2008 Baltimore Marathon: Recap (10.11.2008)

Yesterday I completed my 4th marathon and Kevin (my boyfriend) completed his 1st! My personal goal of the marathon was to make sure Kevin finished and try out this method called "the Galloway Method". I took off my watch and just tried to enjoy it/get him through. I tend to start feeling anxious when I wear my watch if I am not making the pace I feel like I should, so because this race was not about me - taking it off was the best thing!

The weather was great in the morning, low 50s, but we knew that it was going to heat up later in the day and be pretty sunny, so we made sure to get enough water at each stop. Let me try and chunk this recap by miles - that might be better.

Miles 1-4: There was an immediate uphill climb from the start and we were with the 4:15 pace group for the first 2 miles. I was worried we were going too fast and maybe we were, but a little after mile one, we took our first walk break - probably only 30 secs. It is tough to stop and walk right in the beginning!

Miles 5-8: This was a great stretch because we had made it up a pretty steep climb and then were looping back down towards the harbor where a ton of fans were waiting, along with all of the half marathoners who were heading to the start of their race. Around mile 7, I started to feel my hip flexers and got worried, but it went away after about a mile.

Miles 9-13.1: We passed some of kevin's friends, my dad, and my sister during this stretch which was a great booster for us. My dad and sister were both running in the relay and were up with the 3:30 and 3:45 pace groups respectively - whoa! We looped around Fort McHenry, which was probably my favorite part of the course - it is beautiful around the sea wall and flat. Flat was nice, especially because I knew we had some hills coming up. We were doing a good job taking walk breaks in line with the water stops which was perfect because I cant run and drink water anyways. We crossed the halfway point at 2:24 and I was really excited because we were on pace for a sub 5 hour first marathon for Kevin!

Miles 13.2 - 16: These miles were flat and heading over to my area of town (Canton) and by my cousin's real estate agency where I knew they had snickers waiting for us! yesss. We were also pleasantly surprised to have Kevin's friend John jump in and run with us for a few miles. This meant so much and really helped those 2 miles fly by! Mile 15-16 was a pretty nice hill climbing up to Patterson Park and it was starting to heat up. At the mile 16 water stop they were OUT OF WATER!! I was pissed - how could they let that happen? They had gatorade, but sometimes you just need/want water.

Miles 17-20: This was a tough part of the course. We had some big hills through a not so scenic area of baltimore and the sun was beating down on us. I was feeling ok, but Kevin had pretty much hit, what I would call - THE WALL. It was hard for him to catch his breath and his stomach was giving him problems. We did a lot of walking through these hills and while I knew we had made it - we were finishing - it was not going to be easy. We also caught up with my father at the 3rd relay exchange point who walked since his leg of the relay and then waited for us. I ended up running ahead to find my dad and give him a low-down on how kevin was feeling, so he would know how to approach the last 8 miles. He said I could go ahead if I wanted, but I was finishing with Kevin - no way was I going to leave him. We hit mile 20 at 3:55 and I was thinking we would be right over 5 hours for the finish if we stayed consistent.

Miles 21-25: These miles were through some great areas of Baltimore where people had a ton of energy cheering us on. My favorites were the college guys with Genny Light in huge cups for runners, the two people dressed in tiger costumes dancing to "Eye of the Tiger", and the gummi bear station - loved those!!! Oh and I cant forget the "Baltimore Hons". My legs had the normal fatigue/pain, but I felt pretty good throughout these miles. We were doing alot of walking - basically, my dad changed our method where we walked any type of hill and then ran the downhills and flat. This helped Kevin catch his breath because he was still having some problems breathing.
I told him at one point - he could breathe all he wanted after the marathon - it was a bad joke at the time! :) At another point when Kevin was getting sick - my dad told him to save it for the picture at the end - because it would make a great picture. Again - another bad joke at the time, but it is funny now!

To the Finish: This course has a great finish - all down hill for 1.2 miles! Once Kevin could see the finish, we picked it up and were able to have a strong finish. The hill was pulling us down! He hadnt been smiling much for the past 10 miles, but when he realized he was about to complete his first marathon, a huge smile came across his face and it was great to be there with him! I havent seen our official time yet, but I know we crossed the finish around 5 hours and 20 mins.

My overall feeling about the Galloway method is that it isnt for me. I am all about doing some walks later in the race, especially while getting water, but as an overall running method - I just hated stopping early on in the race. It was so hard for me to do it.

I am extremely sore today, but am already looking for another marathon to do later this fall/winter. I feel like I want to try and see what I could do, and since I am already trained up - i would just have to maintain, which I want to do anyways. So if anyone knows of a marathon coming up in the MD/DC/VA/DE/WVA/PA area - I am willing to travel a little bit to do this!

My race calendar is going to be changing to add the Metric Marathon on Dec 7th, which is a 26.2k (16.3 miles), but I would love to do another full marathon before that!

Thanks to everyone for the support and good luck wishes - it really meant alot!