The Top Nashville Area Marathon Times in 2014

Last year, I recorded the top five marathon times by Nashville area people.  To be eligible for the list, you had to live around 30ish minutes away from the state capitol (I was nice and included Murfreesboro). This year, I will continue the streak and do it again. Well, I don't think it's a streak because it's not considered one until you do it at least three times.  But to make up for my lateness, I'll soup it up and add pictures.  And since this is the South, ladies first.

#1. Gisela Lamke, 2:35:30, Mercedes Marathon.  I don't know a lot about her, except she really turned it on over the past year and is now running a faster pace for the marathon than she used to run for the half.  She's also about to have a baby and ran her 2:35 on a tough course.

#2. Jeanette Faber, 2:47:32, Country Music Marathon.  She has a PR of 2:32 but had some injury issues over the past year. She ran the 2:47 as a workout and I talked her into running the race less than three days before it.  She's either easily influenced or I'm very persuasive.  And look at those shoes!

Editors Update: Her best marathon of the year was a 2:43:57, which was run at the windy and rainy New Tapei City Wanijinshi International Marathon in New Taipei City, Taiwan.  I don't know how they fit the name of the race on their shirt. 

#3. Ashley Evans, 2:57:42, Indy Monumental Marathon.  She was planning on racing Chicago in hopes of breaking her 2:48 marathon PR but she took a page out of my book and became anemic. And I have no qualms stating that she's also the nicest and most friendly person on the list.

#4. Blair Burnette, 3:01:28, Boston Marathon. She took several minutes off her 2013 half-marathon PR and then doubled it in her first Boston Marathon, which is no easy feat.  It also appears she doesn't like to post running pictures on Facebook because I had to dig for this one. She learned her mistake from running in whatever blue shoes those are and ran her Boston time in a pair of Newton Distance Elites. Smart gal!

#5. Lindsey Dial, 3:02:09, Indy Monumental Marathon.  She's pretty fresh to the road racing scene as she used to focus on trail racing until she realized how stupid it was. She ran her marathon on a semi-bum hamstring, so I'm sure she's looking for some vengeance in her next one. And according to Facebook, she's also looking for someone who can build the below doghouse, so leave a reply if you can. 

Marathoning on the women's side has really picked up in this area and other than the half-marathon, it's probably Nashville's strongest female event.  There's also several more girls in the low 3:00 range, so I'm sure 2015 will be a cat fight!. And let me know if I missed anyone because you can only do so much Googling before you start to feel like a stalker. 

And now for the men...

#1. Scott Wietecha, 2:17:16, Houston Marathon. He's that guy who died really badly at Houston and had the top four women gaining on him from 35k to the finish. He also got outkicked by a 2:17 half-marathoner in that race.  After spending 2014 being extra whiny, he's looking for redemption.

#2. Joey Elsakr, 2:24:20, Indy Monumental Marathon. Nailed his debut with the second fastest last half-marathon in the field.  Being that he graduated from Duke and is in medical school at Vanderbilt, he was probably the smartest in the field as well.  

#3. Bill Martin, 2:28:57, Rocket City Marathon. Since we aren't Facebook friends and he rarely races, I had to settle for his high school 4x800m picture. I sent a friend request though, so maybe I'll update this. I also noticed he's #666 in that picture.

#4. Hunter Hall, 2:35:19, Rocket City Marathon. He knocked a couple minutes off his PR in what was his second marathon. One of his claims to fame is hitting on the entire Indy Monumental elite ladies field at once.  I don't think it went anywhere though. 

#5. Greg Kyle, 2:38:19, Indy Monumental Marathon. He's the tall guy and he used his tallness to be the off-and-on wind breaker for Alayna Hadley at Indy, before leaving her in his dust.  He's really improved over the past year and should be ready to run sub 6:00 pace in his next marathon.  Not only is that a fast time but the math is easy as well.

I think this is a pretty nice improvement compared to last year on the men's side but compared to the women, it seems like the Nashville area men are a little more timid of the marathon.  But word on the street is that after several months of injury riddled trumpet playing (he took up the trumpet when he got hurt), 65 minute half-marathoner, Connor Kamm, may make his marathon debut in 2015.  There's also rumors of Joey's med school BFF, Ben Li trying one as well.