Before the Race
Race weekend started with volunteering the first day of the expo (Thursday.) While we waited for the expo to open, I got my own bib and shirt since there was plenty of time and everything was setup. I helped with packet pickup at the later marathon numbers and the early half marathon numbers. It was nearly a constant stream of people coming through but it made the shift go quickly. I spent a little bit of time going visiting vendors and said hi to the new Balega rep and a friend who sells Bondi Bands at expos. (I also got a few new bands!)
I also remembered that Michael Wardian, a DC ultra runner who recently ran the fastest known time for the C&O Canal Towpath, was going to be doing meet and greets at the Medstar booth. He's also a runner I keep just barely missing meeting--I follow him (and his dog) on Instagram. Most recently a friend and I cheered for him as he finished the B.A.A. 5k but we were still in the chute to start the race when he started walking over to say hi. So I finally got to actually say hello to him before leaving the expo.
The next day I did a shakeout run with some of the ladies in the Oiselle Volee, and it was lots of fun getting to catch up with some friends and get to meet some new ones.
Afterwards we went to Nando's Peri Peri for dinner. I knew my husband was going to make dinner, so I just had hummus with vegetables and pita. (It was awesome and I found out they have bottomless Dole Whips for $2.95! I didn't take advantage of it, but I took a mental note so I could later.) Once I got home I saw my husband made a super simple dinner--chicken, pasta and he warmed up a couple different sauce options.
After dinner I got everything together for the next morning. It looked like the weather was going to be perfect! Upper 40s at the start, low 50s by the time I was done and overcast with clouds clearing out. I was a little nervous, but I call it "having a healthy respect for the distance and the race." I knew I could do the distance because I had 10 times already. But I was torn about how my training had went. My longest run was a 10 miler broken up into 4 pieces--a run to my OrangeTheory, the workout itself, a mile tacked on the way back from OrangeTheory then making up the extra distance on the treadmill. Even in the worst case scenario, I knew I could finish faster than my worst time (2:56:04 at the Blue Ridge Half Marathon because you go up and down 2 mountains), and definitely faster than the 5 hour cutoff. Best case scenario, I wanted to finish in 2:30 since my previous finish time was around 2:35. This was not my goal race but it was a test to see where my fitness was to see if 2:15 was within my grasp. (Seriously, Baltimore is not for PRs.)
As far as clothing went, I wore a flyout long sleeve from Oiselle, my Oiselle singlet, Be Free Knickers from Athleta and the latest pair of silver socks from Balega. I also packed up my usual coin purse from Blue Q packed with my id, some cash and a credit card, threw my Honey Stinger chews into a snack sized plastic bag, my Aftershokz, Garmin, and Road ID into a bag that I could grab and take with me in the morning. After putting a tablet of my favorite cherry limeade Nuun in a water bottle, it was time to go to bed!
Then 15 minutes passed, we still hadn't moved and there was no indication on when we would move. By now it was getting close to 8:20, so I was starting to get nervous even though there was still plenty of time for the 9:45 gun time. There were quite a few people who were running the half marathon and we started strategizing. Some people had overly hydrated that morning and needed to use the bathroom. Are there bathrooms in the station? (No.) How far is it to the start? (Three miles.) I had a few friends running, so I started scouring social media for anything. Then on an event in one of my running groups a friend had posted that a car was stuck on the tracks in front of Camden Yards and it was difficult to move because it was stuck on top of the tracks. Not perpendicularly, but parallel to the tracks. A couple people confirmed it because the race start was closest to the Camden Yards stop. The car was not moving. I told the others what I had read and after a few minutes of waiting the train moved to the stop closest to Camden Yards. Such a weird start to the morning, and it threw me off a little bit.
Awesome. I knew where we were, and we walked to the start of the half marathon. It was still a ways away, but if that was as close we could get I was okay with it. Crisis averted! I managed to find a friend and we took a group picture with one of my running groups. Then we explored the finisher's village a little bit and said hi to one of our favorite OrangeTheory coaches for a final pep talk before heading to the start.
