“Le të shkojë drejtuar!” That is what our new East Nasty of the Week will have to say if she wants to go for a run with her fellow Kosovians in about two weeks. Say hello to awesome Amberlie Silva!!!

Little Amberlie was born on the living room floor of her parents house in Hartford, Connecticut. This was a planned event actually, and it is just one of the many interesting facts about her life. In those early years she lived the true New Englander lifestyle, meaning she went to private school, loved the Red Sox, and vacationed on “the Cape.”

As a young one, she took to playing tennis, but this was mainly due to her father being a tennis coach. In middle school she decided to give cross country a try, but according to Amberlie, she was nothing but flat out AWFUL! She claims that no matter how much she practiced, she was unable to run a complete mile without walking once (or sometimes twice.) Despite her lackluster skills at running, she decided to carry the torch into her high school years and compete in both cross country and track. By the end of it all Amberlie was proud of her accomplishment in being able to run a complete 5K without stopping.

For college she headed to the University of New Hampshire, located basically in the middle of nowhere. Her life consisted mostly of going to hockey games, seeing cows all over the place and tons of snow. She focused her studies on Bioscience and Technology. She also enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve as a Marine Science Technician right after high school, which took up a good amount of her time in those first two years of college. In her junior year Amberlie switched military branches and joined the US Army. As a member of the ROTC, she began to receive leadership training for the armed forces. In her off time, which was not all that much as she explains it, she would hike the various mountains throughout New Hampshire and spend time on the coast if weather allowed.

As part of ROTC, Amberlie had to run 5 miles every morning. From that basic training, she and the other girls in the program decided to run a half marathon to prove that they were tougher than the boys. So on April 1st, 2007, the girls of ROTC U.N.H. (with their group name “real women wear kevlar) ran 13.1 miles together. Immediately following the finish line Amberlie informed everyone that she would never be doing that again. Sure enough a couple months later, another friend convinced her to run another one. The results were the same, meaning NOT GOOD. After that she swore off running for a full two years.

After college Amberlie moved to Nashville, TN. She started off by working as a research assistant at Vanderbilt. She also switched over to the Army reserve when she got here, and her recruiter Clayton Hughes told her about a certain running group that meet in East Nashville on Wednesday nights. Originally she thought the name of our group was a little weird, and therefore decided not to attend. Then after three months on not knowing anyone, she came out one night, and the rest is history. Amberlie was quick to mention that ALL of her friends and pretty much her entire social life came directly from East Nasty. She made quick friends and running buddies with Alexis Hoag and Erin Burcham, and she even found her roommate, the one and only Nick Abruzzo, through running with us. Since joining our group, she has run six half marathons and two full ones.

And now for the sad news, Amberlie is leaving us for the next 400 days. As a working employee for the Army Reserves, she began leading a medical logistics team for six US Army hospitals in the Southeast. She is now being deployed to support the Kosovo forces. She will be in charge of medical logistics operations at Camp Bondsteel for the next year and half. She is both a little scared and a little excited about the mission, but at least she will get to say she had lived a year in Kosovo. Who gets to say that about their lives? The answer is Andy Moss (of course!)... and now Amberlie Silva too!

Be sure to leave Amberlie an encouraging word, or a shout-out in some form or fashion! She will truly be missed, and we will all be excited for her safe return home. Finally, a going away party is occurring on Sept 24th out and around in 5 points area in East Nashville. Any and all East Nasties are invited!

Rod