Flying Monkey Marathon

Tommy & I traveled to Nashville this past weekend for my 31st marathon, 27th state. I have been looking forward to this one since I first heard about it. And it was indeed an excellent event, which I recommend highly to all of you, especially if you are not afraid of monkeys or hills. This one is going to become a cult classic.

Summary: The Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon, held in Nashville’s lovely (but quite hilly) Percy Warner Park, is a wonderful little race. As the web site says, it’s not flat, not fast, and not certified. You can’t use it as a Boston qualifier, nor would you want to. But although the web site makes a bit of a deal about it being a race for purists who are all about the running and not about being coddled, the race director actually works extremely hard to put on a very high quality and well-organized event. I actually felt coddled, and you know how high maintenance I am, so that is really saying something.

The course covers two loops of Percy Warner Park, former sie of the infamous Tom King Half-Marathon (I hear that race continues, much changed, in a nature preserve, but don’t know any more details). 18 water/Gatorade stations, many with gel. Microbrew at mile 10 & 15 (not that I wanted it but it was there). Mile markers every mile and easy to spot! Portapotties on the course wit no lines! Microbrew at the finish! Homemade pies (made by the race director) at the finish. Even some of my own banana bread still left at the finish. Food at the finish. My kind of race! Monkey! Monkey!

What you get: No expo, but race goodies were handed to us at packet pickup in canvas tote bags donated by Publix supermarket, a race sponsor. Inside, each runner received a cotton t-shirt (with a hilarious graphic of a running stick figure being attacked by monkeys) as well as a long sleeved technical top, with your name printed on it. Repeat runners got a little symbol on their shirts to indicate that this was their second monkey. Also a sticker with the monkey logo, and a Yazoo (another race sponsor) beer coaster. We also purchased a race poster for $10.

Informal Pasta Dinner: At 5 pm, we joined a group of about 30 fellow monkey runners for dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Caesar’s Restaurante Italiano. Pretty good, and did a decent job with the service considering it was a big crowd of people needing separate checks. Met some nice Nashville runners, as well as a few who had traveled from other locations. Our intrepid race director, Trent Rosenbloom, stopped by for a few minutes to say hello before heading out to another gathering.

(IMHO, Trent Rosenbloom is the best race director in the history of race directing.)

Lodging: We stayed at a Microtel about 3.5 miles from the park. It was okay. We bought a coffeemaker at Target because there was none in the room. The park where the race was held, and our hotel, were very convenient to shops, chain restaurants and highways.

Start: 7 am, but since Nashville is a different time zone from Cincinnati we got an extra hour. It was foggy on race morning, but somehow we managed to find our way over there anyway. We parked in a grassy field near the race start. While Tommy went off to verify where he needed to go for his volunteer responsibility, I hung out in the car as long as possible to stay warm. The temps were in the high 30s-low40s at the start, not too bad but I didn’t want to stand on the wet grass any longer than I had to.

At about 6:50, I left the car. As we gathered in the field, Trent made a few announcements. He reminded us all to take our time because he wouldn’t be able to tap the keg until noon. They took some group photos---the Marathon Maniacs, and a couple of other groups---and then we were off.

The Race: Here’s a link to photos of this year’s race. I’m not in any of these photos, but I ran much of the race either right in front or right behind the two women dressed in black making the flying monkey movements with their arms. Not too many people in costume, although there was one woman dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Notice how happy everybody looks. We are all under the spell of the monkey.

I know most people would describe this as an extremely hilly race, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad. I just wanted to finish, and with my lack of training and given the hills, I figured under 6 hours would be just fine. As long as they saved me some food and beer. I didn’t even care if I came in last as long as I got to eat at the end. There was a potluck, and I had brought a few loaves of banana bread as my contribution (monkeys like banana bread, right?).

Tommy told me that he would working at mile 8. I gave him a bag to hold with a couple of extra pairs of shoes. I wasn’t entirely confident of my shoe selection, so I thought since he was out there waiting it would be nice to have some options if they weren’t working out.

Eventual winner, Chuck Engle, was dressed in shorts and a singlet. He is very muscular, and someone remarked that he looked like he belonged to a different species from the rest of us. Most people were wearing long sleeve shirts and gloves, if not jackets and tights. I went with capri-length tights, a thin long sleeve shirt and thin jacket, and my usual hat. I carried my gels but not water because there were to be 18 aid stations along the course and that would be plenty.

Race Director Trent, who ran the race right along with us, was wearing the race shirt. I guess it’s okay to do that and not bad luck if you are the RD?

Started out with the pack, running 10-ish pace. By the fourth mile, had to slow down to 11-plus. No Tommy at mile 8, but I did take a potty break at that point. No lines at the portapotty but that was a 13:23 mile anyway. Saw Tommy around mile 10, gave him my jacket to hold for me but decided to stick with my shoes. I was wearing my $39.99 orange Adidas Supernova Cushions, which I purchased at a race expo earlier this year. Lately they have been my favorite shoes, but I had never gone further than 15k in them.

Had a nice conversation with a Marine from Norfolk, VA, who told me he was running a marathon every two weeks this fall. His next one will be Rocket City. Also spent some time with a guy from Louisville who was running his first marathon in many years. The Marine ended up beating me but I did finish ahead of the other guy. We all talked about how we were just wanting to enjoy the beautiful day.

I hit the half in 2:32:34. I figured that even if I slowed down to 15-minute pace, I would still break 6 hours.

I felt pretty good for most of the race until about mile 20, when I guess I would have to say the monkeys slammed me into the wall. All I know is that I suddenly developed a nasty headache. I believe the problem was that instead of my favorite Espresso Love GU (with “2x the caffeine”---whatever that means), I was using Clif Shot Mocha (which contains caffeine but perhaps not as much). I wasn’t exactly zippy before mile 20 but I was at least cheerful. At mile 20, I got even slower than slow, plus I started feeling really cranky. That was also the point at which I suddenly ended up by myself, after running with company for most of the earlier miles.

So those last 6-7 miles were a lonely, cranky struggle, but I got through them. I saw Tommy again in the last mile. He was going to take a short cut to meet me at the finish, but he got lost and I reached it before he did.

For the last .3 miles, you retrace the same grassy path that you covered in the beginning of the race, and it seems to go on forever. Many of the earlier finishers were still hanging around, and as each new finisher approached the finish line, the previous finishers started chanting “MONKEY! MONKEY!” Perhaps they had indulged in a bit too much Yazoo microbrew. But it was a nice welcome, anyway.

The finisher’s medals are carved wood on a leather string, very unique. My finish time was quite slow, but remember I hardly train at all for these things and it was quite hilly. My time was 5:38:13, which put me 163 of 173 participants (yes, there were 10 people behind me!) and 15 of 16 in my age division. Woo hoo! Monkey! Monkey!

For dinner the night after the race, we visited a brewpub, recommended by our race director, near the Vanderbilt campus. I had an excellent steak. (I am just throwing this part in to rub salt in Ken’s wounds.)

Tommy enjoyed his volunteer stint. He said that Chuck Engle came back after he finished and stayed for a long time to cheer on the slower runners. (Not long enough to see me, though!) He told Tommy that this was the hardest marathon he had ever run. Apparently he started it last year but dropped out before the finish. I also heard people commenting throughout the race that they thought this was harder than some trail marathons they had done. Which is good news for me, since that’s what I’m planning to do next.

And I think we’re going back next year for this one, something we hardly ever do. It was that good. Maybe Tommy will run next year, and I will volunteer.