I got myself a good night sleep last night, however I find that I'm still on cloud 9 after having a great day at Baltimore yesterday. As I wrote yesterday, I really needed a good day, just because I kind of let myself down when I ran the Lehigh Valley Marathon a few weeks back, I didn't stick to the plan. This time I did.

This was certainly one of the more well organized marathons that I've run, everything from the large expo with clear directions on where to go ... to the parking, to the celebration area and the finish line .... Like most other marathons, I always see something that I haven't quite seen before, which i'll go into later on ..

We got to Baltimore at lunchtime on Friday, did the National Aquarium with my daughter (which was cool) and then headed off to the hotel .. There seems to be something about a turkey club sandwich the night before the race for supper that gives me a good race. I know the normal meal for runners the night before the race is pasta, pasta, pasta, but i'm not in that camp .. I need something healthy and not so filling., yet something thats satisfying. Another thing I didn't do this time was to make myself sick with water .. I never understand why I do that... there doesn't seem to be any value in it.

So after a decent nights sleep, we got to the race area about 7am, got decent parking right outside of the celebration village, which was a good thing at the time, but as i'll explain later, turned out to be trouble in the end. My family was with me for this one, so they chomped down on breakfast in the car while I did my pre-race prep .. I was so close to the finish line that I didn't even have to check a bag in, the car was right there, I figured there was no sense in wasting time with a bag. The weather for the start was humid, because it rained Friday night, but still in the upper 50's with cloud cover. In my opinion, perfect conditions for a race...

It was about a half mile walk to the start line from the finish line, which wasn't a bad walk because we got to walk through Camden Yards (home of the Orioles) in the process. The start went off without a hitch, normal singing of the national anthem, helicopters in the air and finally the gun goes off ... and away we go. It wasn't too bad of a wait to cross the starting line, it took about 2 minutes to cross the line.

The first 3-4 miles of the race were exactly as I planned, uphill, but not as bad as what I had been doing my hill training on, so I think there was definite value in modifying my training like that. I remembered my keys to running hills, which I consider to be liking riding a bike. Uphill, shorten your stride and pump your arms faster .. then downhill, lean forward and coast .. it seemed to work the whole way. At this point I was running slower than my pace, probably due to the hills, but averaging about a 9:20-9:30 up until mile 5

So my first funny observation came around mile 4 or so, when if you've run marathons before, you know that there are 'pee' spots on courses where you see guys relieving themselves up against trees ... however for the first time, I actually saw a woman drop her drawers, squat and pee up against a tree .. I actually thought it was a guy 'going number 2', but after she was done, I realized it wasn't a guy ... she must have really needed to go. Usually you see women waiting for a port-a-potty, but never doing something like this. Maybe it happens more than I know, but of all my races, i've never seen it before... there were a few of us chuckling.

By mile 5 or 6, it started to sprinkle slightly, which actually felt good because it was quite humid. It was also kind of windy as well .. It was at this point that I realized how nice the city of Baltimore is, I mean it has its rough corners, but all cities do. The architecture, the well maintained streets (although they were mostly cement streets), the intensity of the crowds really made for a nice race ..

The race was kind of uneventful until around mile 13 or so when we got back towards where we started and passed the half-marathon start line. At this point, everybody, including myself seemed to be in their pace, with their distances between each other and everyone felt comfortable, suddenly we came downhill and it was like driving down a country road and having it feed into a 6 lane highway .. apparently the last half of the course put the marathoners with the half-marathoners. Overall it wasn't a big issue, but suddenly it knocked me off my pace. Up until this point, I had gotten myself to about a 9:10 pace, so now I had to struggle to get myself back to it with the crowd of people.

Probably the worst part after we met up with the half marathoners was that the water tables started to become disorganized (too many people, not enough volunteers) .. the worst part was the inexperience of half-marathoners at water tables in that they need to understand that you don't STOP and stand at a water table. Even as disorganized as they got, you can't stand in crowds ... also, there tended to be lots more walkers in the half-marathon, and there were areas where people were walking on the course in groups of 4 people across .. basically blocking the course. Then I saw half-marathoners talking on cell phones on the course ... Ugh, it was frustrating, but I kept my head down and kept going, maybe I need to not worry about stuff like that, but it irritated me...

So the next challenge came around mile 18 or so as we headed up the last large set of hills .. I kept with my strategy for the hills and kept pushing and the reward for sticking to my plan was great. After reaching mile 21 at the top of the hill and going around the pond/lake (or whatever it was), I knew the rest of the course wasn't too bad from here. Thats why I think it pays to study the course ahead of time, it helps you mentally at the end when you know what to expect. There were some rolling hills as we headed back to the Inner Harbor, but nothing I couldn't handle. At this point I was still at around a 9:30 pace, and keeping it pretty steady.

About mile 25 or so, my mp3 player finally died out, not sure if it was from the sweat/rain, or if the battery just died, but I wrapped it up and hid it in my shirt and knew I wouldn't need it as the crowds were getting larger as we approached the finish. I actually ran my best mile pace at mile 23 to mile 24, not sure why, but even at mile 25.5, I picked up the pace as the crowd motivated me and I saw the finish ahead. We actually ran through the same area in Camden Yards that we walked to the start in earlier in the day, so I knew we were close.

I flew across the finish line, feeling strong and feeling happy with my hands in the air .. I was proud that I didn't stop, didn't walk, wasn't sore, and felt like I could go a few more miles. This whole pace thing really does work... by not going out fast and wearing myself out early, I was able to finish the race with ease. It really makes for a better day. I didn't care about my finish time .. I just didn't want to die on the course, and I didn't. a 4:06 isn't the worst I've done, but i'm proud of the time, because I worked for it.

The unfortunate thing I heard was that a 23 year old man died yesterday while running the Baltimore marathon. Wow, that wakes you up to the reality of what a marathon really is. I did hear lots of sirens at one point in the race, but thought nothing of it since we were in the city. My heart goes out to the family of the man, its not what you want to have happen when you compete but should remind everyone that running and training for a marathon is a very serious thing. Its not something you do while undertrained and something you need to prepare for so that you can learn and know your body. I do feel there was adequate medical tents all throughout the course (actually more than i've seen in any other race), so I don't think it was that. It may be that us runners just get to a point that you don't want to quit .. i'm thinking, mile 23, he may have thought its just 3 more miles, I can make it .. thats real unfortunate.

So after finding my family in the reunion zone (which in my opinion was smaller than it should have been), I got my post-race picture done with my daughter, and my finishers medal (which is posted, I look good for just running a marathon) and then headed out of the celebration village. The last momentous moment from the race was that people actually parked us in, so I had no way to get out of the parking lot. I thought we were going to be stuck in the parking lot until the celebration ended, but thankfully a guy guided us through a little alley way around some cars so we can get out. I don't know who you were, but thanks a ton!

Well, its just 6 weeks now until the Philly marathon, time to start getting prepared. I feel good enough to get maybe a 2 miler in this morning to keep the legs stretched. I'm not terribly beaten up from the race, so recovery shouldn't be too bad.

Congratulations to everybody who finished Baltimore, and those that are heading out today for your race. Remember, KEEP YOUR PACE, GO IN WITH A PLAN, STICK TO IT and KNOW YOUR COURSE. Its a recipe for success, I guarantee it!