Jacob Sephton's Staging Area

Completed the Nashville Marathon for the first time in 22 after completing the half in previous years. You start on Nashville Broadway in downtown. The first 10 miles or so the half and full are together. You basically run from downtown to Belmont University and back. Once you do that the half and full split off a for a little bit. The half crosses the bridge and goes to the finish line at Nissan Stadium. While full goes another 3-4 miles or so including my personal favorite part of running on the minor league baseball stadium of the Nashville sounds. You actually get to run around the field and get placed on the big board. Then you briefly join up with the half again across the bridge. When you cross it the half finishes at Nissan while the full keeps going to Shelby Park were you do two loops in back to finish at Nissan.

At the time of writing this was my 4th marathon (also done 3 half). This was by far the hardest race for me. 1) The Heat. Lot of years you could get lucky and this is not a factor for you. However, it was in the 80s the last ten miles or so and it was hot. I personally think if it was 10-15 degree cooler then I would of done about 15-30 minutes better. Second it is very very hilly. The first part was not to bad for me. Yes downtown Nashville hilly, but I bet other cities can be just as bad. The worst part is Shelby Park. There was a hill there that was insane. It was the worst. You had to do it twice witch made it extra bad. The hills and heat were not a good combination for me personally.

However, the rest of it was great. They had a lot of live music on the course. The volunteers at the aid station were great. Water, Gatorade, Gel, and even this Febreze they sprayed you that i have never done before that was great. The race day pick up was Thursday and Friday before the race in the huge conference center in downtown Nashville. It was extremely well organized. Additionally there was a lot of fun vendors at it too. Selling all sorts of stuff. I really liked the Tshirt and the Medal is usually always sin the shape of a Guitar.

Overall it was a good marathon. I wish it was in early April Vs late April to avoid the risk of really hot days like I did in 2022. However, hopefully most years it will be better. Would recommend it. Just watch out for some crazy hills the last 5 miles of the race.

This was a fun marathon. You basically run along side the lake or River the whole marathon. The temperature was perfect and pretty flat. One of my best times. The scenery was good, though not the best I’ve seen. After a mile the marathoners split off and go north running along the lake. You eventually turn around and go back to the start line area and the second half you are mixed in with the 5k, 10k and half running a long side the river and turn around again to make it to the end line. So there is some repeat running. Good amount of spectators and predestination the second half of the race. First half thins out and has few spectators. Overall organized and well done. Would recommend this.