Country Music Marathon
- By Doug Kurtis
Free Press Columnist

Last Saturday's Country Music marathon and half-marathon in Nashville, Tenn., are races to consider next year. Almost 20,000 runners this year experienced one of the jewels of Elite Racing's running and music events.

Nashville is a wonderful place to visit. The marathon expo in the downtown convention center has plenty of room to accommodate the crowds pouring in. Just a block away you can walk past the futuristic façade of the Gaylord Entertainment Center, home of the Nashville Predators hockey team.

It saddles up to Broadway Street, where passersby can hear bands performing in honky-tonk bars like the Second Fiddle and Tootsies Orchid Lounge. Sandwiched in between are a slew of western apparel shops that cater to the locals and tourists.

Picking up your number at the expo was very efficient. The chip distribution system was something new. As you exited the registration area, similar to going through a cashier line, someone would scan the bar code on your racing bib, then create a computer chip that matched your number before handing it to you.

Centennial Park was a beautiful place to start the race. It's adjacent to Vanderbilt University. Giant black-and-white signs directed runners to bagels and water. A large cadre of massage therapists was spread out in a field in front of the park's centerpiece, the Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the Athenian original. Not far off, a line of UPS trucks organized bags of clothes alphabetically before transporting them to the finish area.

Detroit's marathon will be taking a page from Nashville's starting line procedures. Runners were placed in corrals based on estimated finish time. But with a narrow course a few miles into run, the Country Music race organizers started each corral separately to avoid jam-ups.

More than 50 bands and cheerleader squads were interspersed throughout the course, which went through charming neighborhoods. Runners passed by a mammoth athletic sculpture called Musica and other historic landmarks. Like Detroit's little art cars that dot downtown, Nashville has painted guitars, including one with Elvis in front of RCA Studio B, where many top musicians have recorded.


         

The neighborhoods lend themselves to dense, enthusiastic crowds. A few runners dressed in costumes, and a large contingent of purple-shirted Leukemia & Lymphoma Society runners streamed out and back along a line of cones on Belmont Boulevard.

An Elvis look-alike shouted to runners at the split between the half and the marathon. The last 3 miles of the half were attractive. The course crossed the Cumberland River before heading to the finish outside Adelphia Coliseum, where the Tennessee Titans football team plays.

Runners were draped with a colorful medal as they crossed the line. They funneled through photo backdrops with the marathon logo before reaching muffin, banana and Powerade tables. A country band blasted music throughout the family reunion area while runners picked up free Spenco sandals and plastic, hand-held massagers.

For the second year in a row, former decathlete and country music star Phil Vassar performed at a post race concert for the runners.    Some runners were checking out the Grand Ole Opry resort just a few miles away. I'm sure the trip and race left a positive image in mind of most runners.

Contact Doug Kurtis at Detroit Free Press, 600 W. Fort St. Detroit, 48226