2011 Baltimore Marathon Recap

Well, I did it. 26.2 miles. It wasn't pretty, but I finished, and that's all that matters. Here's how it went:

4am - Wake up, eat breakfast (two pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and a banana). I wanted to eat early so I had enough time for everything to get digested and be able to clear my system before the start of the race.

~6 am - Leave for Baltimore. It's about a 45 minute drive, so we should get there about an hour early. Well, the directions for how to get to the parking lot from the freeway weren't exactly clear, so it took us a bit longer to figure it out, but we still got there in plenty of time.

First order of business, find a bathroom. M&T Bank Stadium (where the Raven's play) was open, and much closer to where we parked, so that's where I went to use the facilities. Unfortunately, there was a really long line, so I ended up waiting about 15 minutes, meaning I had less time to stretch and make my way to the starting line.

~7:50 - Time to start making my way to the starting line, and it's really crowded and people are not moving too quickly towards it, so of course, I start freaking out a little, because I don't want to miss the race. And of course, I get there a little late, but fortunately, there's a ton of people running, so I just kinda  jump into the middle of the pack and go.

Off I go...

One of the things that kinda sucks about the start of a marathon, is you have a ton of people of varying running abilities all crowded together - in this case 5,000 - and it's impossible to move through people to get enough room to run. Plus, I didn't want to waste energy weaving in and out of people, so I kinda just went a pace that easy enough to hold in the amount of room I had.

My original goal was to try to be under 4 hours, which means I would have to average around 9 minutes per mile. I planned on going out rather conservatively and just run at an easy, relaxed pace to save energy. As it would turn out, the longer you run, the harder it is to pick up the pace (who would've that would be the case?).

One thing about the Baltimore Marathon course is that it's extremely hilly. You can tell, by looking at the course elevation map, but in no way does that prepare you for what you actually face when running the race. The hills aren't too steep, but they go on for miles...and miles... And when you add in gusts of wind over 35 mph in all directions, it's not a fun time.

But back to the race. Around the 3rd or 4th mile, we ran through the Baltimore Zoo, which was even cooler than I thought it was going to be. They had a bunch of the handlers out with various zoo animals. There was a raven, an alligator (about 3 feet or so), a penguin, a rooster (they have roosters at zoos??), and probably the largest rabbit I've ever seen. Seriously, it was about the size of a beagle. It had to have weighted close to or over 20 pounds.

Any chance I had during the race, I was giving people on the sides high fives. The crowd support was amazing. They definitely helped get me through it, and boy would I need it.

Around mile 9, I started feeling a little tight in my legs, nothing too bad, but of course I started thinking about how it was already mile 9 and I was showing signs struggling. Not the kind of attitude you want to have when you're running 26.2 miles. I kept pushing on, trying to only stop to walk for the water/gatorade stations.

I was able to continue at a reasonable pace for the next few miles, but just after the halfway point, I really started to feel it, and those thoughts started to creep back into my head. I'll be honest, I definitely was not as prepared for this race as I could have been. I had missed a decent amount of training in the last month and a half, and it definitely showed.

By around mile 15, I was mostly walking, and it was a struggle to maintain any sort of forward movement faster than walking pace, but I kept telling myself that there was no way I was going to quit and I was going to make it to the finish by any means necessary. I had figured out long ago that my pre-race goal of breaking 4 minutes was extremely foolish. It's one thing to hold an 8 minute mile pace for 5-8 miles (which I had been able to do during training), but doing it for 26.2 miles is a completely different story.

~Mile 18, near complete mental breakdown. I seriously felt like I was going to die. My feet were killing me, I was having trouble sustaining any sort of running pace (if you can even call it that at this point) and I all want to do is be done with this nonsense. Ok, stop that, gotta keep moving forward, just keep moving forward, you're going to make it, just don't stop moving.

After another mile or so, I started to calm down and was even able to run for the better part of a mile. Then a giant hill, and we run around a lake that's probably about a mile and a quarter all around. While it was beautiful running along the lake, the lack of buildings does nothing for stopping the wind. It was blowing in all directions and every time I started to build a solid rhythm, it seemed like the wind was always in my face. But still I soldiered on. No giving up at this point, not when I'm getting so close to being done.

More hills, and then around mile 23, probably the most glorious sight: a long, straight, downhill section. And as it turned out, it was mostly downhill the rest of the way.

The finishing stretch was probably my favorite part of the race, for obvious reasons, but what was really cool was that we got to run though Camden Yards (the Orioles stadium). I had only been to Camden Yards once previously, and it's probably my second or third favorite ballpark that I've been to (AT&T being my favorite of course). After you cross the street, there's a huge gate leading into the ballpark, and there was a police officer there encouraging everyone as they ran by and he said what were probably the best words of encouragement I heard all race: "only 300 meters to go!" At that point, I was already moving at a pretty strong pace (I had been ever since the stadium was in sight), and when I heard him say that, I went into full overdrive. Those last 300 meters I felt stronger than I've ever felt before. I was 300 meters from completing my goal. The finish line was literally in sight, and I was going to give everything I had left to get across it as fast as possible.

Almost there!

And then, it was over. I had done it. 26.2 grueling miles. It took everything I had to make it through it, but I finished and I'm pretty proud to say that I now I have done something that less than 1% of Americans will ever do in their lifetime. A saying I saw on countless shirts of other runners in the marathon: "Pain is temporary, but pride is forever". That couldn't be more true. I have never felt any amount of pain that I felt the last 8 miles and after the race, but I know that nothing can take away the fact that I finished it.


Aside from the amazing crowd support, there was also great support from the Baltimore Police Department, who were stationed at every intersection to ensure that nobody was able to drive across the course while there were people running.

