Wednesday 3-9 - Please Read this Post!
Rules of the Road I know that a lot of you guys just skim these posts, but please take a minute to read this!
On Monday, I had a great and terrible meeting with the city. Great because they love what we are doing in terms of promoting fitness, and community involvement. Terrible because they had received 2 complaints over the last 3 weeks about runners jumping out in front of cars. Remember, our mission is to make East Nashville a great place to live and to run - and if we are causing traffic problems, we're not being good neighbors.
At the end of the meeting, they city wants us to have Wednesday night runs - they were extremely supportive, but there are some things that we have to address if we want to continue.
The bottom line is this: Runners need to obey the rules of the road, and if we don't follow these rules, the city can require us to hold a special permit every week! Which would force us to cancel Wednesday runs.
Specifically:
Cross streets at appropriate times and places. For example, don't run through traffic signals without a green light (that was the incident that caused a complaint.)
Run on the sidewalk when available.
Don't run in the middle of the road. If you do have to run in the roadway, run on the far left side, and no more than 2 abreast.
(If you are interested in more, here is a link to the pedestrian laws for Tennessee.)
If you're not prepared to follow these rules, please don't join us! I know this sounds harsh but the future of our Wednesday night runs depends on each one of us.
Routes. Runs that are no problem with 20 runners quickly become a problem with 100. The police officer at the meeting pointed out that he wants us to have variety in where we run, but I am still going to change up/eliminate some of the routes (starting with this week) to allow us to cross at cross walks, avoid busy road crossings, and run on streets with sidewalks/bike lanes. We will probably end up with only 4 - 5 different runs rather than 12.
This is the route that we are going to do this week. It is a slight variation of the Benji route.
Reflective Gear. A must when we are running in the dark. This is our last week in the dark, but this is for your safety!
Now some fun stuff...
Water Stop
One way that East Nasty gives back to the running community is by having a legendary water stop on the Tom King 5k, 1/2 marathon. This really is a very fun event and we need as many volunteers as we can get. All you have to do is show up. We will be out there from 7:00 - 11:00 am working the water stop for both races. The water, coolers, tables, and cups will all be out there for us. All we have to do is show up with our east nasty gear on ready to hand out water and cheer on the runners. The water stop is on Davidson directly underneath the interstate. You can park in the old Flemings gas station right on the corner of 5th and Davidson. If you have any questions about the please see Rod or Drew Jones. You can come at anytime and leave at anytime you like. Just make sure you come out there and join us.
Another way that you can help out, is by helping the striders clip chips after the race. Please email Mark Miller if you are willing to help out. millema6@hotmail.com
Shirts/Tanks
The East Nasty shirts will be available tomorrow! The shirts are $15. You need to pay for them in cash or with a check made out to East Nasty Running Club. The Lululemon tanks are also available, but you should have already paid for those. There will be a group of people handing out both shirts and tanks after the run tomorrow.
Mark