Polly Todd Alexander
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If there was a Ms. International award at East Nasty, I am pretty sure that it would go to Polly Alexander.
Polly came into this world as a duel citizen. Her parents are both Canadian, but she was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Therefore she is 100% Canadian, but gets the bonus of a US citizenship. But her role as a world class citizen does not end there, because for high school she went to an International school in Paris, France. When asked does she still know the French language pretty well, Polly’s response was “un petit peu,” which translates into “a little bit.”
For college Polly returned to the “Great White North,” and enrolled at the University of Toronto. There she studied Anthropological Sciences, which basically focuses on the interoperating small bone fragments and skull pieces, and from that gleaming and understanding of how that person lived.
For graduate school Polly returned to her birth home of Pittsburgh, and this time she focused in the world of Library Science. With her MLS degree in hand, she came toNashville, TN for a job working at Vanderbilt’s Biomedical Library. Upon accepting the position though, she realized she needed to do something that she had been putting off for 7 years, and that was getting her driver’s license. Polly might be one of the few people in history that took her drivers’ test in a rented car.
Before the running bug bit her, Polly focused her athletic intentions towards hockey. She played in an all female league for 5 years. Polly played defense, and from what her friend Casey Murphy says, she was a bit of a scrapper.
One day she was looking at the East Nashville Google listserv, and she read a post by Chuck (I took first place in the 60K portion of the Nashville Ultra Race) Hargrove. He was inviting people out to a newly formed running group called East Nasty, and Polly thought to herself that it sounded interesting. She was instantly hooked to running, and even began to invite her friends Casey and Terry along for the adventure. Since joining East Nasty she has run in 4.5 half marathons. 2 Country Music Halfs, 2 Music City Halfs (yes there is a difference!) and she attempted to run a half marathon in New Orleans, but had to drop out after 6 miles due to illness.
She is currently training for the upcoming I Run for the Party Half marathon, where she hopes to set a new PR for herself.