A New Route for the Old RCR

My favorite race in Nashville hasn't changed even if its course has. When April comes, I cannot avoid the five-mile Richland Creek Run. There are always 5K and 10K races, but the five-miler is the perfect distance for accomplishment without too much training.

The original attractor was the three blocks between my old apartment and the starting line. Over time, I came to enjoy the rolling course that wound past a gold course and a picturesque creek roaring beneath us.

Four out of five years, the weather not only cooperated, but enhanced the run. The trend of hotter-than-normal weather abated in time for the 2012 race; temperatures stayed cool enough that at the starting line, long sleeves felt appropriate.

The race's arrival always notifies me that my Nashville anniversary approaches (fodder for another post and dozens of past ones). Some last-minute irrigation cleared floodwaters from the route in 2008. Ben Crites ran it in 2009, eclipsing my time by seven or eight minutes. For 2010, runners crowded into the Cohn School auditorium until race time then took off along the soaked course. I barely remember 2011, just rumbling out of bed and churning out five miles on a sunny spring morning.

For 2012, my friend and co-worker Chris Clancy signed up. After the starting gun, I didn't see him again until he jumped out to high-five me as I crossed the finish line. Nancy came to watch. I can always go it along on a morning race, but having familiar faces nearby always brightens the atmosphere.

Changes to the race course refreshed the Richland Creek Run. Instead of a down-and-back, Greenways for Nashville crafted a five-mile loop. After completing a new Sylvan Park recreation center, Metro Nashville wisely completed the greenway to ring McCabe golf course. A few little spurs brought the distance up to five miles. The crowds broke up quickly as runners near the greenway and by the third mile, those at my pace had broken into a pack of just five or six.

As my waistline has expanded, so has my RCR time. I had to take a few stops to settle my heart rate and one to yell at a fat man in a golf cart for ignoring the runners and plodding onto his tee.

For the fifth RCR, I finished just shy of 52 minutes, a 10:24 pace and six minutes slower than my 2008 time. For grinding through five miles, I felt surprisingly fresh - until 3 p.m., when I wanted nothing but a dark place and a few minutes to nap.  No matter what waistline I sport in April 2013, I will probably line up again for a shot at the old greenway's best morning of the year.