So, on Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to Druid Hill Lake Park for the race. Based on my race times from this spring, I was hoping for a finish around 85 minutes. I'd looked over the race course and while there were some hills, it didn't seem like that would be an out of the question goal time. We got to the park about 15 minutes before the race began, took a pre-race pee break, and headed to our start waves. I was hoping to be able to squeeze into the end of the first wave (1:00 - 1:20 expected finish time) so I wouldn't have to run over slower runners at the start, but there was no way I could maneuver my way through the throngs of people and ended up starting in the third wave (1:30 - 1:50 times) behind the 1:35 pace group. Not a huge deal, but I knew my start was going to be a bit slow.
The race started and we were off. Having looked at the course map, I knew there was a fairly long downhill right after the start that we'd have to run back up at the end. I'm not sure if I was concentrating on not running people over or what, but the downhill didn't seem all that downhill. My first mile was right around 9 minutes, which I was OK with because of the starting situation. I knew I'd need to pick it up a bit to make it back to my 1:25 pace. And then we started winding our way through Baltimore. And it started getting hot...it was already in the low 70s at just after 7:30 that morning. The hills leading the way through the city weren't too bad, but it was the heat that was the killer. There wasn't a ton of shade along the course, but there was one street that had a tree-lined median in the middle and EVERYONE was sticking to the left side of the road to stay out of the sun. I ticked off a few more miles and started adjusting my goal...maybe 1:27 was a little more reasonable given the conditions. I made it to the turn around point of the race, a loop around Lake Montebello. I was excited because this was the flattest part of the race so I should be able to just settle in for about a mile and coast, but the road going around the lake sloped from left to right then entire way around. It was like running with two different length legs and it started to make my knees hurt a little. At the halfway point, 1:27 was looking pretty promising.
And then the second half of the race showed up. I certainly wasn't struggling, but my mile times were starting to slow -- mile 6 was my slowest by far, though I can't really come up with a reason why. 1:27 was slipping away, so 1:30 became my next goal as I started to reel in the pace group. The guys leading the group were pretty cool, telling stories and basically acting as tour guides as we passed Johns Hopkins University and where Memorial Stadium stood. Finally we were a little less than a mile and a half from the finish. Remember that downhill portion from the beginning? Well, it sure seems a lot more uphill than it seemed to be downhill. My hometown has some pretty serious hills that I attack during my runs at home and this one isn't nearly as daunting as some of those, but it just felt insanely difficult. The course leveled out at the top of the hill and then looped around....a cemetery! What an unusual yet appropriate place to finish a race. I kept an eye on my watch as I finished the last loop and headed for the finish. Somehow I managed to cross the finish line squeezed between two guys wearing fluorescent green shirts.
1:29:15 - YES. It wasn't quite the time I started out hoping for, but given the conditions and that hellish uphill at the end, I was certainly pleased. One thing I was not enthused about, however were my mile splits which were all over the place. Seven of the ten miles were in the area of 9:00 which was good, but I had two in the low 7:00s and that 10:25 for mile 6. I have no clue where those came from.
I collected some water, recovery goodies and a icy, wet towel (probably the best thing in the finishers' chute!) and headed to pick up my "race premium," which is pretty unique to this race. Instead of finishers' medals and tech shirts, all finishers get a special apparel item that varies from year to year. This year featured an Alanic jacket! Pretty sweet, right? I also stopped by the merchandise tent and picked up a tech tee that has a shoe on the front made out of the street names of the race route. (Honestly, I bought the shirt to get a bag to carry my stuff. I had a dream the night before the race where I had somehow forgotten to take my gear bag to the bag check and had to run with it slung around my front like a koala bear, so I decided against taking my bag!)
I figured that Andrea ought to be finishing soon, so I went back to the finish line area to cheer her on. My in-laws actually made the trip down to watch us on the course, so I thought I might find them there. I hadn't seen them during the race, though, and wasn't sure if they'd made it or had gotten caught in traffic or something. I actually found myself standing across the finish area and up just a little. My phone finally buzzed with the runner tracker texts I had signed up for and based on her start time and her pace through the halfway point, Andrea would likely come in under 2 hours! She finally made her way through the finish line and came in just under 2 hours -- 1:59:51.
We all met up at the end of the finishers' chute and then headed into the Celebration Village for our beers (at 9:45 in the morning, mind you.) Andrea seemed to really enjoy herself, which I was really most happy about - there's nothing worse than having a miserable time.
Overall, it was a good day to run. A little hot, yes, but I made the best out of what I had in front of me and adjusted. Andrea enjoyed herself and my in-laws even seemed to have a good time spectating too...my father-in-law even mentioned that it seemed like it would be a fun time to do something like this and was seriously considering running the next time we did a race. Cool!
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