St. Jude Rock 'n' Roll Nashville Marathon 2023: Course changes, music and more
It's taken a few years, but the St. Jude Rock 'n' Roll Nashville Marathon and Half-Marathon is expected to be back to normal on Saturday.
COVID-19 knocked the event off course. After being canceled in 2020, the event was moved to the fall in 2021 with far fewer participants signing up. The marathon moved back to the spring in 2022, but the number of participants was still below normal and some restrictions remained in place.
The struggles are over this year, and officials expect a total of more than 25,000 to take part in the marathon, half-marathon, 10K and 5K races, 1-mile run/walk, Kids Rock and Doggie Dash.
Here is what you need to know about the 2023 event:
New course
After tweaking the 26.2-mile downtown marathon course each year since it returned in 2021, officials made significant and more permanent changes this year. Much of the elevation throughout the course has been eliminated along with the monotony many runners said they experienced by having to run twice through Shelby Bottoms Park near the end.
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A total of 500 feet of elevation was removed by rerouting the start of the second half of the marathon back to Metro Center. Instead, however, of coming out of that area on Great Circle Road, which is an incline, the new course runs along the Cumberland River Greenway and takes that flat trek to the Nashville Sounds' First Horizon Stadium and then heads downhill toward East Nashville.
A second loop through Shelby Park isn't necessary with the added distance in Metro Center.
The half-marathon course is the same as last year.
The starting line for both races is at 8th Avenue and Broadway and the finish line is at Nissan Stadium. Both races start at 7:20 a.m.
Competition is wide open
Seven-time Rock 'n' Roll Nashville Marathon winner Scott Wietecha from Hendersonville chose not to run in 2021 because he had not trained for a fall race and did not return in 2002.
Wietecha is not signed up for the 2023 race nor is last year's winner, Ryan Martin, a Tampa, Florida, resident who finished in 2 hours, 41 minutes and 25 seconds.
Last year's top female finisher Sidney Hirsch from Omaha, Nebraska, who posted a 2:59.57, also is not back along with two-time half-marathon overall winner Nick French from Nashville.
It means each of the top races are wide open.
Some of the male runners to watch in the marathon include former Cumberland runner and graduate assistant coach Madut Garang and Ken Rideout from Nashville.
Rideout won the 50-over division at the New York City Marathon (2:33:31) in 2021 and the Boston Marathon (2:30:21) in that age group in 2022. He finished second (1:10:55) in the Rock 'n' Roll Nashville Half-Marathon in 2021.
Rebecca Murray from Nashville, Sarah Higgins from Bourbonnais, Illinois, and Paulina Fote from Port Washington, Wisconsin, are three of the top female runners to watch.
Listen to the music
More than 25 bands will be stationed along the course and at the finish line at Nissan Stadium.
The bands will be spaced out about a mile apart with the goal being to help break up the monotony for the runners.
The Encore Entertainment headliner is Runaway June. Greg Pratt and Angie Rey have been added to the finish line bands.
Day 2 events
Along with the marathon and half-marathon, Saturday's events include the 5K and 10K runs.
The rest of the events will be on Sunday, including the KiDS Rock Race at Nissan Stadium, the Doggie Dash in which more than 1,000 dogs are expected to participate, the 1-mile adult run/walk and a performance by DJ Pete.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Rock 'n' Roll Nashville Marathon 2023 road closures, route, music
