Micah Puncochar
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Ladies and gentlemen, I know it has been awhile since out last ENOW, but this person will hopefully make it worth the wait. May I present to you an excellent party host, great humanitarian, concert promoter, and another one of the original East Nasties…the LEGENDARY Micah Puncochar!
So what can be said about Micah? Well let’s start with how to correctly pronounce his last name, its “Punk uh shar,”whichcomes from Czech origins and means “stocking maker.” Chances are my brother will still mispronounce it every time though.
He was born in Amherst, Massachusetts and moved to the great Nashvegas at age six. Micah attended Brentwood Middle and High School, where he met another ENOW, Erick Synder over 20 years ago. For college Micah went off to Tennessee Tech University, where he studied International Business and Spanish.
From there Micah joined the Peace Corps, and was sent to Paraguay to work with farming cooperatives. There he helped grow and harvest “yerba mate,” which is a type of green tea. He spent two whole years in a community that he was 2 hours away from the nearest paved road. From there he traveled down to Argentina, and from there up to Columbia on a 4 month trek across South America. His travels have also taken him through Turkey, the Czech Republic, and several other places throughout the globe.
Like I said before, Micah was instrumental in the foundation of our running club. He was a member of that first Blue Ridge Relay team that went by the name “East Nasty,” plus he has also helped sponsor and organize several East Nasty parties at his house. Speaking of parties, each year Micah also holds his legendary “Short Set-ember” Music Festival in his own backyard. Do not miss it this year!
Now Micah is not always the most consistent runner to show up on Wednesday nights, at least for the running portion anyways. According to him he has been busy on Wednesday nights over the past couple of months, and by busy, he means playing tennis, doing some indoor rock climbing, and catching up with Charlie’s antics on “Two and Half Men.”
So if you do see him out there for the run this Wednesday night, or at 3 Crow after we finish, be sure to congratulate him on this honor of being East Nasty of the Week, because I am not even sure he knows that we are still a functioning group anymore.