Welcome to Biggest Week of the Year for East Nasty!
It is East Nashville Tomato Fest week, which of course includes the East Nashville Tomato 5K this Saturday at 7:30am. There are going to be several opportunities on Saturday for you to participate and volunteer. Come be a part of our favorite week of the year! This is a long post - but contains everything you need to know about this week. Please read the whole thing!
The Route - Wednesday Aug 8th
First things first – the route this Wednesday will be the East Tomato 5k race course. Here is a map. Many of us will be running in the race so we will get in a practice run on the course. We will be joined Wednesday night by our Potato-to-Tomato 5K Training Group that has been meeting 3 days a week all summer in Shelby Park. Please be sure to introduce yourself to these runners, congratulate and welcome them to the big East Nasty family as they have all trained very hard for the race this weekend.
The groups will start at different times tomorrow night but needless to say we will have a large group of runners out on the roads. It is very important to obey the rules of the road. Run on the sidewalk or on the left side of the street, do NOT run more than 2 people across and do NOT run out into the road in front of oncoming traffic. This is a very fun night and a big week for East Nasty – please do not ruin it for others by running in the middle of the road or jumping out in front of traffic and getting us into trouble with the police.
Our morning run meets at 5:50am and starts promptly at 6am. The evening run meets at 6pm. Both runs meet at our usual spot - the corner of 11th & Holly in front of the yellow ArtEmbrace house.
How can I participate on Saturday Aug 11th?
There are several different ways to be a part of East Nasty’s homecoming event this Saturday:
1) Run in the East Tomato 5k race. The race starts at 7:30am just off of the 5 Points intersection and there will be East Nasties all over the place. All we ask is that you wear an East Nasty shirt during the race. See more on shirts below. The Potato-to-Tomato Group will meet at out normal Wednesday night meeting spot ( 11th & Holly ) at 7:00 am for a warmup and then head down to the start of the race together.
2) Volunteer at the race. Our good friends at Fleet Feet Sports are sponsoring a water stop at mile 2 on the race course and our peeps at Nashville Running Company are helping out at the finish line. If you're not running in the race, we need some East Nasty volunteers to help them pass out water, help on the race course, and cheer on the runners. Contact Amanda (amanda@eastnastyforlife.com) or Drew (drew@eastnastyforlife.com) to volunteer. We need you!
3) Work the East Nasty 'water tent booth' during the East Tomato Fest. From 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturday. East Nasty will have a tent set up right in front of 3 Crow Bar and we will be serving free water to anyone who is thirsty during the Tomato Festival. It is our way of giving back to the community as a thanks for letting us run on the neighborhood streets. We need volunteers to work a 2 hour shift. The volunteers will be passing out water, selling shirts, refilling coolers, getting ice, and spreading the East Nasty cheer. SIGN UP FOR A SHIFT HERE. Be sure to wear an East Nasty shirt. Contact Sarah Shearer for more details: sarahkshearer@gmail.com
4) Come and hang out. Even if you can not run in the race or volunteer please still try to come out to the Tomato Fest for a bit and spend some time with your running buddies. There will be live music, contests, art, parades, food and drink, free water and all things tomato all day long. Again all we ask is that you wear one of your East Nasty shirts with pride.
Speaking of Shirts...
We have 2 new shirts now available for you guys.
1) The 2012 Tomato tech shirt is now available for purchase for $20 at Nashville Running Company. These are high quality Pearl Izumi white tech shirts with our logo and Tomato 5K art in red.
2) Our 2012 cotton tri-blend t-shirt will be available for purchase for $20 at our Tomato Fest booth on Saturday. This years shirt is green, super soft, and comes in both men's and women's sizes. We will have a preview of them at the run on Wednesday evening. (We may have the shirts available for sale on Friday evening somewhere in 5 Points - if so, we will announce that here and on our Facebook page.)
A very exciting and fun week for East Nasty indeed. Please see Mark Miller, Drew Jones, Amanda Tungett, Sarah Shearer, or Duane Stephenson with any questions you have regarding this weekend. We will all be there at the Wednesday night run.
Hope to see all of you this week out there in Full Force — EAST NASTY FOR LIFE – Yahhhhhhhhh !!!!!
Drew (and Duane)