Baltimore Running Festival - Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Race plan was designed around a 1:46 finish, so I had to maintain an 8-min-mile pace as long as possible, survive the uphills, and mash the final downhill 5K.

Miles 0-3: Focused on managing HR (through PRE). Got chicked at Mile 1 by a woman who was on the news because she did Kona (in like 10:30 or something) two weeks ago and was doing the HM for the heck of it. Needless to say never saw her again. :-)
24:00 at this point, perfect pace. Side note: Hard to believe this my 5K race pace in March.

Mile 4: Joined the Marathoners. Starting uphill but still pretty flat; maintained pace at 8:10, great fan support by the neighborhood folks (high-five teams, people playing drums, etc.).

Mile 5: Up to Johns Hopkins, tried hard to keep the HR/PRE down and maintain some sort of pace. More-or-less successful but glutes, groin, and hamstrings are getting a little tight. Didn't remember seeing the mile marker but figured about 8:20.

Mile 6: Almost all uphill, tried to keep an 8:30 pace but just couldn't do it and wanted to keep down the HR. Ran it at 9:15, stopped at the aid station to drink water and stretch hamstrings and glutes. 49:45 so far, a little behind where I wanted to be but I'll mash miles 6.5-8 to make up for it.

Mile 7: Uphill first 1/3 mile was miserable, tough headwind and legs were really tightening up. Steep downhill 1/3 I used to get the HR down. Last 1/3 started to mash the Montebello loop. Was very hard to get legs going quickly on the flat..would only get worse.

Mile 8: Mashing the Montebello mile, ran this pretty hard, focused on turnover speed and running the tangents. Waved to the WBAL news helicopter. 1:06 at this point, not going to make 1:45, but still can hit 1:48.

Mile 9: The Miserable Mile. Uphill almost the whole way, felt awful, got passed by like 100 runners. Stopped at the aid station to drink some water and stretch legs that were no longer speaking to me.

Mile 10: Recovered some here and was able to pick up the pace. TONS of cheering fans here plus lots of "unauthorized" course aid: gummi bears, soda, ICE COLD BEER!!! (should've just quit and joined them...). Got to the 10-mile mark at 1:23:24. Downhill 5K in 25:00 would get me to 1:48 and change.

Mile 11: Time to mash the final 5K. No, really, legs, time to mash the final 5K! No response. Thankfully this mile is downhill so I don't die. Finished my 24-ounce Gatorade I've been sipping from the whole race. Abs/stomach are starting to cramp up now. Great, now 75% of the muscles in my body hurt instead of just 50%. Managed to keep at 8:00 pace through this mile but that was misleading because it's all downhill.

Mile 12: Up the bridge pass the mile 11 mark, stopped to stretch. Down the steep hill on the other side. Stopped to stretch. Shuffled up the 1/2 mile incline past the Meyerhoff and U of B area (toughest hill on the course). Made the left onto Eutaw Street and up the hill to mile marker 12. Ran this in about 9:15, every step is miserable, I just want to fall down. Oh, and it's time to kick the mile downhill to the finish.

Mile 13: You can see the everything in front of you. It's downhill. There are thousands of fans screaming. Legs are beginning to respond...slightly. Left leg is almost useless because groin/hip area are so stiff. I normally have a very strong kick at races, but not today. It was a struggle to just to maintain race pace through this stretch. Came down through Camden Yards to the thousands of screaming fans on the 1/4 finish. Saw my daughter with her sign and waved to her and the wife; smiled and pretended to be enjoying myself. Hit 1:50 about 100 yards from finish but just didn't have the kick to make it. Strided out the finish at 1:50:23, PR by over 3 1/2 minutes and just fine considering how I felt the final 5 miles.

I'm not sure what caused the cramping/stiffness. Never really experienced it before, but I'm guessing my hydration/nutrition had something to do with. I gotta figure this out if I ever hope to go long distance in the triathlons.

I gave everything I had, and it was a great day out there with great race support from the fans and volunteers.

Limped around the recovery area. Drank some Gatorade endurance and some water. Didn't eat anything (I usually can't eat for 15-30 minutes after a race). Found the girls and limped more noticeably to the car about 3/4 mile away. Drove home, took a hot bath (legs started to un-cramp). At a turkey sandwich and a beer for lunch.

Shortly after, my stomach went haywire and I spend the rest of the afternoon into the evening double-over with cramps and GI distress on the couch. Couldn't eat anything until about 6:30 when I had some chicken soup and crackers. Fell asleep at 9 p.m. while watching the Phillies game (glad I didn't watch the whole thing...ugh!). Slept almost 9 hours and feel MUCH better this morning as I type this.


The plan was right, the execution was right, but the legs just didn't have it for a dream race. 1:50:23 is a PR by quite a bit, so I can't be disappointed. I was hoping for something in the 1:47 or 1:48 range but miles 3-6.5 wore me out, and mile 9 crushed me. Combined with having no kick, I think the 1:50 was great.

I have a feeling something is wrong with my hydration/nutrition plan. I drank one full 24-ounce Gatorade in the hour before the race, plus one during the race. I also had probably 16-20 oz. of aid station water throughout the race. So, that's about 48 oz. of liquid throughout a 2-hour race, but maybe I had too much to begin with. I had no such troubles on my training runs, or the 2-hour triathlon I did, or the 10K I did three weeks ago. Maybe an electrolyte problem? Gotta figure this before I do longer tri's next season.

On an ending note, I LOVE this race. The fan support throughout the course is awesome, even in the less-advantaged neighborhoods where they are offering water bottles they bought themselves. The finish through Camden Yards to M&T Bank stadium with thousands of cheering fans can't be beat. The size of this race is perfect (22K runners). You feel like you're in a big city race like NYC or Boston, but it's manageable (in theory I could leave my house at 9:00 a.m. and be there in time for the 9:45 start). There are five different races (full marathon, half marathon, 4-person relay marathon, the 5K, and a kid's run), so everyone can participate in the fun.