I may have said that every half marathon that I have done will be the last. Time and time again, I make some grandiose statement to Tom that this “one” means this to me, and this is why it will be my last. And I will promise no more!

I lied.

Not intentionally though. I really do mean it in the moment.

But then things happen.

After every race, I am on a high and go searching for that next race. After a few weeks, I begin getting stir crazy and want to have another race to aim for. I feel it in my gut to go after that next medal.

I am addicted to race day!

Although much like my last race, I need to be realistic about how I train and how I run. I probably will never PR again because I want to be able to use my knees when I am forty.

So what is a girl to do?

Get creative.

I have signed up for my next race in April. This one in Nashville will be my fifth half marathon.

There is a twist though.

I ran my very first half marathon with my sister-in-law. “With” being an operative word. She came in under 2 hours, which is much faster than I ever hope to run.

But the fact is she was a big reason that I started running and signing up for races in the first place, so I suggested doing this one actually with her, especially knowing her infatuation with Nashville. Plus, neither of us really grew up with a sister (we both had younger pesky brothers), so it will be fun to do some sisterly bonding with her.

Instead of running for a PR, we decided to do a scavenger hunt while on the course.

Yes you read that right. We are going to do a 13.1 mile scavenger hunt.

We will run some of it for sure, but it is meant to be all for fun and doing something different together.

So for 13.1 miles we are going to be on the lookout to pose with just a few things.

• port a potty
• someone dressed as a character
• cheer team
• band
• a cop
• someone in a military uniform
• best road signs
• historic places
• Nashville icons
• best road side snack
• beer stop
• water stop
• start/finish

We may not find all these, and we may add others along the way. We will be taking tons of pictures regardless.

We are also going to be dressing up in costume to fit the Nashville country theme. So that will be entertaining.

I am really looking forward to it.

And who knows maybe this will be my last one. I like that it would end on my fifth race. Five is a nice round number to me.

We’ll see a couple months into the summer how I am feeling after the fact.

Here’s to Em and I taking over Nashville one scavenger hunt item at a time!

Do you have ideas to add to our list? Anyone else running a race soon?