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Gary Wong 12/15/21 Gary Wong 12/15/21

Nashville, November 19-22

I’m writing this as I fly out to Rome if you want an indication of how far behind I am on these recap posts and how busy these last few weeks have been. Anyway, Nashville - this trip was actually a backup trip for a trip to New Orleans that never happened the weekend previous to this.

Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Cocktails 🥃🥂🥃🥃
Hot Chicken 🐔🐔🐔
Ramen 🍜🍜
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Flights ✈️✈️

#hotchickenrun

I’m writing this as I fly out to Rome if you want an indication of how far behind I am on these recap posts and how busy these last few weeks have been. Anyway, Nashville - this trip was actually a backup trip for a trip to New Orleans that never happened the weekend previous to this. Why Nashville? Why not Nashville? Plenty of history, breweries, and, most importantly, hot chicken. Coincidentally, this weekend was Rock 'n' Roll Nashville and the half marathon would be the perfect tune-up for my marathon in Pisa on December 19.

Let’s talk about the hot chicken… I had three different versions but I’m going to focus on the two Nashville heavyweights. Between Prince's Hot Chicken and Hattie B's Hot Chicken, it’s hard to choose a winner. I felt Prince’s had better flavor but that Hattie B’s was better executed. Gun to my head, I’d probably go with Prince’s but I’m not all too committed to that choice. Sorry if you were hoping for a definitive verdict here but if you want one, just do a hot chicken bang-bang!

Of course, there would be ramen - after all, I did have a race to carbo-load for, though that only explains the first bowl. But the other one at Black Dynasty, a “secret” ramen joint inside a Bearded Iris taproom? Their Turkey Miso Paitan was the best and most interesting bowl of ramen I’d had in some time.

The standout meal was a branch of a place I’d been to before in Charleston but to say that that Butcher & Bee and the one I dined at in Nashville were the same would be nuts. Some similarities, sure, but totally different restaurants owing to the use of local ingredients and different chefs at the helm. Whatever the reason, while I liked my meal in Charleston, I absolutely loved the one in Nashville.

Okay, food’s done - let’s talk about the beer. Boy, is there a beer scene in Nashville. I made it to nine breweries but I think there were still a few more I could have hit with some more time and stomach capacity - there’s only so much room for everything, even with flights or half pours! Of the nine(!), if I had to pick a favorite, it’d be a toss-up between Southern Grist and Bearded Iris. Only one of those has a pop-up ramen shop in it so that may nudge Bearded Iris ahead… at least until Southern Grist adds their own dynamite ramen pop-up.

The Race

Unlike a marathon, I don’t really think too hard about what goals I want to hit for a half marathon but I definitely wanted to beat my PR of 1:49:58 from 2014(!). The conditions were pretty good for that to happen with a starting temperature in the mid-30s and clear skies. Also, the course was pretty flat though there were definitely some hills and, as I would be told several times by pacers, a big one around mile six.

I started a few seconds behind one of the 1:45 pacers but quickly caught up to him which had me feeling pretty good... until I fell off the pace after a hill. The funny thing is that I was still going under 8:00/mile which meant the pacer was going faster than his prescribed pace. Sure enough, I eventually caught him after four miles and then passed him for good in the sixth mile. I knew I had 1:45 locked after a u-turn where I didn’t see the pacer on the other side until 30 seconds after I’d made the turn. At that point, I went for it, wanting to see just how much I could get under 1:45.

I finished the race in 1:42:52, a new PR by over seven minutes! As far as tune-ups go, this was as good as it gets, four weeks out from the Maratona di Pisa.