The Flying Monkey Marathon is hard. It’s 3200 feet of climbing whereas most “hilly” road marathons like Heart of America or Hatfield McCoy are 1200 ft. Why would people do this to themselves? Stockholm syndrome? Sure a few. A beautiful park? Certainly that’s a great reason. But for the most part it’s an atmosphere of fun. Painful, awful, fun with a bunch of mental defectives who come back year after year to this unique experience. This year I got to see a lot of friends and spend some quality time with Rick Murray who I hadn’t seen since Blister in the Sun last year and was finishing his 50th marathon. Fun fact: In 1941, the original WSM became the first commercial radio station in the United States to receive an FM license.
Rick insisted on the selfie. Why ruin a perfectly good photo with me?
Part of the beauty. It’s not a downhill. It’s an optical illusion. There is only uphill in the monkey. As Yakov Smirnoff said “in Flying Monkey you don’t run hills, hills run YOU.”
Dream team.
It’s not a marathon if Larry Macon isn’t there.
Cathy (aka the Ladybug Lady) was doing her 4th monkey and 400th marathon.
Greg and Lori trying to stay warm at the start.
Super Pinoy, Jim Diego charges up the hills.
They look like they’re having fun. Can’t something be done about this?
Race director and monkey wrangler, Trent Rosenbloom is dressed for the day.
Liz Gmerek and Kevin Brosi apparently didn’t know I was going to be here or they would have made other plans.
Leading the pack to do battle with the legendary monkeys of the Harpeth Hills.
Trent Rosenbloom and Diane Jones-Bolton mentioned Bolton’s for Nashville hot chicken. I am a bad vegetarian. So I wanted to try it. You know, for cultural reasons.
I also got whiting fillets, medium heat. That was about right, though I added hot sauce. This I would do again one day but not often. So maybe I’m not the worst vegetarian.
I had to go with hot chicken tenders because the prospect of dealing with bones kind of freaked me out. They were great as a dare, but I didn’t find I could taste anything but the spice. The buttermilk ranch I found after I was done probably would have mitigated that. I wouldn’t repeat.
Before the race we had to let the sponsor know we cared.
Finisher gift. Useful, I recommend the porter.
Monkey bib, one kill.
Custom long sleeve monkey shirt. Featuring your monkey name: Fun Fact Seth. Not captured is the previous monkey kills (completed monkey marathons) illustrated on the sleeve. I had one monkey with a cross bar through him for my previously completed 2016 HHFMM.
