So…I’ve set a major running goal for summer 2020: I’m going to run 1,000 kilometres in the next four months.
But let’s backtrack a bit so you can get some context. On April 30th, I reached a distance goal of 200k I’d set for myself for the month of April. I’ve run more than that distance before in one month, but always when training for a marathon. For me, 200 kilometres without a marathon goal race in the calendar is a lot. I’m not the kind of runner who loves doing anything much longer than 10k unless I need to for training. And my preference is to run three days a week, four if I’m feeling ambitious. In April, I ended up running 24 days. They were mostly run at a comfortable pace; given the higher overall mileage and greater frequency, my focus was just getting the distance completed. My legs were tired and my pace never really improved, but I was fine with that. It wasn’t about speed. These runs in April became some much needed almost daily stress relief and nice outing in the fresh air while living in quarantine.
How did I come around to making my goal to run 1,000k this summer?
On the last day of April, here is my series of texts to a running friend:
4:06 p.m.: I completed my 200k goal for April and reached 14,000 km on Nike Run Club. My legs are tired, though. I’ll scale back my distance in May.
8:16 p.m.: In crazy runner fashion, now I’m thinking maybe my May goal should be 250 km.
11:40 p.m.: (upon coming across an article on Facebook about the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000k) Oh, and look what just popped up in my feed! That would be 250k a month!
What’s the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000k? The GVRAT is a summer-long race from the creator of the extremely vigorous Barkley Marathons, Lazarus Lake. The distance from the southeastern corner of the state of Tennessee to the northwestern corner is approximately 1,000 kilometres (or 621 miles). The race started on May 1st and goes until August 31st, which means participants have four months to run 1,000k. I was already considering 250k for May… so why not making it four months straight?
(N.B. The distance across Tennessee is actually 1,022 kilometres…and tbh, I’m not clear if it’s 1,000k or 1,022k I have to complete–as it stands, I will complete 1,022 to ensure I complete this virtual race!)
I hemmed and hawed about registering and I had some mixed feedback from friends about whether I should register or not. One reason I was compelled to register? Completing the 1,000k in the virtual race would also coincide with reaching Volt status on Nike Run Club (NRC), so it’d be kind of epic to complete both at the same time.
However, a reason I was iffy about registering (besides the daunting distance through the heat of the summer) was that if I had to prioritize, I’d rather run a marathon in the fall. My plan is to run Detroit Marathon again since I had such a great race last year there. But with the pandemic, who knows if marathons will actually be held this fall. If I were to register for GVRAT, and fall marathons do indeed take place, I’d have to figure out how to manage my training. While I would complete about 250k in a four-week period roughly a month before the marathon, to be completing 250k each month while hoping to run a great marathon is asking a lot of me, mentally and physically. And in training for a marathon, I’d be focused on improving speed and doing hill training, rather than simply completing distance. So juggling the two goals would be a challenge.
I waffled a bit, but I decided it would help to have a goal like the GVRAT to focus on and help me manage the stress of the pandemic. I can’t control many aspects of life right now, but I can manage my running workouts. It will be a good distraction, and having a running schedule would add some structure to my calendar. Also, normally, I often have to juggle marathon training around traveling for work; now, it will likely be a long time til travel picks up again, so I have plenty of time while at home in Toronto and I can invest that time towards this running goal.
And so I registered for the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee and joined the 16,000+ runners worldwide taking part as well. You can also register your dog, and Billie Jean will likely run most of the 1,000k with me, but I can’t be sure of that (sometimes I may run home from an errand when she’s not with me, plus I can’t have her run with me very long on the days it is unbearably hot and humid), and so I haven’t officially registered her in the dog category of the race.
How I will structure my 1,000 kilometres
Currently, my plan is to switch up the distances. If running daily, 1,000k works out to approximately 8.5k daily. I prefer to have some rest days so I plan to change it up from week to week with some longer runs so that I can take a rest day. That said, I don’t really enjoy running more than 20k when not in training for a marathon. Right now, I’m thinking a decent week might be to run four 15k runs, plus a short recovery run. Also, I predict many of Billie Jean’s quick pee breaks will likely become short, slow and easy runs. I’m going to play around with the schedule and see what works best for me mentally and physically. The race rules allow you to walk (but it has to be a walk with the purpose of walking/hiking, not simply the tally of your day to day steps).
Here I go! Virtually traveling on foot across Tennessee!
A few days into it and it’s nice to have this distraction. GVRAT team is working hard on getting the online tracking system up and running. The site has fun stats including where you are in the standings, projected finish date, and shows you approximately where you are on the course. Today, I finally reached Memphis!
Who else is doing the race? By the way, registration is still open… anyone else want to register? The more the merrier, we can cheer one another on! In any case, you can follow my progress across Tennessee on my social media (follow me on Instagram and Twitter!) and here on the blog!
May 4, 2020
Last week, Chevrolet Canada invited me to travel to Nashville to find new roads behind the wheel of a Chevy Cruze. It was a quick trip but with a full itinerary, we managed to fit a fair amount of exploring Nashville and its outskirts. It was my first time in Tennessee, and I was struck by how lush and green it was as the plane was making its descent.
Another lovely surprise? Everyone is so warm and friendly. Although my hometown of Toronto has some good points, friendly people is not one of them. Nor is good customer service (CS is the pits here). So I was completely caught off guard in Nashville by (gasp) people actually greeting me and even chatting.
