Last Saturday I participated in the Baltimore Running Festival on a relay team. I've never done a relay, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was fun and provided an experience that I never would have had otherwise.
On Friday I had a very enjoyable lunch with a business associate at a Mexican restaurant...I won't name which one. For the rest of the day, I was in the bathroom every 30 minutes or so. I don't know if it was food poisoning or a touch of the stomach flu that had been going around, but either way, I was not feeling well. I went to bed with my stomach still rolling. If I wasn't on a relay team, I would never have set my alarm to get up in the morning. But I knew that 3 other people were depending on me, so I got all my stuff together before going to bed. There was no way I was letting them down.
The alarm went off at 5 and I laid in bed for a few minutes trying to assess my health. I was definitely tired and felt a little weak, but my stomach felt OK. I got up and got myself ready to go. Stomach seemed good to go, even after eating breakfast.
Every time I've run the Baltimore half, I've taken the metro into the city since I didn't have to be there at the start of the full marathon. It's quite a long walk from the metro stop, so I decided to drive in. I parked in the garage behind 250 W Pratt. I knew it would be expensive but convenient.
The relay team was to meet in front of the Johnny Unitas statue by Ravens Stadium. Now this is the tricky part...I only know 1 member of the relay team...Andi. I've never met Gwen or Chad. So I was a little nervous about missing them since I don't know who they are! Anyway, I got to the statue first. Gwen messaged that she was running a little late and Chad decided not to meet us since he didn't have to catch the bus to his leg until an hour later. So Andi and I met up. It worked perfectly since she was able to find Gwen. In photo from left to right, me, Gwen and Andi:
Gwen was running the first leg, I was second, Andi was third and Chad was fourth. The 2nd and 4th legs had to ride a bus up to the exchange point, and the 1st and 3rd legs had to ride a bus back to the finish area. I was really glad that I didn't have to ride a bus back. I got on my bus and found a seat next to a very nice lady who also has 2 kids that are Ella and Grace's ages. We chatted the whole bus ride, then wished each other luck and went our separate ways when we got off the bus.
My first priority when I got to the exchange site was to get in line for the porta-pot. This is where things got crazy. The first porta-pot line that I got in formed into the street. The race official at the site made us move the line onto the sidewalk. I was about 6 people from the porta-pot before we moved. While we were moving, the lines got completely out of order and when it was all settled, I was about 20 back. Ugh. Someone told us that the porta-pots up the hill had shorter lines, so I decided to go up there and try my luck.
I was definitely in better shape up the hill...only about 12 back. This line also gave me a better vantage point of the race course. After awhile, they announced that the first wheelchair athletes were about to come through. Because I was at the top of a hill, it was evident to see how hard they were working their arms to get the chairs up the hill. These men were amazing to me. Some of them had lost one or both legs. All of them were inspiring to me.
Then the marathon runners started coming through. Because Under Armor had pulled out as the title sponsor, there was no prize money available. This meant that the professional athletes did not come. So no Kenyans this year. But it was really cool to see that a local man won the marathon.
Finally I was able to go to the bathroom and get down to my exchange zone. I had been stressing out that I would miss Gwen while in line. Luckily I had about 5 minutes left once I got down to the area. She handed me the timing chip band, I slapped it on my ankle, handed her my bag and took off up the hill.
It's hard to start a run going directly uphill, but the adrenaline was definitely pumping through me. The inspiration from the wheelchair athletes, the stress of thinking I would miss Gwen, and the general excitement at the exchange zone carried me up that hill without much of an effort. I quickly settled into a comfortable running pace. After my watch chimed that I had hit a mile, I finally glanced at my pace. 8:45 for the first mile! Wow!! And I didn't even feel like I was working that hard. Note to self: you have 6 more miles to go...might want to make sure you can keep it up. I slowed until my watch said I was running 9:30 and figured that was a more reasonable pace to maintain.
At the 2 mile mark, I was amazed that I was barely breathing hard. I was having such an enjoyable run. I had never run this part of the course before, so it was nice to have a change of scenery. The group around me also seemed to be running between a 9 and 9:30 pace so it was pretty easy to just run with the pack. Most of them were full marathoners. I started thinking that it was amazing that these people could keep this pace going for 26.2 miles. I was in awe of the effort of all the runners around me.
By the third mile, we were very close to the harbor. The roads became extremely familiar and the crowds got thicker. It is so cool to run while people are on the side cheering and holding up signs. It didn't matter that I didn't know any of these people...or that they weren't yelling my name. In my mind, the crowds were all cheering for me. Now I remember why I love running half marathons!
The funniest moment of all happened when I was running near the start line of the half marathon. Because I've run it before, I understand how stressful it is to cross the marathoners' path to get to the starting line...I wish they could figure out something to make it so that this doesn't have to happen. But when I was running, there were masses of people crossing the route in front of me. I didn't get upset even when I had to slow down or sidestep to avoid someone. But when a couple was crossing and holding hands, the girl decided to go behind me and the guy decided to go in front of me. They dropped their hands literally a half a second before I would have crashed through their arms. I laughed.
The neighborhood support of the Baltimore marathon is amazing. We ran through Federal Hill and so many people were sitting on their front steps cheering. There was a man handing out orange slices. I took one and it was a welcomed change from my water bottle. Others were handing out gummy bears and you could see gummy bears all over the streets. People had pompoms, megaphones, bells and horns. It was like the entire city turned into one big cheerleading squad. I loved it.
We ran by the Under Armor facility and there was so much excitement there. They had a water stop, music blaring, an announcer talking the whole time and tons of people cheering for us. It was at about the 5 mile mark of my run, so it gave me the boost I needed to finish strong.
With about a mile to go, I saw Alana just ahead of me. I hollered to her and sprinted to catch up with her. We ran the last mile together and chatted about our runs. At the exchange point, I handed the band off to Andi and was done. Alana and I walked back toward the harbor looking for a water stop. Finally we found some water. We walked to the finish area and picked up our medals and beer tickets.
I reconnected with Gwen and we stood and watched the finish line for awhile. Unfortunately I couldn't stay long enough to see Chad finish. So I still have never met the 4th leg of my relay team!
This event was something that I would have slept through if I wasn't running the relay since I had felt so awful the day before. I'm so glad that I made myself go. It was a great experience. The relay was fun and I got inspired to run again. My running has been a mental challenge lately, so I know that this will go a long way to helping with my confidence.
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