Country Music Marathon: The Best Marathon Story Ever By Coach Michelle Browning

Where to begin...let me start by saying we had great time and we enjoyed each others company with everything we did together.


The Virginia Team which included some really amazing Marathon friends; Misha Anthony, Tracie Beacham, Lisa Furguson, David and Debbe Harless, Elizabeth Merce, Jessie Orozco and Jayme Reed. All of whom finished their own kind of  Marathon in a fascinating and exciting way.  And I cannot forget the special spouses Scott Merce and Vernon Tally, whom I happen to know did some running along side of the course themselves. I said it before, they are two great guys!


The story begins with the news, the National Weather Service in Nashville had issued a hazardous weather out look for Saturday.


"It's not just going to rain," warned meteorologist Mark Rose. "There will be storms, some of them severe" bringing with them a chance of lightning, hail and tornadoes.


Everyone had a plan, the city, the race directors, Team In Training, and the coaches. The race would go on with perhaps, a few changes made along the way. One plan was to divert the full to the half if the storm progresses, that was not good news as you can imagine.


On race morning, no rain, it was a little overcast with some light sprinkles. I noticed some lightning in the air but it seemed miles away. The race started and all was well, in fact by 8:15 the sun was shinning and it looked so promising. Everything appeared to be similar to many other great marathon days. Like running with your participants, this is a highlight for any coach so I am thankful to have run along side of almost everyone, except Misha and Jessie, sorry I missed you. Now I am thinking that everything would be fine.


Okay, it is now 9:45 and the clouds are moving fast and the cool air is starting to blow, the optimist in me was thinking, maybe this will pass! As I started to see more of our running friends for the second time, the warnings from Team in Training  began to come in. The coaches and our  staff coordinator Cate Summers were all communicating with  each other, things were changing constantly with each minute. Then another call, it was official the full marathoners would be diverted to the half marathon if they did not reach 11.2 at a certain time.


At 10:15 it was raining harder and the wind is blowing the rain in every direction. With every minute passing it looked impossibly worse than the minute before. Within another 5 minutes  more official news, the full marathon course was closing, all runners who made it past the cut off were now being stopped at 20.5 and diverted to the finish line. For the half marathoners staying ahead of the sweepers became the biggest concern, with the threat of the storm hanging over their head, literally. I found our Virginia Chapter friends from Richmond David and Debbe just before the finish and we ran together for a while almost to the finish line. David you ran and you kept yourself moving as if it was not raining, I  was impressed with your focus. I believe part of this motivation came, because of the story you shared with me about your beautiful wife and the Teams new friend Debbe. This special person we now call our friend is a “Survivor”! How amazing is that!


This race, on a spring day in April turned out to be a unusually surprising event. An event everyone will remember with a story, a funny moment, a bite me moment or perhaps two and a little disappointment. But one thing I am certain about,  you will never regret what you gave to the cause and the people you helped before this day and many days to come.


Thank you!
Now, let the great fish stories begin!
Coach Michelle

A beautiful shiny ShamROCK of a surprise - By Tina Elam

When I joined TNT I could barely run a mile.  Seriously, I struggled with a mile which was incredibly embarrassing for me.  Here we are several months later and I have just finished my first half marathon.  It was definitely not an easy journey for me but it was absolutely worth it. 

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I traveled down to Virginia Beach so I could run the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon.  Since this was my first endurance event, I didn’t know what to expect.  The day and night before my half is kind of a blur.  I was so nervous and excited that it all passed fairly quickly.  I do know that I went to the Inspiration dinner which was as promised, inspirational.  I ate dinner with the people that have become so dear to me and we heard a survivor’s story.  His story was amazing.  It was funny, moving, sad and uplifting all at once.  I feel grateful that I was able to hear him speak and am so impressed that he was able to tell it so eloquently. 

After the dinner there was much pacing and fretting before I finally fell asleep.  Then, at 5:30 a.m. I got my wake up call (even though I was already wide awake in bed just waiting for it).  I quickly threw on clothes, slathered on Body Glide, wrapped my toes and ran down to the lobby.  There we were in all our purple glory.  As a group, we began the walk to the start line.  We dropped off our gear, used the port-o-potties and found our corrals.  At this point I was just freaking out and laughing hysterically at everything, including when Barb started dancing to Britney Spears' "Womanizer."  Finally, it was time to run.  After about 50 feet I completely calmed down.  It just felt like a normal Saturday morning run and I thanked my lucky stars.  I realized that I could absolutely do this and just needed to enjoy myself.

And I did enjoy myself.  I was able to run the entire race with my mentor, Ann-Marie.  She took my mind off the fact that I was in the middle of running 13 miles which was so helpful.  Along the way we had various TNT coaches jump in to see how we felt.  I had one coach jump in around mile 3 to see how I was hanging.  At that time I was still in great shape but jokingly told him to come back at mile 10.  Much to my surprise right around mile 10 that same coach fell into a run beside me.  It’s things like that which make me so happy my first endurance event was with an organization so committed to getting people across the finish line.  With coaches like him and the other TNT Teammates that stand along and cheer you on, it would be pretty difficult to not make it.
 

Miles 10-12 were tough.  I was ready to be done and just wanted to cross that finish line.  With help from my mentor and spectators yelling my name (thanks to duct tape and a sharpie) I just dug deep and kept going.  Finally we hit the last mile.  We were being cheered on, music was blaring and soon we rounded the corner to the boardwalk.  The finish line was in my sights.  Slowly but surely we gained ground and the finish was getting closer.  I did remark at one point that it didn’t appear to be getting any closer, however Ann-Marie assured me it was.  Just before finishing I saw my boyfriend, Nathan, and a large group of friends standing to the side screaming my name and cheering for me.  Right after waving at them I crossed the finish line.  I was absolutely exhausted but had a gigantic smile and was ecstatic.  We walked along grabbing bananas, granola, shirts and anything else being shoved our way.  After checking in at the TNT tent I made my way to Nathan  and friends.
 

This is where I got the most incredible surprise.  As I walked up to my “posse” I saw that they were all facing opposite me.  All at the same time they turned around to face me and each had on a green shirt saying a different word.  Together, the words spelled out “Tina will you marry me?” and Nathan got down on one knee.  I made an audible gasp and burst into tears.  Finally I squeaked out a yes and there was clapping/smiling from surrounding people.  After much hugging and photo taking we started walking back to the hotel.  I loved this part because my friends left on the shirts and people kept yelling out “What did she say?!?!” 
 

Looking back, this was the best weekend I’ve ever had.  I was able to accomplish a goal  for myself and had the most romantic and creative proposal.  Nathan was so supportive of me during my training and fundraising and I’m happy the weekend ended up being about both of us.  I can’t wait for my next race, I’m looking forward to how he’ll top the proposal!