Baltimore marathon

Last Saturday I ran in the Baltimore marathon, and finished with a time of 3:52:28, which I'm very happy with. My goal had been to do it in under four hours, so, voila!

I ran it with two co-workers, Eric Pascarello and Kathi Canese, plus about 3000 other people who managed to finish.

I was struggling in the two weeks leading up to it. I had been having some bad pain in my achille's tendon, and it was interfering with my ability to train long distances. Then, about two weeks ago, I was out for a long run, and not having much heel pain, when all of a sudden I got a brutal cramp in my calf. I made the mistake in the first couple of seconds of trying to run through it, but it got worse very fast, and I almost keeled over. After that, stretching just made it worse, and I had to hobble all the way back home. One week ago the calf was still bothering me, and I was very pessimistic about being able to finish this race.

Then, Friday night, everybody had to go to the exhibition to pick up their race packet, and I happened on a podiatrist at a booth. He recommended I use tiger balm, and so I picked some up that night, and applied two patches the morning of the race. I think that helped, because I ran pretty strong for the first twenty miles or so -- enough to really surprise me.

At mile twenty or twenty-one, I started to feel twinges of cramping, and I immediately backed way off my pace, and tried to run stiff-legged for a while. Not long after that, I came upon a medical tent, and stopped, and asked if they had any tiger balm (figuring that mine had probably already worn off). They said they had icy-hot, which came in a goo, so I slathered some on both calves. I still had some on my hands, and as I started running again, I wiped my hands on my shoulders and the back of my neck, because they were feeling sore, too. Man, was that a mistake! After just about five minutes, I felt like my neck was on fire, and not in a good way.

Anyway, I managed to finish, though the last several miles were as tough as could be imagined. After I crossed the finish line and started walking again, I felt myself teetering more than once. When I got home, I slept for about four hours.

The marathon was great for two big reasons. The first is that the course winds through the whole city, and you really get to see a lot of Baltimore, including some beautiful parks. The second is that almost the whole way, the streets are lined with lots of folks who come out to cheer you on. It really helps. The downside of this marathon is the hills, especially the last one at about mile 22. It was pure torture.

Next: the JFK 50, just 36 days, 9 hours, 13 minutes and 26 seconds away!