Kevin Christian

Kevin

Kevin Christian is one of those rare East Nasties that actually grew up in and around Nashville. Sure, he may have actually been born in Germany (which pretty much makes someone cool by default), but he earned his street cred. here in the Music City. Not only that, he actually resides on the East Side, and we run by his abode on Shelby Ave. on a couple of our runs.

Kevin began hearing about the lore of East Nasty in the summer of 2008. He had helped start up Sky Blue bistro on Fatherland Ave., and one of the frequent customers (Alexis Hoag) continually kept promoting the group. Kevin, a long time runner, considered the art of running both a spiritual and scared place that could only truly be experienced alone. But, upon reading Haruki Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, he decided that he should give communal running a try. So, once again, we have Japanese literature to thank for bringing someone to our little running group.

In the beginning Kevin struggled keeping up, well at least keeping up with the “fasty nasties.” His mantra for the winter months was that he had to run fast, or he would be lost in the dark. Soon enough however he found that he could keep up with our elites.

In February 2010, Kevin joined fellow ENOWs Heidi Huerta and Jim Schwan at the Pensacola, Florida 15K Double Bridge Run. Not only was it his fastest run to date, he also came away with two realizations on the ride home. The first was that joining the East Nasty running group had definitely made him a faster runner. The second understanding that he came to was that our running group is, as he puts it, “a truly talented tribe of people, deeply compassionate, quick to laughter, even quicker to reach out to impact their community, and always seeking the best possible version of themselves.”

Such kind words should make us feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy inside.

And now he is one of the truly converted. He tells everyone he knows and meets about East Nasty, he participates in both our Wednesday night and Sunday morning group runs, and Kevin even helped give input at the trail runs meeting. For this post he also wrote me an essay titled, "Why I am an EN," which I now might make a requirement for all future East Nasty of the Weeks.