Tennessee Run for the Fallen brings remembrance run to Kingston Springs

The Tennessee Run for the Fallen brought its 72-mile remembrance run to Kingston Springs’ Burns Park Sept. 26 and 27, marking the fifth year of the Tennessee event.

Organized through the Tennessee chapter of Honor and Remember, the annual run honors Tennessee service members who died while serving their country or as a result of their service. Runners carried the names of the fallen and stopped approximately every mile to read them aloud.

Historically, the event has been 130 miles.

The event previously followed a route from outside Fort Campbell through Burns, Franklin and Smyrna before finishing in Nashville. This year, the entire run took place on a loop at Burns Park.

Jack Arnold, director of the Tennessee State Chapter of Honor and Remember, said the change was made primarily for safety and to make it easier for Gold Star families to participate.

In previous years, runners traveled along roadways with law enforcement escorts, but traffic created dangerous situations and made it difficult for families to coordinate meeting the runners along the route.

“We have almost been killed by cars,” Arnold said. “The last two years that we've done it, we have had cars, even with law enforcement protection and lights behind us, come between our trail vehicle, which is clearly marked for runners, and our front vehicle, even though they're close together, and basically have us dodging out of the way.”

The Tennessee list currently includes 449 service members, 444 service men and women and 5 first responders, who have died serving their country since the beginning of the Global War on Terror. 

Participants carried the U.S. flag, Tennessee flag, Honor and Remember flag and the Honor and Sacrifice flag for fallen first responders.

Runners could participate for only a portion of the route rather than completing the entire 72 miles.

“You could take a one mile turn or a two mile turn, and then pass it off to somebody else,” Arnold said.

The event covered 72 miles over the two days. No new gold star families were able to attend the event, but Arnold plans to travel across the state the remainder of this year to present three families with personalized flags.