I came into this race the same as I have the previous two years. i.e. - completely undertrained and unprepared physically. My longest run since the end of July was around 10 miles and in August and September I only ran just over 100 miles each month with most of the September mileage from 3 separate races (when I would normally run well over 200 for each month in marathon training). I was simply banking on the previous 5 times running in the event and my base established over the last 5 years of running knowing that the last portion of the race was going to hurt like hell and be a struggle. Oh well, at least I knew what was coming! ;-P

Lined up behind the 3:10 pace group as I knew I'd be out of the mess of people by being toward the front and that I could get out and stretch the legs the first few miles to see how the day would go. Similar to the approach the last two years. Gun went off and settled in with the 3:10 group. First mile was around 7:30, second was about 7:25 and third was similar where I started to let the pace group slip away. I had no intention of trying to run with them especially since the legs felt really flat and I was going slower than last year.

They tweaked the course this year and you ran further up into Druid Hill park and by the Zoo compared to the years before. So I got to see some parts of the city that I normally hadn't run in on this portion. Still fairly draggy, but holding steady in the 7:2X range for splits and my HR was steady in the 150's. I did not take my medication before the race of couse as that always kicks my butt, so it was able to creep up a little higher than if I had used it (still nowhere near the 170's I usually would be for a marathon).

Up until mile 15 or so things were uneventful as usual. Got to see Carlos and Pekka from the Howard County Striders relay team right before their first exchange. They kicked azz of course and won the overall relay title. Those guys are crazy fast! Tried to see anyone I may have known at the half start where I ran through at 1:37:12 (about 4 minutes down on last year) but it was just a sea of people so I just continued on the run.

Once you make the turn out of the Canton area at mile 15.5 or so it becomes uphill until around 20. Combined with the really strong wind and the fact that it was starting to lightly rain made for a really tough stretch. I had to dig deep to just continue on and was getting buffeted around by the wind and caught by the lead half marathoners. I started really struggling around mile 17-ish compared to last year where it was not until 21 whe I started having problems. I dug in and soldiered on though.

Once we got onto 33rd street and passed 22 miles I knew most of the course was generally downhill. I was checking the watch and knew that going under 3:30 was a good possibility but it was getting tougher to hold a decent pace. After mile 24 I mentally just needed to walk. Legs were not locking up or cramping, just needed to get my head back together and get ready for the final push. I probably walked only about 400 meters or so and then got back to running again. It was enough to allow me to run to the finish.

As I was going down Eutaw through Camden Yards I heard the announcer saying we had just over a minute to break 3:30, so I dug deep and picked it up to get in under the buzzer. No real reason other than pride as that time really doesn't mean anything, but I pushed it and made it across under the clock.

#8 marathon finish. 5th time at B-More. Done.

Ummmmm, train???

I was wiped at the end. Grabbed a big cup of Gatorage and a bottled water, got my medal and mylar wrap and got the hell out of the crowd! Then I sat down on a curb and attempted to eat my crab soup (which normally would be awesome, but tasted like crap at the time) out of the way of everyone walking around. After about 15 minutes I got up and walked toward the changing tent. I ran into my old boss and chatted very briefly (he finished about a minute behind me) but I was not doing well at all and needed to sit down so I excused myself and went to get my stuff. I spent about 20 minutes in the changing tent just sitting there and trying to keep from passing out. The bottle of water helped and I finally got changed into dry clothes and got on the road to home.


No long runs since July. Not much other training for the last two months. Weather was a bit of a factor and not enough fluids.


Continues to be a great race and growing larger and larger. The amount of people in the half is staggering. Twice what there is in the full marathon. They do a really good job keeping things separated so that it is not a congested cluster F when they merge. I am not sure if I am going to do it again as I now have 5 finishes at the race and while it is nice, it is starting to be wearing not training for it and still trying to have a solid run. Marathon training takes a lot out of you and I haven't seriously trained for one since Jan/Feb in '08. But I got this one done, still finished top 10% overall on almost no training with a heart condition. Final placings were 33/315 for AG, 188/2014 for males, 221/3118 overall finishers. Really not far off of last year even though I was 8 minutes slower! Times were down across the board though because of the weather. Not too shabby.