Holly's Race Report from Baltimore with Dave's comments and video at the end:
There aren’t a lot of choices for a Maryland race, so Baltimore it was. Everyone said it was a hilly course. They didn’t lie. I was running this one with Stan, Brad and Jessica. Jessica was also running the Marine Corps Marathon the next day. She is a ROCKSTAR! Our hotel was right by the start so we all met there and had a short walk to the start at Camden Yards. It was not a chilly morning and temperatures were expected to get up in the 70’s by the afternoon. We had a nice national anthem with a huge American flag flying over the start.
The start was up a huge hill that went on forever. This was a sign of things to come. It was pretty much uphill all the way until Mile 4 when we entered the Baltimore zoo. Here is where we had the best photo stop ever. A cute penguin named Peach was just sitting there and posing with all of us runners. It was the highlight of the race. We ran through some cool spots, like the zoo and John Hopkins University. We also ran through some boring neighborhoods, but the police posted at every intersection couldn’t have been nicer. They were great and would cheer us on. I have never seen as many police officers at a race before. The other nice thing about the race was at every third or fourth stop they had Utz chips as a snack. This was great to have a couple of salty chips to counteract all the sweating we were doing.
It was getting hot and I was feeling it. Jessica and I have the worst luck when we run together. We haven’t had a warm summer so I’m not used to the warm weather. I started feeling not so great around mile 15 or so. I tried a bunch of things but nothing was working and around mile 20 Jessica left us and kept up her pace. She did great! We switched to 1:1 intervals and I felt better and was able to keep a better pace.
Dave and Joe were race chasing and they were doing an amazing job despite the really bad traffic in the city. I’m not sure I want to know how they did it. The final miles were full of hills and we did our best to get up and over them. We finally made it to the finish at the famous Inner Harbor. We got a super cool crab medal that opens and has Fort McHenry inside. There were more chips at the end. We didn’t make it to the beer tent, because it was too far away. I didn’t feel well at the end. I had some chips and Gatorade and finally started feeling better. I definitely didn’t fuel properly for this one. The organization at this one was top notch, with a great expo, and medal. The course is a tough one and I wouldn’t hurry back to do it again because of that.
Dave's Comments
We arrived in Baltimore early enough to have lunch with Stan and Pam at Dempsey's, a brewpub inside Camden Yards. After a quick walk-around we took a short drive over to Fort McHenry National Monument. This site is where the U.S. National Anthem was written (well it was written on a boat looking at the fort but close enough). After our tour we had a beer at Inner Harbor before joining Tom, Liz, Harper, Steve, Jess, Brad, and Joe for dinner at Sabatino's in the Little Italy section.
Joe and I had a great time race chasing. Our bad luck of reaching places in time gave us plenty of down-time to relax and chat. We didn't make it to Mile Two in time so Mile Six was our next best option - and it was only a few blocks from Mile Two. We missed them at Mile 9 because we stopped to watch the half marathoners go by. That gave us another four mile break in Inner Harbor. It was great having Joe drive because he exectued some awesome Starsky and Hutch maneuvers. We won't discuss the father pushing a baby carriage through an intersection at Mile 16. Baltimore was a lot like St. Louis or Providence in the fact that all the good things to see and do in the city are in one small section. Having the race finish at Inner Harbor brought traffic to a halt in the heart of the city. We missed seeing everyone finish the race. Oh well, not the first time.
Post-race we enjoyed lunch at Pratt Street Ale House (a brewpub) and then some post-drinks at Dick's Last Resort.
The next morning we coaxed Stan and Pam into touring Annapolis with us. We enjoyed a rushed tour of the museum and grounds of the Naval Academy, but could not go into the chapel or John Paul Jones' crypt due to a memorial service. Lunch was at the Middleton Tavern. Downtown Annapolis was nice, but small and touristy.
Here's the video:
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