Baltimore Marathon Race Report (cross post)

"Daddy, is this a winning race or a finishing race?"

"Finishing race, baby."

Gives me a big hug. "Then I hope you finish."

And that was how my family and friends sent me off yesterday morning after a restless nights sleep. I was dreaming I was running most of the night before the alarm went off at quarter to six. A bagel with cream cheese and bananna and out the door at 7:00. Got to Ravens stadium at 7:30.

I knew that the kids were making signs to help cheer me on. I didn't know that they had also made T-shirts. Bright orange with "Just keep running" and "Go Daddy Go" on them. Really cool and turned out to be a big help in spotting them along the course.

Opening gun went off at 8:00. Temperatures in the mid 50's to start. Four thousand ran the full with another few thousand running the relay. Naturally the start was slow, but kind of used to that now. It was an uphill start so it separated pretty quickly and was able to get a solid pace going. I had positioned myself with the 4:30 pacers at the start but got pushed back by the time the gun went off. My first goal was to find them again.

First three miles were a steady incline. Didn't feel it at all. Lowlight in the first mile was a guy to the right of me who was veering off to make a pit stop who got clobbered by a biker. Not sure if the biker was part of the event or not but both seemed to be okay.

I kept up a swift pace for the first 6 miles and passed my cheer squad in about 55 minutes. Way too fast, but I was running on adrenaline. Cruised through the next seven and finished the first half in just under two hours. Did I mention that was way too fast?

Mile 14-15. After seeing The Spirit of the Marathon with me my wife and I decided that putting my name on my shirt would be a good idea. Help get more people cheering for me. Totally worked out. At one point a guy running beside me looked at my shirt. "Oh, you're Noah. I was wondering how all these people know you."

Now after mile 16 two things happen.

1.  There begins a steady climb to mile 20. When I did the 20 mile training run a few weeks ago along the same path it was very manageable. Of course it was also the first thing we ran.
2. The marathon and half marathon courses converge. All of the sudden the people you've gotten used to running with for 16 miles have changed and multiplied.

The combination of those two events and the fact that my pace was way faster than it should've been led to leg cramps. Calves, thighs, ankles, pretty much everywhere. I've been wary of the sugar in the gatorade and my digestion as I've trained. I think my half water half gatorade strategy worked for a time, but I should have switched over to full on gatorade a lot sooner. After mile 20 I got a bananna to see if that would help with the cramping. I think it eventually did but not until after I had to walk/run through a couple more miles of the leg cramps. The nana and gatorade must have worked well enough because by mile 23 I was back in business.

After dealing with the steady incline and dealing with leg cramps any raise in elevation can be tough. That overpass? Oh, I'm walking up that thing. On the other side was mile 24. The last 2.2 were a bit of a blur. I remember raising my whole body up, lifting my head high and waving to each and every person who were shouting out encouragement. I remember I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. I remember the tears of joy at the end. 4:24:30.

And at least for a few more days I'm going to remember these sore joints. Jinkies!

My continued thanks to everyone on these boards for providing inspiration and motivation. Probably wouldn't have ever dreamed of running at all let alone a marathon without your presence.

What a great report. You are an inspiration, and what a great job! Keep up the hard work and I will look forward to more stories like from you. Take care and rest that body my freind.

-Dan

I don't know how you *****s do it.  A 4:24!!!   Hopefully, you can slow down a bit and enjoy Disney with the rest of us slow pokes. .  

Awesome job man.  Very impressed.

Wow!  Incredible performance.  Amazing speed.  You did a great job, and were able to post today... You are definitely in a class above most all of us.  That was more than just finishing, that was putting the pedal to the medal.  Now I'm embarrased to even go out and run.
Congratulations. 
Rob

I looked up your results yesterday and was totally amazed. Awesome race. I dont know about calling that a finishing race with a time like that I would call it a big WIN!

Congratulations Dan!  You came in under your goal even with the challenge of cramps!  That's a fantastic finish!  I don't think I'll be able to catch up with you at Disney.

Cassie