I first participated in the Baltimore Running Festival in 2005 as a member of the four-person marathon relay. After a few years away, I returned for another relay in 2010, and ran the full marathon last year.

While I’m a big fan of this event, I didn’t completely love the full marathon last year. The merge with the half marathon walkers was so discouraging, and the second half of the race was so rough …

Still, I couldn’t stay away. I just stuck to that latter half of the course this year, taking on the half marathon.

Going into this race, I had run the full marathon and the 3rd and 4th legs of the full marathon, so I was quite familiar with the back half of this course.

The first three miles are exclusive to the half marathon course, but after that it follows the full marathon to the end.

I didn’t really have a time goal for the race. Considering the hills, I figured I’d be happy with a 2:05-2:10 half marathon. When we started, it was pretty congested which certainly kept me from going out too fast. At times I kind of wanted to speed up, but also didn’t want to overdo it. This technically should have been a marathon training run rather than a race!

I was fully enjoying myself, hills and all. I tried to just keep running comfortably, and take advantage of the downhills!

The miles were flying by, and once we got to mile 10 (and the end of the hills), I really took off. While I wasn’t trying for it, I thought I might actually be able to finish under two hours.

But alas …

Actually, I think it’s pretty awesome that I finished in exactly two hours. And on that course, I’m quite happy with that time!

I really should have been closer to my initial 2:05-2:10 guess based on my splits. I wasn’t running fast enough until the end … now that’s a strong finish!

I had a great time!

I haven’t figured out next year’s race schedule yet, but I’ll most likely be back. The thought did cross my mind to give the full marathon another chance … but we’ll see 🙂

Last Sunday I ran my running club’s longest race, 26.2K / 16.3 miles. It’s small (less than 200 runners!), and very low-key (no shirts or medals), but it only costs $3 for pre-registered club members! It’s always been one of my favorite local races. Even though it’s only 10 miles from my house, it feels like a world away. We run by farms and fields, passing sheep, cows and horses. I just love it and look forward to it every year.

We aren’t, however, always blessed with good race-day weather. It seems it’s often one of the first cold(ish) days of the year, and often rainy. This year? It was a chilly 45* at the start, with 60% chance of rain. Well, we got through about 40% of the race before it started raining 🙂

So it was cold. And it was wet. And — oh yes — it was hilly.

I was only one week out from the Wineglass Marathon, but I felt really good, hills and all. I was running with friends which kept it fun, and we stuck together for the first 12 miles or so. We split up at a water stop — one wanted to keep moving, I took a quick pit stop to refill my water and have a couple orange slices, and the third took a longer break / walk break.

I did catch up with the speedy one two miles later and we finished together. I meant for this to be a moderately-paced training run rather than a race … but it turns out this was my fastest time for this race (and distance) by five minutes!

Despite the “gentle rolling hills,” we actually kept a pretty even pace. The 10:13 mile was my pit stop (which came after one of the biggest hills, 9:50).  I’m pleasantly surprised with my pace at the mile 14-15 incline. I guess I was recovering at mile 16 when the hills stopped, but I managed to finish strong!

Yup, still one of my favorite races. I’ll be back again next year!

Last weekend I ran my sixth marathon — the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY!

This race had been on my wishlist for a while. I went to college in Western New York, and we had to drive though the  area to get there. When I heard there was a group of runners from my town chartering a bus to drive up for the weekend, I immediately joined in. It was perfect — all the logistics and hotel were taken care of. All I had to do was pay and hop on the bus!

I knew how beautiful this part of New York was — and the course did not disappoint. We started in Bath, NY and traveled on rural roads, enjoying farms, mountains and small towns on our way mostly downhill to Corning.

If you look at the elevation chart on the official website, it looks like an extremely downhill course! But it was actually a lot more gentle and less noticeable. The hills were few and far between. It was a very enjoyable course!

I decided to run with a pace group. It made me a little bit nervous — my marathon PR was 4:22:22 in 2010, and my pace group choices were 4:10 or 4:25. Nothing in between! 4:10 seemed a little ambitious, but I was confident that if I was having a good day, a 9:33 average pace was definitely possible. If I had to slow down and leave the group, I’d be OK with that … but fortunately, there was not an issue!

It was perfect running weather. Cloudy and 45* at the start —  just a touch chilly until we started moving.  My pacer was from Baltimore, and I actually ran with his group for part of the Baltimore 10-miler in June! I really enjoy running with pace groups. Takes the pressure off (no Garmin-watching to keep my own pace!), and it’s nice having someone to chat with — both the pacer and other runners sharing the same goal. We had a handful of other runners in our group for much of the race, but as the miles counted down we kept getting smaller. It was sad when one woman dropped off around mile 23 after she got a calf cramp. She would have had a BQ if she stuck with us!