I got lined up and my music ready to go with my usual go-to race playlist. Then as the wave ahead of mine started to run, the arch started to collapse just enough to raise a little bit of alarm. Thankfully the race staff got the arch back up so it didn't fully collapse. (This actually happens fairly often. When I worked in the racing industry it happened maybe once every 20 races. It's really no big deal since the majority of the time it's an easy fix.) Then we headed out through the city towards Patterson Park. Around mile 2 I saw a small crowd of people huddled around someone who was convulsing on the ground. He may have been having CPR administered or a seizure (I couldn't see much) but either way shortly after passing him an ambulance came down the race course to reach him. (After the race I found out that he was fine.) After that, I switched my watch to show how much time was left in each interval (rather than overall stats) and run based on feel.
The rest of the race went well. I really pushed myself hard and was determined to finish before 2:30. (Baltimore is known for being a very hilly race which makes it difficult.) I did notice that it seemed that despite the great weather conditions that a lot of people were having medical issues along the route. It could be because it was the first big race I've run in awhile, but it seemed like the medical tents were fairly busy the whole race.
With about 2 miles left I looked down at my Garmin and switched it to the main screen. I thought that I couldn't hit my goal but I'd get really close. Just as I could see the Baltimore Arena and the turn onto Pratt Street was becoming visible I checked one more time. It was going to be super close, but maybe I could make my crazy 2:30 goal? I took a quick walk break before turning the corner. I started to run again but I was feeling gassed. Then somehow in the crowd I locked eyes with one of my Oiselle teammates, saw her cheering for me, and suddenly the chant we said at Bird Camp during the track workout with Lauren Fleshman popped into my head: "Give 'em Hell! Oiselle!" Like magic, my legs to shut up and I ran like hell to the finish. As I crossed the finish I stopped my Garmin and looked at the time as I hobbled to the runner's village. 2:28:18. I not only hit my goal, I obliterated it.
I grabbed my water (they were HUGE 1 liter bottles) and started eating my banana while I walked along the line grabbing various snacks (pretzels, granola bars, the usual.) I headed straight to the beer garden and grabbed my first (and only) beer. It was all I had time for because I needed to head towards home because I had a flight to catch. I ran into another Oiselle teammate and we caught up for a few minutes before I headed towards the OrangeTheory tent. I couldn't wait to tell my coach what happened! She was overjoyed as well but the celebration was short lived since I had to get out of there ASAP to catch a plane. I went from the light rail to my car to the airport and told my husband to grab a couple things I left out and met him at the airport. (No, I didn't shower. Yes, it felt super gross and I threw on a sweatshirt to try and hold in the stink. It's probably the one time I felt totally justified taking the window seat.)
As far as clothing went, I wore a flyout long sleeve from Oiselle, my Oiselle singlet, Be Free Knickers from Athleta and the latest pair of silver socks from Balega. I also packed up my usual coin purse from Blue Q packed with my id, some cash and a credit card, threw my Honey Stinger chews into a snack sized plastic bag, my Aftershokz, Garmin, and Road ID into a bag that I could grab and take with me in the morning. After putting a tablet of my favorite cherry limeade Nuun in a water bottle, it was time to go to bed!
Race Morning
Race prep that morning went off normally. Checked my email, got dressed, then left a little earlier and drove to the light rail station. I drank my usual Nuun on the drive over, parked, got my rail ticket. Heard some announcement about there being a delay, but at that point in my mind it didn't really matter--I was at the light rail and that was one of the harder parts of the commute into Baltimore. I got onto the slightly earlier train and took a seat by the window. After a couple of stops, we stopped and the conductor came over the speaker and said that there was a delay because they were single tracking at the convention center. Okay, no big deal. Still plenty of time. We stopped near the water so I got to watch some teams practice rowing.Then 15 minutes passed, we still hadn't moved and there was no indication on when we would move. By now it was getting close to 8:20, so I was starting to get nervous even though there was still plenty of time for the 9:45 gun time. There were quite a few people who were running the half marathon and we started strategizing. Some people had overly hydrated that morning and needed to use the bathroom. Are there bathrooms in the station? (No.) How far is it to the start? (Three miles.) I had a few friends running, so I started scouring social media for anything. Then on an event in one of my running groups a friend had posted that a car was stuck on the tracks in front of Camden Yards and it was difficult to move because it was stuck on top of the tracks. Not perpendicularly, but parallel to the tracks. A couple people confirmed it because the race start was closest to the Camden Yards stop. The car was not moving. I told the others what I had read and after a few minutes of waiting the train moved to the stop closest to Camden Yards. Such a weird start to the morning, and it threw me off a little bit.