On my first day in Nashville, I took out the Chevy Cruze LT by myself and went to explore Marathon Village. Here, the Marathon Factory building dates back to 1881 and it now is filled with studios and loads of shops selling fun items, such as Antique Archeology, where there was a very creepy mummified boy and other oddities.
I initially made my way to Marathon Village because Chevy told me The Bang Candy Company had a stash of candy for the crew in town for the Chevy Cruze adventure. There I picked up my homemade marshmallows, and was mighty temped by their simple syrups (which I passed on since I was traveling only with a carry-on).
I don’t drive that regularly and am not fond of driving in a new city, and I’d say in general I’m always stressed about getting lost, but thanks to the Chevy Cruze being the most connected car in its class, I didn’t have to worry. The Cruze has 4G LTE wifi available on all models, and Apple Carplay and Android Auto standard. And should I need to make a call, I knew I would be able to do so easily and safely thanks to hands-free calling and standard Siri Eyes Free voice recognition (as long as the iPhone is running iOS 6 or later, which would you believe mine is? I’m terrible about updating my operating system…). Oh, and the navigation features 3D map views for major cities and attractions.
Nashville aka Music City is famous for being storytelling and we were treated to a lovely dinner at Little Octopus (where we ate family style courses including some of the best roast chicken with salsa verde I’ve had, along with some tasty farro cakes, a juicy burger, and more. All while listening to some superb live country music. The four artists who performed during dinner are the songwriters behind some of the top country songs by the who’s who in cuntry (think Kenny Chesney, for example). While I didn’t recognize any of the songs (not a country music fan — I don’t think Taylor Swift counts, right?), the music was mellow and quite moving. Full of good food and in a good mood, we returned to the Hutton Hotel and called it a night (OK, fine, we had one last drink at the hotel first).
The next day, bright and early, we all partnered up and chose a Chevy Cruze and were given an itinerary for the day. My friend Jonathan of MrCavaliere.com and I piled into our Cruze and set out to find new roads.
We met up with the Cruze squad first at a pit stop at Country View Amish Market in Charlotte, where the staff was just lovely, the fried pies irresistible and the bacon dressing (aka a jar of bacon fat) mighty tempting (gd the no-fluids more than 100 mL flight rule!). From there, Jonathan and I got lost (don’t ask — my bad, I misunderstood something in the itinerary), but he maneuvered our Cruze easily on the windy country roads (the 2016 Cruze is 2.7 inches longer, but up to 250 pounds lighter on the L, LS and LT, which makes the car more nimble and feels more controllable, plus this also optimizes the performance and efficiency of the powertrain — so I’m told; I confess: the feature I was most excited about in the Cruze is the wireless phone charging, if only I had the battery that does wireless charging!).
Eventually, we made it to The Country Boy in Leiper’s Fork, which is pretty much everything you hope for in a Nashville countryside diner. I mean, check out the adorableness of our server.
Here, I ate what is quite possibly the best fried chicken sandwich of my life. Jonathan and I had agreed to share the entire meal, including some fried green tomatoes, so we could try more menu items, but with my first bite of the sandwich, I wished we had just gone for two chicken sandwiches instead of the catfish plate. The bun is so soft and light (so it doesn’t overwhelm the incredible juicy chicken) and the chicken isn’t too heavily battered, so it’s very chicken-y (can’t you tell that I write for a living!?).
We slurped up two milkshakes with our lunch and then poked around Leiper’s Fork, where there were a few galleries of great gifts and art. I particularly fell for The Copper Fox Gallery, where I learned that the restored home it’s housed in is from the 1860s and the beautiful yellow door (and some of the floor) is original. I left empty-handed because we were pressed for time, and I must make it back there to spend more time shopping and to check out the other places I didn’t get a chance to pop into, such as Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant.
We did make a quick stop, though, to take a pic of General Lee (you know, the car from Dukes of Hazzard!)…
this awesome cop car…
and this vintage Chevy (how appropriate!)…
I got behind the wheel here and we made our way to Otis James, whose studio can be found in the “Makers area” in downtown Nashville. Otis is an artisan cap maker (his focus was previously bowties and ties, but now it’s caps that he makes by hand), and the majority of his work is custom work for clients.
Because I think Jonathan and I got caught up in the magic of finding new roads in Nashville, we completely missed out on the fact we were supposed to get to Otis James’s studio at a certain time. Oops. So we weren’t there when Chevy’s lead designers were there chatting design philosophies (sorry, Chevy!). We did have a lovely visit with Otis, though. He’s passionate about people knowing where their products come from and knowing where or why design elements are made. Mass production can make us all forget that there are actual people behind the design. Take the Chevy Cruze, for example. For Otis, he really wanted to know why, for example, leather was used for a certain element of the car but another material elsewhere. Besides his bespoke work, we also talked a lot about Canada, food, and upon hearing we hadn’t had much time in Nashville to really poke around, he promised me there’s more to Nashville than fried chicken.
Oh, and I fell in love with his shy dog, Maple, who I was determined to befriend. She seemed to want some attention but was just a little skittish.
Chatting away and taking photos at the studio, Jonathan and I both lost track of time and realized we had to get back to grab our shuttle to the airport. Fortunately, we were close to the Chevy hub and it should’ve only taken 10 minutes. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic (wow, Nashville, you’ve got some traffic!), but eventually we made it back and our Chevy Cruze adventure came to an end. We reluctantly handed back our keys and said so long to Nashville. It was an awesome adventure finding new roads with the Chevy Cruze (Thank you Chevrolet Canada!) and I I hope to be back in Music City real soon!
April 28, 2016