Up to the halfway point, the miles were flying by. I hit my usual slump after 16 or 17 miles where I want to stop, but I hung in there. Had to stay with the pacer!

And a little later, maybe 19 or 20, again I wanted to slow down or walk. Nope, I don’t have to do that. Stay with the pacer! He started pulling ahead of me a tiny bit around 22 or 23, but I hung in there.

The miles kept ticking by … and then I could see the bridge. The finish wasn’t far behind!

We came in about a minute under goal, giving me over a 13-minute PR. Wow!

Post race, there was an amazing spread. In addition to the usual bagels and bananas, they has chocolate milk, cookies, chicken noodle soup, and pizza!

I had some food, stretched a bit, and then walked over to the YMCA where our bus was parked. I didn’t have to bag check since all my gear was on the bus, and they let us shower at the Y. That felt great!

Once all of our runners finished and showered, the bus headed home. Always tough to have a road trip immediately after a race, but it was nice that somebody else was driving! We had plenty of room on the bus, too, most of us had empty seats next to us. Room to stretch!

A very long, fantastic day.

Chip time: 4:09:07
Age group: 63/139
Overall: 811/1586

This was a great race. Beautiful scenery, great support at the aid stations, and a nice fast course. I loved it!

Yesterday I returned to Fountainhead Regional Park in Virginia for the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club’s Women’s Half Marathon. Last year it was my first real trail race, and it took me by surprise. I had run some easier trails before, but this one really opened my eyes!

Of course since then, I’ve run on some much harder terrain. And this time, I knew what to expect.

I made sure to take it easy in those early miles and walk the hills as needed. Last year I was nearly wiped out after only three miles! I was taking it slow yesterday, but I felt good.

It was warm and very humid, like much of this summer has been. I had my Hydrapak and I was good. Aid stations were well stocked with treats — water, Gatorade, soda, M&Ms, trail mix, jelly beans, Pringles, etc. I was settling into a groove and enjoying the trails when all of a sudden, splat! I was on the ground.

Worse than the dirt, it was a short concrete footbridge. It wasn’t one of those slow-motion falls where you take a few steps and can either catch yourself or prepare to fall. I went down fast, and my chin hit the ground.

I got up, touched my chin with the back of my hand, and saw I was bleeding. One woman threw me her towel (thank you!), and I applied some pressure as I walked for a minute. Another woman stopped to help me clean it a bit and bandage it. I’m usually not quite so prepared, but I had tissues and band-aids in my pack.  The woman helping me (thank you!) said it wasn’t bleeding much, but was a pretty big gash. Yikes. Well, I did what I had to do — stick on a band-aid and keep moving!

I had to keep pressing it back on since I was pretty sweaty, but otherwise I felt OK. I took it easy enough, and stopped for assistance at the next aid station. Only they didn’t have much that’d work any better on my sweaty face. We tried some gauze and tape but it wouldn’t stick, either. I ended up having them help me wash it a bit better with an alcohol wipe, add some ointment, and apply a fresh band-aid. With a wiped-off face, it actually stayed put better for the rest of the race.

Despite the setbacks, I was doing OK. I plodded along trying to enjoy my day, and I think I was. I got a comment about my smile from one of the photographers — I think I was probably laughing about what a mess I was! But, I was having fun out there regardless. The last couple of miles were mostly uphill (and mostly walking), but I felt good the whole race. (And I even did an easy two-mile warm-up on the road pre-race).

And then I was done. Only four minutes slower than last year, and I think I was in less pain. Well, except for the whole chin thing.

Post race I enjoyed some snacks and smoothies, and hung out with Ultrarunnergirl and Twitter friends. It was a great day!

Before heading home, though, I needed to get my chin looked at. I changed into some clean clothes and called the walk-in clinic by my house and was able to make an appointment in a little over an hour — about the time it would take me to get home.  I still had a bit of a wait (apparently they had a lot of lacerations to treat!), but they took good care of me.

Six stitches later, I’m good as new.  Well, there’s a little pain. And a permanent reminder of my time in the woods. But it won’t keep me away!

I’ll spare you a stitches shot. It’s pretty nasty.

But I’ll leave you with my “after” outfit. This is what happens to white shirts when you fall in the woods.

I’ll be back again next year!

Well, I don’t get summer vacations anymore (well, I *take* vacations, but it’s not the same as having the whole summer off!), and my summer racing season isn’t over yet … but I’m itching to catch up since my unintentional hiatus!