Awesome. I knew where we were, and we walked to the start of the half marathon. It was still a ways away, but if that was as close we could get I was okay with it. Crisis averted! I managed to find a friend and we took a group picture with one of my running groups. Then we explored the finisher's village a little bit and said hi to one of our favorite OrangeTheory coaches for a final pep talk before heading to the start.
I got lined up and my music ready to go with my usual go-to race playlist. Then as the wave ahead of mine started to run, the arch started to collapse just enough to raise a little bit of alarm. Thankfully the race staff got the arch back up so it didn't fully collapse. (This actually happens fairly often. When I worked in the racing industry it happened maybe once every 20 races. It's really no big deal since the majority of the time it's an easy fix.) Then we headed out through the city towards Patterson Park. Around mile 2 I saw a small crowd of people huddled around someone who was convulsing on the ground. He may have been having CPR administered or a seizure (I couldn't see much) but either way shortly after passing him an ambulance came down the race course to reach him. (After the race I found out that he was fine.) After that, I switched my watch to show how much time was left in each interval (rather than overall stats) and run based on feel.
The rest of the race went well. I really pushed myself hard and was determined to finish before 2:30. (Baltimore is known for being a very hilly race which makes it difficult.) I did notice that it seemed that despite the great weather conditions that a lot of people were having medical issues along the route. It could be because it was the first big race I've run in awhile, but it seemed like the medical tents were fairly busy the whole race.
With about 2 miles left I looked down at my Garmin and switched it to the main screen. I thought that I couldn't hit my goal but I'd get really close. Just as I could see the Baltimore Arena and the turn onto Pratt Street was becoming visible I checked one more time. It was going to be super close, but maybe I could make my crazy 2:30 goal? I took a quick walk break before turning the corner. I started to run again but I was feeling gassed. Then somehow in the crowd I locked eyes with one of my Oiselle teammates, saw her cheering for me, and suddenly the chant we said at Bird Camp during the track workout with Lauren Fleshman popped into my head: "Give 'em Hell! Oiselle!" Like magic, my legs to shut up and I ran like hell to the finish. As I crossed the finish I stopped my Garmin and looked at the time as I hobbled to the runner's village. 2:28:18. I not only hit my goal, I obliterated it.
I grabbed my water (they were HUGE 1 liter bottles) and started eating my banana while I walked along the line grabbing various snacks (pretzels, granola bars, the usual.) I headed straight to the beer garden and grabbed my first (and only) beer. It was all I had time for because I needed to head towards home because I had a flight to catch. I ran into another Oiselle teammate and we caught up for a few minutes before I headed towards the OrangeTheory tent. I couldn't wait to tell my coach what happened! She was overjoyed as well but the celebration was short lived since I had to get out of there ASAP to catch a plane. I went from the light rail to my car to the airport and told my husband to grab a couple things I left out and met him at the airport. (No, I didn't shower. Yes, it felt super gross and I threw on a sweatshirt to try and hold in the stink. It's probably the one time I felt totally justified taking the window seat.)
Overall Impressions
Admittedly, I have a soft spot for this race because it was my first half marathon. I ran it just after moving to the area in 2013, and after spending so much time in the city it's much more meaningful. The course is amazing but difficult. The crowds are always great. I've generally lucked out with the weather too. My one gripe about the race is the finisher's area. It's wonderful having it on the Inner Harbor, but there just is not enough space for everyone. Friends had warned me about it and I wanted to keep an open mind about it, but it is simply too cramped. I was constantly bumping into people and when you're feeling a bit wobbly already it's pretty much unavoidable. It's not enough to keep me away from the race though! It remains one of my favorites.
Overall I would definitely recommend it but don't go in with serious goals in mind unless you know without a doubt you can make it. (Case in point: I knew there was no way I could have come close to my big scary goal of 2:15 when my PR was 2:25.) It's great for first timers because of all the spectators along the route and the generous cutoff time of 5 hours. It's also great for seasoned half marathoners because no matter how many races you've done, the course is always challenging!
Have you run this race before? What did you think of it? Leave a comment below!
Have you run this race before? What did you think of it? Leave a comment below!
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