Time Passages and the Boulevard Bolt

The Boulevard Bolt, a five mile race on Belle Meade Boulevard, has traditionally been Nashville's biggest road race.  Held on Thanksgiving morning, it's a chance for people to get out and run, or walk, five miles before gorging themselves on turkey, stuffing, etc., later in the day.  

I've run the Bolt several times, though not in a while.  These days, I run to reach whatever annual goals I have set but I rarely race.  Plus, we've been in Sewanee for Thanksgiving for the past six or seven years.  Last year and again this year, JP wanted to run in the Bolt with some of his former and current teammates, so I stayed with him while Jude and Joe went to Sewanee.  They returned Thanksgiving morning so we could have Thanksgiving dinner at our house with Jim and Jane.  After dinner, we drive back to Sewanee to the house we've rented.  It's complicated logistically but it's worked for us the past couple of years.

Yesterday, JP left the house, in the cold, about 6:30 a.m. to meet Jack F., Brady, Charlie, and Gabe to run in the Bolt.  Jack F. lives nearby so they parked at his house and walked to the starting line across from St. George's Episcopal Church.  I drove over about 7 a.m., found a parking spot, and walked over to the starting/finish line.  It was crowded because there were slightly over 5,000 runners and walkers, along with the spectators.  

The crowed thinned out, of course, shortly after the race started.  I listened to Todd Snyder - R.I.P. - on my AirPods and waited for the runners to finish the five mile out and back course.  I was curious where JP would finish because I knew he had decided to race, not just run.  Callahan Fielder, a Brentwood High alum who runs at Dartmouth, finished first in a smoking hot run under 25:00.  JP finished in fourth place at 26:16, pretty fast at 5:16 per mile.

Later, on a group text with several old friends, I asked if they recalled all of us running the Boulevard Bolt years ago, then sitting in a filed and drinking beer afterwards.  Todd Blankenbecler (T.B.) immediately sent a set of photos from that long ago morning.  There, as I live and breath, were T.B., Rib Pewett, Warren Sanger, Chip Stanley, Doug Brown, and me, sitting in early prototypes of camping chairs, cooler nearby, drinking beer.  

I mean, damn.  Time gets by you, doesn't it?  Chip Stanley is no longer with us.  Rip is in Pensacola.  Only T.B. and I are still running.  Not as fast and not as long, but still running.  That was a good morning, as I recall.  

But you know what?  So is this one, as I sit in Walnut Hill Coffee Shop in Winchester, Tennessee, sipping my coffee before I drive back to Sewanee.  I'm going to pick up Jude and the boys and take them to Dutch Maid Bakery & Cafe in Tracy City for breakfast.  

I was thankful then, and I'm thankful now.