So … it looks like I dropped off after May’s Columbia Triathlon. Since then I’ve been a busy runner! Mini race reports were modified from DailyMile, so if you follow me there they might sound familiar 🙂

June

6/2: Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon

I volunteered as a pacer for 2:20.  I had a friend pacing with me who was a great cheerleader, trying to rally the women around us to stay with (or pass!) us. Our mile splits weren’t as even as I would have liked, but overall we did great. Official time was 2:19:39. Not bad for my first race pacing!

06/10:  Run For The Hills Bushwhacker Race (Trail 20K)

This was an “Adventure Race” instead of your usual trail race because of an optional orienteering component. All runners were given a map, and if you knew what you were doing with that and a compass (no GPS allowed — not even my Garmin!), you could try to cut mileage in order to finish quicker. Well, even if I was capable, I was out there to run! I stayed on the well-marked trail and enjoyed a nice out-and-back run.  I placed 5th in my age group (the prize = a pint glass!). At the time, I guessed there were only five in my age group. Turns out there were seven! OK, one DNF’d, but I still beat one person 🙂

06/16: Baltimore 10 Miler

Nearly a 5-minute PR (1:27:38)! I hung with the 1:30 pacers for the first 6 miles or so. They were dead on — I hit the 5-mile split at 45:02. I commented to my friend (who I lost shortly after I left the pacers) that I didn’t think I had an even split or negative split in me — clearly I was wrong! The second half hills are harder, too. Very happy with my results!

06/17: Hebron 10k Trail Challenge

Fun trail race! Much of the course was flat and runnable … but there was a lot of climbing, too — Garmin recorded an elevation gain of 863. One big climb between miles 2 and 3, and a lot of incline in the last three miles. It started and ended on roads, with a lot of hills at the very end. Tough course! (Especially on tired legs after PRing a 10 miler the day before!)

July

7/14: Annapolis Striders Women’s Distance Festival 5K

5K PR and 3rd in my age group! 18/168 overall. This is a double-loop course with rolling hills. It was pretty tough at this pace. Splits: 8:01, 7:51, 8:01. I was hurting and knew I was slowing down, but didn’t realize it wasn’t too bad of a drop. I wasn’t expecting a PR — especially not such a big one! Chip time: 24:35. Previous best: 25:22.

7/15: MD Heat Race Trail 25K

Tough race, but tons of fun! I knew this was going to be a challenging course and it did not disappoint. I logged 16.3 miles with nearly 2,700 feet elevation gain, and it took 4:21. Yikes!  Lots of long inclines, a (shallow) river crossing as well as quite a few streams, and a little bit of rock climbing. Loved it!

August

8/5:  Annapolis Striders Dog Days Cross-Country 8K

44:01 finish time. This is a cross-country race — through fields (well, 3 loops of the same field), roads, parking lots and trails. The trails aren’t too difficult (otherwise I couldn’t have run this pace!) except for one hill I always walk. Not bad, and actually I looked up my previous times on this course and beat my best by 2 minutes! I don’t do a lot of 8Ks, but with this time I also finally beat my best road 8K from 2005.

8/19: Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon Columbia, MD

Ah, I’m finally caught up since this was today! This was my fifth year running this race, and I loved it as I always do. It was the first year I didn’t see a time improvement, but I’m not really surprised. I didn’t train with my triathlon group this summer, so I was lacking in hill training and had very few brick workouts. It doesn’t help that I was sick all last week. I thankfully was mostly recovered by race day, but still not 100%.

I was happy to take 35 seconds off my swim time from last year. I felt really great in the water today. I think the swim is becoming my favorite leg of the triathlon — this race has a pretty hilly course for both bike and run, so it’s pretty tough. At least they can’t add hills to the swim!

The bike ride went well, though the course seemed a lot more congested than I remember from previous years. I felt like there were times I could have been more aggressive, when instead I’d hang behind a slower rider longer than I should have. People were constantly riding in bunches rather than staying to the right except when passing, so it was tough to find a comfortable place. Still, I enjoyed it and it seemed to go by quickly. I was about two minutes slower than last year. Not bad for being sick!

Despite my lack of brick workouts, I actually felt pretty good on the run course. I walked a few hills as I usually do, sometimes it’s just not worth it to keep running! It wasn’t my fastest time on this course, but not bad, 31:20 for a 3.4-mile run.

Overall, this year’s 2:15:38 (swim 1000M/Bike 17.5 miles / Run 3.4 miles) was only 1:35 slower than last year, so I’m still pretty happy with that.

Well, that’s all, for now. Am I race addict?

Have you been racing a lot this summer?