I love love LOVED this race. It was by far, the best race I’ve run in Baltimore. Not only did I like the course, but everything seemed to go perfectly.
& just a heads up, I’m not good at keeping race reports short 🙂 #sorryimnotsorry
I was up at 4:30 to get ready so I could leave the house around 5:15. Turns out, 4:30 am is semi-normal wake up time to me now. I guess hitting the gym before work has turned me into a weird early morning person.
I decided in the middle of the night, when I woke up to pee (like clockwork. every. night.) that I wanted to park at a parking garage downtown instead of parking in my usual spot in the city and running a warm up to the buses. I tend to make a lot of decisions in the middle of the night.
So I left my house with plenty of time to spare in case there was an issue with one of the parking garages and I had to use another. I’m not sure, maybe one of them would be full? I like to err on the side of caution. But I got there quickly and parked, read some Runner’s World for a few (it’s slowly becoming routine to read the magazine before races) then hopped out & headed to Powerplant Live! to meet up with Salt of Run Salt Run.
We quickly got to chatting and hopped on the bus to head to the start. The bus ride flew by and soon we were at the Shops at Kenilworth, with an hour to spare before the start. The weather was gorgeous, only in the upper sixties by the time we got there. I couldn’t stop marveling over what luck we had with such a nice morning. I met a few of Salt’s runner friends, including traveling Trish (you name a place and she’s likely done a race there. I’m green with envy.) we hit up the bathroom, and soon it was time to go.
I had two shockingly fantastic runs during the week, and one not so great run, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. In the back of my mind, I secretly wanted a sub-8:00 average pace, but wasn’t sure if today would be a good day, or a bad day. Would my legs feel tired a few miles into the race? My back had been sore all week too- I wasn’t sure how it would feel during and after such a long run. Would I burn out like I’d been doing on the majority of my runs this summer? Or were things looking up?
The first few tenths of the first mile, I was weaving around people like it was my job. But I wasn’t irritated like I had been at the Celtic 5 Miler last winter. I just didn’t feel like starting out so slowly. After about half a mile, I found a good section of people – it wasn’t too crowded, and everyone seemed to be running the pace my legs felt like going.
Until I glanced down and saw a 7:30 pace. Woahhh. I had 11.5 miles to go, I definitely needed to slow down.
My first mile was 8:02. Damn near perfect – but mostly because my start was so slow. I noticed my watch was already off by just over .05 miles from my weaving.
This picture was actually taken much later in the race, but I didn’t want to photobomb the end of this post.
The second mile was mostly downhill, so it was 7:30. I focused on pulling back from the people I was running with in an effort to slow down and take it easy.
I was loving the course – we passed by Towson University, Notre Dame of Maryland University, and Loyola University. The course had rolling hills, and plenty of shade. I felt fantastic.
Funny that my happy run face looks pretty much exactly like my ohmygoshI’mdying face
I continued feeling pretty good, but I wasn’t sure how long the feeling would last. I found myself constantly trying to reel myself in, for fear of just dying halfway through the race.
The third mile was 7:59, and after that I stopped staring at my watch. It was getting further and further off with each mile marker anyway. I was going to let go and see what happened.
The nice thing about not “racing” a race, whether for a PR or place, is I felt no pressure. I walked through the water stops, and wow was it nice not to choke down water (or Gatorade) or end up with half of it running down my neck 🙂
Soon, we entered the city and ran the first few miles there through some sketchy places. Places I would never run through if I hadn’t been in the race. But then we reached Federal Hill, and after that, the Inner Harbor.
Am I the only one who enjoys sharing terrible race photos? I hope someone besides me gets a laugh out of them 🙂
I had no idea how or why I was feeling so great, but I didn’t want to stop. My legs felt great, my breathing was fine, I wasn’t sweating buckets. I just felt so perfect and I wanted the feeling to last forever. Nothing could wipe the smile off my face, though the pictures seem to say otherwise. I guess my smile doesn’t translate well 😉
Finally! The elusive both feet off the ground photo! I’m flying!
My final mile was 7:25, but I was in the middle of kicking it in to the finish when it happened. I got chills – and not the heat exhaustion kind – as I approached the finish line. I couldn’t have pictured a better race experience after a summer spent crying over what felt like failed workouts and many frustrating runs.
MY FACE. If you don’t at least smile at this terrible picture, something may be wrong with you. Note to self: never try to sell a friend on running with my race photos.
I crossed the line in 1:32:14, for a total of 12.13 miles. I could not have been happier. It was such a relief to have 3 good runs in one week! I never felt like I pushed myself during the race – I just ran what felt comfortable, and my body truly felt like mine again. Like how I was used to feel during runs before the summer of stress triggered my tough runs.
A semi-normal looking picture 🙂
Hopefully this means things are well on their way to going back to how they were, but if not, I will admit, it’s pretty fun to run a race with no pressure to PR, and my views of a “good” run have drastically changed (for the better). Plus I had plenty of energy to hang with Salt and Trish and to meet Lisa of Running Out of Wine!
There’s the ponytail my mom always talks about. It was my identifying feature back in my cross country days.
Overall: 139/1747
Age Group (20-29): 15/297
PB & PRs 