{"id":14807,"date":"2014-05-20T04:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T08:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smarttan.com\/news\/?p=14807"},"modified":"2014-05-21T09:45:59","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T13:45:59","slug":"the-nashville-convention-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.smarttan.com\/index.php\/the-nashville-convention-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nashville Convention ‘Marathon’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people consider Smart Tan’s Nashville convention and trade show to be the industry’s equivalent of a marathon. For James Whipple, Smart Tan’s 2013 convention<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> was actually two marathons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"JamesWhipple-Run\"<\/span><\/a>Whipple is a dedicated competitive runner in his free time. Smart Tan’s most recent convention just happened to coincide with the running of the Nashville<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> Marathon. So Whipple stood all day working the trade show floor in the PC Tan<\/strong> booth after spending the morning running the 26.2 mile marathon.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I had no intention of running a marathon in Nashville since I had just completed one 4 weeks prior in New Hampshire,” Whipple recalled. “Smart Tan’s Joe Levy sent me a message on facebook<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> about a marathon that weekend. I looked at the details and figured, “What the heck?” Seeing as the race started a few blocks from the hotel at 7 a.m. and<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> I didn’t have to be on the floor until 11:30 a.m. how<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> could I pass it up?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, and did we mention he won<\/em> the race?<\/span>
\n Whipple\u00a0technically finished<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> second in the event. But a poorly marked course and no on-course marshals led to a wrong turn and some backtracking<\/span><\/span>. “From the start until about mile 13 I had a bike and a police escort<\/span><\/span> in front of me,” Whipple recalled<\/span><\/span>. “The bike escort stopped at mile 9 and the police escort stopped at mile 13. At mile 15 I came to a slight left\/right and had to guess. There were no signs or arrows. A mile later I ended up at mile 21 and knew there was an issue.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He backtracked<\/span><\/span> and finished 59 seconds behind the first-place finisher, but<\/span><\/span> actually kept a faster pace than the winner. “The race director called me to apologize,” Whipple said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whipple’s account of<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013 \u2014 the day Smart Tan Downtown opened:<\/span><\/p>\n