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You might recognize Greg because of his height over pretty much everyone else, or you might know him as the guy that has already changed into regular clothes by the time you finish your run, because he is that fast of a runner, but after you read this ENOW blog post, I hope you just know Greg as another solid addition to our running community. Welcome the newest member to the East Nasty of the Week club, and one of the founding members of the “Fasty Nastys, “ Greg Kyle.

Greg was born into a military family, and by military family I mean that his dad was the captain of a submarine! Because of this fact, Greg moved around the Pacific coast quite a bit, spending time in San Diego, Northern California, Washington, Guam, Hawaii…you know pretty much a normal upbringing. It was actually in Hawaii that Greg graduated from the prestigious Punahou School. He joins the ranks as such other famous alumni as Michelle Wie (youngest LPGA player,) Hiram Bingham III (the inspiration behind Indiana Jones,) and a politician named Barack Obama (the current President of the United States!)

Okay, from there Greg decided to come to the continental United States and attend Vanderbilt University. There he studied History/Political Science with a minor in Philosophy. He is now employed by his former college, where he manages over a variety of technological projects that deal with student data.

But let’s get to his running. Greg did not really get into running until 2008. Beforehand he just played basketball and baseball, with the occasional run for fitness thrown into the mix. He and a buddy decided to run the Country Music half in 08’ and like the new runner, he bought all new shoes, shorts and shirt to wear for the first time on a 13.1 miler in which he had barely trained. The results were, to put it nicely, not good…especially in the chafing realm of things. But at the end of it all, he was hooked…to running, not the chafing.

Since then Greg has become an excellent runner. In his second attempt at a marathon (EVER) he qualified for the Boston Marathon. In New Orleans a year later he PR’ed his marathon time, and finished in 2:57:44. But besides those feats, he has also joined some other East Nasties in some epic races. As a “training run” for the Memphis Marathon in 2010, Kyle, Ben Renquist, Courtney Terrel, and Kevin Christian all decided to give the Nashville Ultra Marathon a try, running in the 50K event (which is just 31 miles, no biggie.) Finally he also helped the East Nasty 2010 Bourbon Chase team finish in the top 10 overall.

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There is one final note about Greg and our President that might actually affect East Nasty. It’s possible that Greg has caused us to be on the watch list for the secret service. You see, on two separate occasions while Greg was back home in Hawaii on vacation, Obama was also there, staying in a beach house that is right by Greg’s running route. Well, Greg has been stopped a couple times by the secret service, wanting to know what he was doing running by there…and exactly what this “East Nasty” thing was all about. Thanks Greg, and we only thought it was the local government trying to shut us down!