This past Saturday more than 35,000 people descended upon Nashville with the intent of running the Country Music Marathon.  It is an amazing event and while I did not participate this year I tagged along with my Dad, John, and our friend Ira who all ran the full 26.2 miles.  I have to admit, I was a little sad to be only watching from the sidelines, but the memory of the beating my feet take every time I run it combined with seriously hot temperatures were enough to make me get over it, LOL.  Plus I got some really great shots I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to capture.  And I took a ton, so without further ado – the pics!!

This is the first year I’ve been there when it wasn’t rainy at the start line

John stretching and Ira bouncing

Getting into their corral

Almost time to go!

These ladies were in the back of the 1/2 marathon pack.  They hoola-hooped the whole 13.1 mile course to raise money for breast cancer research.  Amazing!!

The start line

And the air horn!  I love how you can SEE that it’s making noise.  YAY for the 70-200 2.8!

Here they come!!

I really like this one of Dad!  (If I were Dad, I’d make this my new Facebook pic, hint, hint!!)

After seeing the guys off, I ran a few errands and then headed to the finish line to wait.  Not surprisingly, the elite runners finished before I could even find a parking place at LP field.  I was able to capture some images of the awards ceremony though and that was cool.  

The winner of the ladies marathon, Tatiana Pushkareva.

And the men’s marathon winner Amos Matui.

Both winners with their Gibson Guitars.

And on hand to help present the awards was the famous track coach Ed Temple, who was kind enough to let me take his photo.

After the awards ceremony was over, I met up with my stepmom to wait for the guys to finish.  While I was waiting I saw some pretty interesting characters…

How these two didn’t have a heat stroke, I’ll never know.

This guy had a friend bring a can of his favorite adult beverage for him to enjoy on his way to the finish line.

Here’s John approaching the finish line.

And the group with their medals.

A huge congrats to all three of you (and to everyone who ran)!!  It was a hot, hot day and you all did fantastic!!  I’m so proud!