Trail of Tears’ visitor center (The history behind the name was very painful). After getting out of the visitor center, I stepped out to warm up and there were lots of folks giving my VFF weird looks. I don’t blame them though. I was acting like I was the ambassador for VFF, explaining the shoe. Just hoping that it doesn’t hurt during the race. While everyone took off at the start line, I decided to run slow along with Subha and Harish.

Mile 1 was rough. A steep climb with an elevation change of 800m-1100m. We pretty much walked until 1.5 miles. After a while, I went ahead with the race.

The weather was kinda cold with occasional snowflakes, but otherwise it was fine. Picked up a bit of pace at mile 3. I was literally sweating by this time and the occasional chilly wind felt like heaven! My VFF was feeling great too. I could see an evident change in my posture. Since it had no thick soles, it was making a loud noise while running on asphalt, which got the attention of other runners, but it felt great though.

Crossed the finish line at 1:05:48 and, as usual, I didn’t reset my Garmin! Didn’t feel any pain or shin splints, which is a good thing. We were so glad when Subha and Harish crossed the finish line. They both finished their first race. Yay! Hogged some hot dogs, Oreos, oranges, apples and finally some soda. It’s bad stuff, I know.

When you are in the company of great folks, time just flies by and in no time we reached Nashville. My first Tennessee State Park running tour was really good. Time for a hot shower and a pool game tonight! w00t!