Country Music Marathon 2010

Today was marathon day in Nashville! The one and only day annually that most of Nashville runs or even realizes that it's something people do for fun.The weather this year was way, way, way less than stellar. Predictions were for lots of rain and possibly severe weather throughout the morning, so when alarm clock Pippin woke us all up a little after 8 I was kind of surprised that it was nicely overcast and a perfect temp. We ate some breakfast and then headed down to the race about 9:30.
Since we live within the marathon course it's pretty much impossible for us to really leave our neighborhood or get around the course via car much at all. The storms were still coming, so we didn't want to park & run too far from our car, either. In years past we've gotten close and then just run around on foot, I think last year we logged about 5 miles with Baby Lilli.
We found a great spot around mile 21/24 of the marathon course where we could see them headed into Shelby Park and then coming back out. It was incredibly overcast and breezy at this point. She really got into clapping for the runners and had fun with the tambourine, maracas, pom poms and other noisemakers I have for race spectating!
It's always easiest to keep track of her when she has a hoodie on! It's an extra leash....
And we got our first skinned knees!
She had a great time just wandering around. A family was blowing bubbles and she was all about that.
This guy was juggling the 26.2 miles....
And then she got distracted by a hill to climb....
Go runners!!!
We saw the 3:30 and 3:45 pace groups come through and a little bit after that it started sprinkling. I was ok with the sprinkling so we got her in her stroller with the hood up for a couple of minutes, and then it started pouring so we ran back to our car. We were going to try to get under one of the pavilions in Shelby Park but they had the park completely shut off and none of the entrances are very close to where the race actually runs. At this point lightning had started, so we decided to head home. They actually ended up diverting all the runners slower than (I think) a 4 hour pace, how disappointing!!!! The rain really starting pouring around 11, and it's been storming off and on since then all day.

We did get a TON done inside today of just little projects and cleaning out closets while Lilli took a long afternoon nap. Sometimes a rainy day is nice to keep you inside and getting some things accomplished! (Of course it would be better if it didn't conflict with people's marathon plans and attempts for Boston!)