She Runs by the Seashore

Whenever I visit somewhere new, I always like to run. Sometimes, I travel to locations with the purpose of running a race there and exploring. Other times, I run to explore during my trip.

At the end of June, my now-fiancé, Mike, and I went to Nashville to celebrate his birthday. We stayed at an Airbnb in East Nashville that was on a big hill (which I didn’t actually end up running). I got in two runs while we were there. It was a super hot and humid week, so the runs I got in were relatively short and also included a lot of walking, but I still enjoyed the exploring I got to do.

For my first Nashville run, I headed toward the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, which I’d seen on a map. I thought about doing a larger loop in which I’d go into the downtown area on the other side of the Cumberland River and then head back, but it was so hot and humid that I didn’t want to get too far away, so I turned around and still made a loop, but a smaller one. It was nice seeing several murals along the way and throughout our visit.

A new Tennessee Titans stadium is under construction, so that part of the run wasn’t the most scenic, but I enjoyed running through the neighborhoods, making it through to the bridge and heading back past East Park and a running store, Nashville Running Company. I ended at four miles, and I didn’t feel like extending the loop, so I rode back on one of the many scooters that were available to rent throughout the city.

A couple days later, I took a scooter to and from the Shelby Bottoms Greenway, which was close to our Airbnb. It was about a mile away (and a road was closed, making it a little further to the start), but I wanted to spend most of the run on the greenway — that’s why I took the scooter there instead of starting my run from the place we were staying.

I started running a little before the Greenway’s main trailhead (GPS address is 1900 Davidson St.), and my total mileage was 3.5 miles, so there was a decent amount of the path I didn’t see. The paved path I was running on is five-plus miles, according to this Nashville and Davidson County website, and there were other offshoots of the path, too. (This site says there are 9.7 paved miles.) It was a scenic path with a pollinator garden at the entrance and lots of trees. There were also mile markers. The park has free admission.

The Greenway was pretty flat, but when I ran in the city, there were hills to tackle.

Although I only ran twice on my trip, I’m glad I was able to run during my first real visit to Tennessee (I think I went as a baby, but that’s hard to count). From an online search, it also looked like there are a ton of running clubs in Nashville, even though the times didn’t work out for me.

If you’re a fan of coffee post-run, as I am, there are also plenty of coffee shops where you can enjoy a post-run brew.

Feel free to share your favorite Nashville spots to run in the comments!