Today is the 13th running of the Baltimore Marathon, so I thought I would write a race recap of the first five years of the race since Bill and I ran all five of those years.

The inaugural race in 2001 had packet pick-up on race morning so Bill and I arrived bright and early to make it there with plenty of time to spare and not be rushed.  We arrived so early that we were able to park within a few parking spaces of the race finish and were able wait in our car until the last minute to walk over to the start.  After the race we just had to walk a few steps to our car!  We loved that the race ran through Camden Yards since at the time we were huge Baltimore Orioles fans (pre Washington Nationals).  I ran that first Baltimore marathon in 4:03:15  (9:17 pace).  Here we are in front of the Baltimore Ravens Stadium, or PSI Net Stadium as it was called at the time.

BaltimoreMarathon2001

2001

There were signs up all over the city letting motorist know that the race would be held on Saturday morning, but the local residents must have been pretty surprised by the number of street closures and how long they remained closed.  Most drivers were patiently waiting and cheering us on as we ran by.  Most drivers…

The best line of the day came from a very frustrated driver who shouted, “I hope you all die of a heart attack!”  First of all it would be very hard for all of us to die from ONE heart attack, and fortunately I didn’t hear of anyone dying that day.

In 2002 my friend Miles and some of the runners from his group joined us for the marathon and half-marathon.  Here’s a shot of some of us before the race.  Check out the dude in the middle photo-bombing us!  HaHa!

BaltimoreMarathon2002

2002

Miles, Bill, Josh, and I started out together, but a few miles in I decided that I felt good and wanted to run my own race and separated from the group.  I settled into a comfortable pace and ran with a younger woman the last eight miles or so.  We hardly talked, just the occasional encouraging word to each other.  With two miles to go, I felt really good so I took off.  The the last thing she said to me was to be careful not to push to early and crash.  I ran my best Baltimore that day and won my age group with a time of 3:44:55 (8:35 pace).

After the race, Bill and I got a quick picture with our medals before we drove home.  Of course I don’t have my trophy because in typical Debbie fashion it didn’t dawn on me to check and see if I’d placed in my age group.

BaltimoreMarathon2002DebBill

2002

It wasn’t until I got home and checked my results that I found out I’d won my AG and had to have the trophy mailed to me.

BaltimoreMarathon1stPlaceTrophy

The first two years we received cotton long sleeved shirts.  I no longer have the 2001 shirt, because  I probably used it as a throw-away shirt at another race.  Oops!

BaltimoreMarathon02Shirt

Here’s a back view of the 2002 shirt with it’s cool logo…

BaltimoreMarathon02ShirtBack

We returned in 2003 and I felt great and was on track to run a 3:30 race at the half marathon point.  Just after I entered a portion of the course that runs past row home after row home, my stomach started bothering me and I couldn’t find a porta-potty.  I had no choice but to do the butt-clenched walk of shame for a mile or two until I got to a soccer field where there was a glorious porta potty.  Obviously this took me way off my goal time, but I still somehow managed to pull off a 3:57:37 (9:04 pace).

2003

In 2004 I ran a 3:51:09 (8:49 pace), but remember no particular stories of interest from that year.  😉

Here’s a picture of our 2003, 2004, and 2005 shirts.  At this time Under Armour was a major sponsor so we got really awesome shirts, and no more cotton!

BaltimoreMarathon030405Shirts

During the 2005 marathon, Bill was ahead of me and running with a group of young women when we saw each other across the grassy median on an out-and-back portion of the course.  We met in the middle for a quick kiss and all of the women running with Bill let out a collective, “Awwwww…”  We were both feeling like “26 miles of bad road” and Bill decided to slow down and let me catch up with him.  We cracked up when we passed a man sitting on his front steps saying, “Keep your eye on the prize, keep your eye on the prize.”  We ran/walked the last few miles of the marathon together and finished with a time of 4:41:03 (10:43 pace ).

DebBillBaltimoreFinish

2005

Here are my bibs from all five years…

BaltimoreMarathonBibs

Here’s my collection of Baltimore Marathon finisher’s medals.

BaltimoreMarathonMedals

In 2005 since we had run all five year’s races, we received a cute little 5th Anniversary pin…

BaltimoreMarathon5thAnniversary

And we purchased this poster which hangs in our sports themed basement…

BaltimoreMarathonPoster

The Baltimore Marathon was always well organized and a lot of fun.  After the first year or two they no longer had race morning packet pick-up so that made it a little more inconvenient for us, but that certainly wasn’t the reason we stopped running it.  We thought that the completion of five years was a good stopping point and that we should open our schedule up for some other races.  I’d highly recommend running this race if you’re considering it!

 

  • Questions:
  • Have you ever run in any of the Baltimore Running Festival events?
  • Do you ever buy race posters?
  • Who is racing this weekend?