Baltimore Half Marathon

Saturday Adam, myself, and my friend Michele (pictured above) ran the Baltimore Half Marathon. What a great day for a race! The weather was perfect. The morning started out cool but by the time we ran at 9:45 am it was in the 60's. Not too warm, not to cold. The plan was for the three of us to run the race together but after two miles Adam decided we were too slow for him :) He went ahead and Michele and I had a great race together. Our goal was to finish in a time of 2 hours 10 minutes (about 10 minutes per mile). Neither one of had ever done this before but we knew we were capable of it.

This was the first race that I had ever set a goal and actually told people..out loud. I usually have a bunch of numbers in my head but they are more times I hope for instead of times I strive to reach. I usually tell people I will be just happy to finish. Now that I have been running for 4 years I think I am past that. Running for a certain time also gave me something to do during the run. With each mile I was striving for that 10 minute mile time. I ended up just thinking, "Okay, if we get to mile x by xx:00 then we are on track." Once we passed a mile marker it was all about getting to the next mile within 10 minutes. With each mile we were always just a minute or two under so I knew we were doing well.

The finish is great on this run. It leads you through Camden Yards and the finish is between the Raven's and Oriel's Stadiums. I was so happy to see the finish line and to see the clock hadn't reached 2:10 yet. We crossed the finish line in 2:04:30! Over 5 minutes faster than our goal time. It was nice to take control of the run instead of having it control me. This race was 9 minutes faster than my time from last year!

Adam had a great race too. He finished in a time of 1:57:38. Not bad for someone who had only done a 10 mile run and a 5k since September 8th.

This is the second time I ran this race and I really like it. It is pretty hilly but for some reason on this course it doesn't bother me much. There is such great crowd support and I love running through parts of Baltimore that I never visit.