I met Tarek at around 6:50-ish at the Johnny U. statue in front of the stadium and waited for Ernie (ejc999) to give him his race packet that I picked up for him. Met him at 7 and chatted as we shivered in the cold. I was hoping to also meet up with Tim (Scout7) but since we didn’t know what to look for we never hooked up. I had brought 8 chilled Guinness Draught cans and 4 pint glasses to imbibe after the race, so wanted to hook up with him to make sure we recognized each other afterwards. Oh well, that didn’t happen (but he did have a great race and posted a fantastic time).
My main goal for this race was solely to support Tarek through his first marathon and let him benefit from my running and marathon experience. My big marathon is not for another 6 weeks so I knew that I could run this one moderately easily as a long training run and not over-stress my system for the Nov. event (attempting to go for a Boston Qualifying time of 3:15:59 or better at that race). Ernie decided to give it a go with us and we stay with our pace as long as possible. So we walked to the start and lined ourselves up with the 4 hour pace group.
The gun goes off and we are shuffling along to cross the timing mats. There are about 2,200 marathoners (that finished) and another 1,000 or so relay participants that all started together. The half-marathoners started later and would merge with the full runners at around our 16 mile mark (which makes for an interesting mix of paces). So it wasn’t TOO crowded at the start, especially compared to the larger races like New York and Chicago, and you could alter your pace a little as needed and weave a bit through traffic without being stuck.
We stay with the 4:00 pace group through the first water stop (which I skipped since I drank a ton before the race) and even with the slow first mile we are not far off pace for breaking the time. When the second stop came along I took a drink and made sure Tarek was focusing on getting in fluids (he had a Vitamin Water he was carrying) even if he didn’t stop. With my acceleration at the stop we put ourselves ahead of the pace group where we stayed for the rest of the run. Tarek needed to pee, so we stopped at the first relay switch located at about the 6.5 mile mark. We told Ernie to go ahead and we’d catch up. We did that about ¾ of a mile later.
The next few miles were uneventful as they were fairly flat and it was a pleasant morning. We ticked off a group of 8:30 – 8:40 miles and I knew that we were above pace and was trying my best to keep the guys in check from getting over exuberant and blow all their energy too soon. There was still a long way to go ……
At mile 9-ish we enter Ft. McHenry which last year was my favorite portion of the course. You’re out on the water, there are no cars and it is quiet and pleasant. But now I had to go as I’d been taking in a lot of fluids as well. So at the 10 mile point where we are just about to leave the fort I hop off into the bathroom on site and tell them I’ll catch up. After leaving the bathroom I finally get to stride it out at my usual pace and was flying past everyone. I got a few dirty looks ;) and a few astonished ones before I caught back up to Ernie and Tarek. It felt good to cut it loose a bit as the shorter strides I needed to use to keep the slower pace were taking their toll on my knees and ankles. It wasn’t a problem, but I knew they weren’t going to feel that great by the end.
From there until we were through Fell’s Point and Canton it was pretty uneventful. Made sure to focus on the fluids and nutrition and checked every now and then on my running partners to see how they were. Ernie knew that he would not be able to maintain the same pace for long so he started to fall of a little around the 15 mile mark. We made the ½ point at 1:55:30-ish, so we had 4:30 in the bank to break the 4 hour mark. Once you turn left out of Canton you start the long gradual climb towards 33rd street and that is where it starts to wear on you.
Tarek was really starting to feel it as we got towards the 18 mile mark. He had taken one of his electrolyte pills, but didn’t have a drink so the pill had broken apart in his mouth and he coughed electrolyte powder at one point. So he was really looking for a water stop which we got at just after the 19 point. Our splits had fallen quite a bit from just under 9 minute miles to over 10. We hit the 20 mile mark at 2:59-ish so we were still on pace. But I knew that if we kept on the same pace that we would not break 4 hours.
Tarek was really having a rough patch here, and I tried to encourage him as best as I could. To his superb credit he never gave in and kept pushing. At the small out and back at the 21 mile mark he said that if he could just have a short walk break at the rest stop that he would be okay. I reluctantly agreed knowing that once you start walking this late in the run that it is hard to get going again. We both drank some Gatorade, and grabbed a banana which really helped him. After about a hundred yards we started up again and he did feel better.
Turning back onto 33rd street we went up the last real upslope of the race (other than the bridge over I-83 that came later) and I knew that it was generally downhill from there. I was still feeling awesome and the pent up gazelle really wanted to cut lose and rip off 6 minute miles the last 4 miles of the race! But this race wasn’t about me, it was about Tarek, and I was doing the best that I could to encourage him. Every mile mark I was telling him that he had only three or two miles to go and that he did that as a warm up on his long days in his sleep!
He started to feel a lot better and I’m thinking the idea of what he was going to accomplish really started to set in. He picked up the pace when he could and when we hit the 24 mile mark I looked and saw we had 21 minutes to go to break 4 hours. We were back in the 9 minute range again and I knew unless something disastrous kicked in that we would break 4 hours. This is when I started to get a little greedy ……. With my disastrous run last year I finished in 3:58:36 after going out too hard and having to walk more than run the last 5 miles. I knew that if we picked it up a bit we could beat that time. I started to encourage Tarek saying that we could beat it. I think it worked a little.
At 25 I was bursting to take off and rip off the last mile, and kept trying to get him to go a bit faster. He’d start to, but his legs were pretty wiped and I could tell he was in finish mode. I did my best to push him and in the last ¾ of a mile he picked it up to push through. But he got tired and slowed down again. At this time we were within sight of the finish banner and I was yelling at him (as I was running backwards ….. got a lot of funny looks with that one) that this was it! He sped up and I stayed just out of reach until we got to the finish where I waited, grabbed his hand and held it up and we crossed the line together!
Final time was 3:57:55, so we beat my last year’s time, which was awesome for both of us! To have completely run his first marathon is an incredible feat, especially one as challenging as Baltimore. I felt great and knew that I easily could have run a lot faster. We got our medals, took off our timing chips, and grabbed some water and a banana. We met Walter (from work) and he was just a minute behind us. We didn’t realize we had passed him but Laura from our office said we were literally seconds behind him where she was cheering around the 22 mile mark.
In all it was a great (but chilly) day and I think we accomplished everything we set out to do for the race. Kudos to Tarek and everyone else who was out there pushing it!!

Nothing, great race and worked out better than planned.

Grabbed water and a banana, tried to see if I could meet Tim to share the Guiness, didn't hook up so walked back to the cars with Ernie.


Pacing a friend ....... ;-P


This was the third year I'd participated in the race. Each year it gets a little bigger, but is still small enough that you don't feel like cattle running together.