It is my pleasure to introduce you to Jennifer Eberle, our newest East Nasty of the Week (ENOW)! Jennifer was born in Ft. Campbell, KY and grew up in Clarksville, TN. She was not the athletic type. In school, she was much more concerned about pep rallies, Student Council, school clubs, roller skating, hair bands, and making certain she never ran out of RAVE hairspray.

Jennifer attended Austin Peay State University. She began cycling in college and fell in love with her first Cannondale in 1995. By the time she began law school in Memphis, she had given up riding for intense studying. Shortly into her studies, she found she needed an outlet for stress, and she became an avid yogi and spin class enthusiast. She tried running once and promptly gave it up.

Jennifer lived in Nashville in 1995-96 while in college and then returned in 2006 after living in Memphis for law school. Speaking of, Jennifer is a medical malpractice defense attorney. She tries cases before juries for doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers across the state. Describing her job, Jennifer says, "I love it, even though it is never as glamorous as L.A. Law indicated it would be."

Jennifer started running in 2011 after a 10 year hiatus. She started on the treadmill and found running inside boring, so she signed up for a 5K. She thought running outdoors couldn’t be that hard. She was wrong. But she wasn’t going to give up. She signed up for a 5K for every month through the end of 2011.

Jennifer's biggest accomplishment in running is the last two miles of her final leg in Ragnar in 2012, where she managed to keep an 11 minute pace, despite tearing two tendons in her right ankle. Since returning to running after surgery in December, every race has been her biggest accomplishment. She ran the Destination Wine Race in Portland, OR (with an 8 minute PR) and ran the Women’s Half this past weekend. She is now looking towards triathlons and has signed up for her first official half-distance triathlon, Gulf Coast, on May 10, 2014. (She blames Tarrolly Hills for that.)

Jennifer heard about East Nasty via social media. She started running 5Ks and found that she didn’t practice for races, other than the track at the Y, and couldn’t force herself to “run hard” on her own. Her friend in Memphis was planning to run her first half & she suggested that Jennifer do it with her and told her to find a local running group to train with. East Nasty was the first group Jennifer found and she asked to “join” the group on the Facebook page. The rest is history.

All of the great friends and other people she has met, as well as the camaraderie and mutual love/hate of running is what Jennifer enjoys most about East Nasty. When she returned to running in April following surgery, she says that she was truly overwhelmed by the support and encouragement she received. Jennifer says, "Running has changed me and my life for the better."

One of Jennifer's friends and training partners, Jolie Bond, has this to say, "I met Jennifer a few years ago but didn't know she was a runner until recently. The moment I became her Facebook friend, her love for running was apparent. Since then, we have run almost every weekend long run together and I have seen her passion to fight through an injury and find ways to constantly improve. Word to the wise: if you are a half-hearted runner and meet Jennifer (if you come to EN you WILL someday), that will immediately change because she will invite you to every possible running event there is and at some point, she will win you over. You will thank her later."

Jennifer's most memorable East Nasty moments have been crossing the finish line at her first half marathon in NOLA, followed by crossing the finish line in her hometown race, the Country Music Half in 2012 (not to mention the East Nasty after party that followed). She's hoping the next “most memorable” will be the Napa to Sonoma Half where she expects, "a bunch of East Nasties to take over the West Coast in July 2014!"

Jennifer's hobbies include wine, traveling, yoga, eating at great restaurants with friends (Rolf & Daughters is her current fav), and did she mention… wine?

Jennifer, congrats on a well run race this weekend! Welcome to the ENOW club!