Richard with his wife and daughter at the I Run For the Party Half Marathon in November 2012

What do craft beer, bowling, LSU Tigers and half marathons have in common? Nothing, unless you're our new East Nasty of the Week, Richard Dennison.

Richard began running East Nasty in 2011 when he went from zero running experience to training for his first 5k with the Couch to 5k program. He first heard about East Nasty from former ENOW Greg Kyle, and is also friends with some East Nasty regulars, Brian Freeman and Brian Murray. He was encouraged by them to get off the couch and start running...but it's also safe to say the beers at 3Crow following the run had something to do with his interest in our group.

Which leads me to the first fun fact about Richard: He use to brew his own beer before brewing your own beer was cool. He's quite the beer aficionado.

Richard's dad was in the Air Force, so he moved around a lot as a kid. He was born in Denver, Colorado, and has lived in Arizona, Okinawa Japan, Florida, and Louisiana. His dad retired in Baton Rouge, so Richard attended middle school, high school and college there. He graduated from Louisiana State University. Geaux Tigers!

And now for the second fun fact about Richard: His first sport was bowling. He bowled for LSU and has not one but TWO 300 perfect games to his name.

In 1993, after graduating, Richard moved to Nashville. He is a web application developer for Vanderbilt University.

Richard doing what he loves most - drinking beer - with his daughter (who is not drinking beer), wife, sister-is-law and brother.

If you've been running with East Nasty for any amount of time, you know the cardinal rule of our group is runs happen rain or shine...or snow or sleet. Richard learned this during his training with the Couch to 5k program. One particular evening the weather turned pretty bad with snow and ice everywhere. While not many showed up, Chuck Hargrove (the coach) of course did, and Richard joined a few other brave souls to skate run their way through their training session. Richard recounts this as his most memorable East Nasty experience.

And for the third and final fun fact about Richard (though there may be more fun facts, perhaps you should ask him on a Wednesday night): Not only had he never run a race before starting to run in 2011, he completed his first 5k in a remarkable 26:57 and a year and a half later completed his first half marathon in 2:07:42. Wowzers! Go Richard! And congrats on becoming our newest East Nasty of the Week!

With fellow East Nasties Greg Kyle & Brian Murray