Back on the Road: Limitless Running Club and the Races Ahead

In 2024 I ran my first marathon. It was hard, it hurt, and crossing that finish line was one of the best feelings I've ever had.

Then I got a little lazy.

Nothing dramatic happened. Work got busy, the long runs got shorter, and then they quietly stopped happening. If you've ever trained for something big, you know how it goes. The goal is gone, and so is the reason to lace up at 5 AM.

So I'm setting a new one. I'm getting back into marathon training, and I'm bringing Limitless Running Club with me.

Middle Tennessee has a packed race calendar, and the next six months have something for every distance. Here's what's on my radar:

• Clarksville Half Marathon & 5K, Nov 14. There's a Run & Ruck option too, if you want to make a half even harder.
• Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey, Percy Warner Park. The HALF Monkey is Nov 15 and the full is Nov 22. The full climbs about 3,600 feet, so it's a legend, not a PR course.
• Boulevard Bolt, Thanksgiving morning, Nov 26. It's five miles down Belle Meade Boulevard, and every dollar goes to homeless services in Nashville. It's the best way to earn your turkey.
• Tom King Classic Half & 5K, Cornelia Fort Airpark. It's usually late February, and the 2027 date isn't out yet.
• Erlanger Chattanooga Marathon, Mar 7, 2027. It's a short drive for a full marathon weekend.
• St. Patrick's Music City Half, 10K & 5K, Mar 13, 2027. It has a new downtown start at Public Square Park for its 21st year.
• Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, Apr 11, 2027. It has a full, a half, a four-person relay and a 5K the day before.
• St. Jude Rock 'n' Roll Nashville, Apr 24, 2027. It's the hometown big one, with distances from one mile to the full marathon.

Spring is the target. Chattanooga, Knoxville and Rock 'n' Roll Nashville all land between early March and late April. That gives me the winter to rebuild a real base instead of rushing it.

The shorter races are the stepping stones. A Thanksgiving five-miler and a March half are good checkpoints. They're a way to find out honestly whether the training is working, while there's still time to fix it.

I'm not chasing a time yet. The first goal is simpler than that: be consistent again. Show up, log the miles, and don't let a busy week turn into a lazy month.

Right now limitlessrunningclub.com is a "coming soon" page with a starfield and a tagline. That's on me. I build websites for a living, and my own running club's site has been sitting on a loading bar.

That changes by the end of the year. The plan is to bring the site back up in its full awesomeness, with real information about the club, upcoming runs and races, and a way for people to get involved.

Limitless isn't meant to be a site with a logo. It's meant to be a group of people who show up for each other. Here's what's coming:

• T-shirts. That logo deserves to be worn, and nothing says you belong to a club like matching shirts at a start line.
• Organized meets. We'll have regular group runs around Nashville for every pace. The point is to get out the door together, not to drop anyone.
• Charity efforts. Plenty of races here already give back. The Boulevard Bolt supports homeless services, and Rock 'n' Roll Nashville raises money for St. Jude. I'd love for Limitless to run some of those together and raise money as a club, then build our own efforts from there.

If you're in Nashville and you've been meaning to get back into it, or you're just starting out, this is your sign. Pick a race on that list, put it on your calendar, and come run with us.

I fell off once. I'm not planning on doing it again, and it's a lot easier when you've got a club waiting at the trailhead.

See you out there.