There were also a number of interesting characters running the race, from a guy in a powder blue tuxedo, a guy who juggled 4 bean bags the ENTIRE time, and all the various get-ups that people were wearing. It really was an amazing experience, event if it wasn't always a pleasant one.

All in all, I'm glad I did it. It didn't necessarily turn out the way I thought or wanted it to, but like I said already, I finished it and that's all that really matters.

Is it something I would do again? For right now, I can't say. It was a great experience, but I don't know if I really want to put myself through that again. Of course, if I were to prepare fully for it the next time, I'm sure it would work out a lot better.

Juggling Guy

Powder Blue Tux Guy

Success.

9 Days.

As I get nearer to my first marathon, I find myself becoming consumed by it. I'm constantly thinking about it, checking the BRF Facebook page, hell, I'm even having dreams about running in it. I'm so excited for it to be next Saturday because a) I'll finally be running my first marathon, b) I'll be done with my first marathon, and c) I can get into the gym and back to normal activities. That last one is basically because this taper is starting to make me a little stir-crazy.

Next week is definitely going to be hard for me to focus because with every passing day, I'll be one day closer to my marathon, and it's going to be difficult to sleep. However, given my experiences swimming in big championship meets in college, I think I should be able to manage relatively well. Granted, a marathon is a completely different monster, and a totally new experience, but I figure I'll likely not get a ton of sleep the last few nights anyway, so as long as I keep myself well hydrated and stretch a lot, I should be ok.

Next Thursday and Friday is the BRF Health and Fitness Expo. Basically it's where you go to pick up your race bib and get your goody bag, as well as check out all the cool things the vendors have on display and for sale. While there will be many shoe companies with the latest, top-of-the-line running shoes available, this is not the place to buy the shoes you run your marathon in. It's probably not even where you'd want to buy shoes for a 5k you'd be running one or two days later. Besides all the featured products, etc. that are available, there are also a lot of other cool services and amenities that the BRF offers,  most notably the GEICO pace groups, which provide experienced marathoners who will pace whoever signs up for the group to a specific time (I think it's in ten minute intervals from 3 hours to 4 hours, and then fifteen minute intervals from 4 hours to 5:15). I'm still trying to debate whether or not I want to sign up for one of these, mostly because I'm not sure I want to even-split the entire race, and I also want to be able to listen to my playlist and focus on my own race. I would like to be able to have some sort of pacing besides my watch, so I might try to tag along with a group until I decide to pick up or ease up on my pace. Another service offered by the Baltimore Running Festival is the ability for people to track runners via text message or e-mail, which is perfect for me since none of my family will be able to attend the race. For those interested, go to this website and enter my name into the runner info. It will give you updates when I cross the halfway point (13.1 miles), 19.5 miles, and when I finish. If you sign up for text updates, it says you have to respond to the text message they send you when you register in order for it to actually work.

In other news, the 49ers are 3-1! Even after they started 2-1, I was still pretty skeptical because both their wins were rather unconvincing, and they lost a game to Cowboys, who never should have had the chance to come back into that game. But all that aside, they really showed me, and other Niner faithful something this past weekend when they scored 21 straight points to overcome a 20-point second half deficit against a team in the Philadelphia Eagles that in the preseason it seemed everyone (including themselves) was picking to go to, and probably even to win the Super Bowl. I'm not going to get overly excited, because there's still three-quarters of the season left, and thus plenty of time for them to blow it, but I must say that at this point, I am pleasantly surprised and cautiously optimistic that they will have a good season. That being said, they also do play in the NFC West, which is in all honesty the worst division in the NFL, which should give them a pretty decent chance of winning it and making it to the playoffs.

Today is also the first day of the NHL regular season, and while the Sharks have been perennial regular season dominators and postseason chokers, I have a feeling this year could finally be the year they put it all together and win it all. I also thought last year they were going to ride the momentum of the Giants' World Series victory to a Stanley Cup, but...they didn't.

There's a decent chance I might go to Spain the first week in April (my cousin Tyler is spending a year there teaching English in Cuenca, Spain, you can read about his adventures here), depending on my finances and airfare. I'm pretty excited about the prospect, and even though it would only be a week, it would still be awesome. Traveling in and around Europe is relatively cheap, so there's also the possibility of visiting other countries as well, but again, it would only be a week, and there's only so much you can do in a week, so I wouldn't want to spread myself too thin.

Well, back to marathon stuff. Even though I haven't even run my first marathon yet, I'm already highly considering registering for the 2012 San Francisco Marathon, which is at the end of July. Obviously I have to wait and see how next Saturday goes, and based on that experience decide whether or not I want to do it. It would be perfect though, since if I end up going to Spain, the week I get back would begin my 16-week marathon prep cycle. But again, I'll have to wait and see if I even enjoy myself and determine if it's something I want to do again. However, chances are since I already have the idea in my head, any positive (or basically anything other than totally abysmal) experience will probably lead to me registering with a week (let's be honest, probably the next day). Plus, it'll be another chance for me to get home for a couple days.

And while I'm on the subject of endurance events, I'm also thinking about registering for the DC/Maryland Tough Mudder and/or the Maryland Warrior Dash. If you're not familiar with these events, they're trail races (with lots of mud) with a bunch of obstacles. They're essentially the same, except that the Warrior Dash is about 5k (3.1 miles) and the Tough Mudder varies between 9-12 miles (for those interested, more info here and here).

Well, that was definitely more than I was planning to talk about, and I likely won't provide any updates until my blow-by-blow recap of the marathon (hopefully to come the Sunday after the race but I'm not making any promises). Wish me luck!