2013.10.12 Baltimore Marathon

My brother Matt had let us know he was going to get married in Northern Virginia the weekend of 10/12.  Initially, the ceremony was going to be Friday, 10/11 - but he changed it and said everything was going to happen on 10/12.  Being the resourceful guy i am, i was looking at Marathons and realized that the Baltimore Running Festival was the same weekend.  Once i had cleared with him that we were not expected until 6pm, I locked it in.  Traditionally (even when i was faster) Fall has been a slower marathon time for me - I think I just don't train as well in the heat as I do in the cold.  

Headed up thursday because my dad had lined up a suite at the Capitals/Hurricanes game.  My goal was to be able to roll into baltimore, then drive back to DC, but we were rolling into the DC area about 4pm - so that did not work out and we just ended up going straight to the game.  It was great to go to the game, but we didn't end up rolling into our hotel until about 11pm, and by the time we went to bed it was 1130.   Tyler had also been fighting a cold, and with the number of times he coughed on me, I had a bad feeling that it was only a matter of time before "The Sickness (lol)" took hold.

The next morning i was playing golf with my brothers, cousins and dad, so there was no sleeping in and relaxing.  If i had to describe the weather, I would describe it as a 'Monsoon'.  There were two groups playing the course that day, us, and one other group - we went off of 1, and they went off nine, so the course was ours. We also played as a Six-Some (usually a golf no-no, but since we pretty much owned the course, nobody cared).  I had started to notice a cough and congestion, but nothing too terrible.  After heading back to meet up with my wife and son, we hit the expo and then grabbed dinner at Phillips.  The expo itself was not large, I was kind of disappointed that there weren't a ton of booths or anything - I really enjoy hitting the expos - there's almost always something i'll pick up at them. This one had some really cool stuff, but nothing that I "HAD" to have.   Tried to get to bed early (i think it was around 9 or 10 that we crashed) but in general i didn't sleep all that well - between the congestion, and the bed, i just didn't sleep well.

Race morning I had the alarm set for 530, but I woke up at 5 and realized there was no going back to sleep, so I just got up.  After showering and getting my stuff packed up in case I ran an ungodly slow marathon, I headed downstairs.  It was a relatively cool morning, on again off again spitting rain, but not an awful day for a run.  One of the things i was not a fan of was that the race didn't start until 8am - I'm a big fan of getting up, getting the run done, and getting on with your day.  I found a few folks to speak with to pass the time since i had shown up about 7:15.  Finally, at 8am, the gun went off and the race began.    

Mile 1 - 10:09
Miles 2&3 - 19:38

Missed a mile marker here.

Mile 4 - 10:00

I felt pretty good thru these first four miles.  I was amazed at how much we were climbing in elevation - looking at the elevation profile on my Suunto movescount website, we reached the highest point in the race at mile 3.  The other thing that really struck me was the camber on the road.  It was extremely noticeable, everything seemed to slant to our left - by the time we got to mile four, my sciatica/butt pain was starting to fire up.

Mile 5 - 9:46
Mile 6 - 9:59
Mile 7 - 9:34
Mile 8 - 9:40
Mile 9 - 14:00

One thing that differs between me trying to run a PR and me just running, i am much more likely to stop and hang out for a bit. I saw Gina and tyler somewhere between miles 8 and 9, and then saw my mom and brother in the same stretch.  Dave was getting ready to run the half, so i stopped to talk to both sets of them.  I will say, everytime i stopped, getting going again was hard, because my butt pain would kick back in. The best way to avoid butt pain it appeared was to just keep moving.  The other thing though, once you stop, it is easy to keep stopping...

Mile 10 and part of 11 - 16:14 (this is 10 minute miles)
This part of the race was boring, until we got to Under Armour's Headquarters - that place was AWESOME.  Next time I am in Baltimore, I will make it a point to go to UA HQ (assuming it is open to the public), that place just looked cool - and i really like a lot of their technical fabric materials.  It is the same reason I would love to go to Oakley's HQ one day.

Rest of Mile 11 - 5:33
Mile 12 - 10:37
Mile 13 - 11:01
.1 for 13.1 - 1:05
Mile 14 - 11:14
Things had started to come unglued around Mile marker 13.  I really never got comfortable in this race, I think part of it is because i was coming down with Tyler's cold, and then the obvious reason is that I didn't do the necessary work to get myself prepared.

Mile 15 - 13:22
Mile 16 - 11:50
Mile 17 - 13:55
It was around here that i came to realize that the residents of Baltimore haven't quite warmed up to the race just yet. Traffic was snarled all around the race course, and at one point a whole line of folks just started laying on their horns - resulting in a bunch of folks yelling at each other.  It was slightly amusing.  Later in the course i heard a guy on his cell phone sitting at a cross street go "These Da*n runners are tying up all the traffic!"  I didn't see signs indicating the race route like I do in Cincinnati, not sure if that would help any, but if the organizers ever see this, it might be worth a thought.

Mile 18 - 16:14
BOOM.....wheels.....cart...UGLY

Mile 19 - 14:09
Mile 20 - 12:30
Mile 21 - 16:19
Mile 22 - 14:45
Mile 23 - 14:16
At this point i thought maybe i could run it in.  It appeared to be mainly downhill and it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other - had a decent split for 24, but 25 was UGLY

Mile 24 - 12:44
Mile 25 - 17:05

Somewhere in here there were two guys dressed as cupid, and one of them had converted a lawn flamingo to a beer bong.  He offered me one, but I wasn't sure how long the beer had been in the flamingo, so I declined.
Also, i saw my brother David who had finished the half, and he ran it in to the mile 26 marker with me (he claims he ran an extra mile, I don't agree :-D)
Mile 26 - 13:44
.2 for 26.2 - 2:09 (funny how when you know you are close to the end you can force yourself to run)

Gun time - 5:22:47
Chip Time - 5:21:37 for a New Personal Worst.

Overall, I enjoyed the race - I definitely want another shot at this one.  The course was really good, it is a beautiful run thru a beautiful city.  My hope is that I'll get to tackle this one again.  The gear and slogans are among the best I have seen - Baltimore has a really awesome logo, "Blue the crab", and one of the best shirts they have says"We put the Hon in Marathon".  I would have liked more time in the city on Saturday instead of having to rush to Northern VA - but the marathon was really external to the real reason we were in the area.  The main reason to be up there was to go to my brother's wedding (which was wonderful!).