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Race Result

Racer: Aaron Schwartzbard
Race: Baltimore Marathon
Date: Saturday, October 15, 2005
Location: Baltimore, MD
Race Type: Run - Marathon
Age Group: Male 25 - 29
Time: 2:47:17
Overall Place: 23 / 2397
Age Group Place: 9 / 190
Comment: Nice training day



Race Report:



Quickie report for a quickie race: I wanted to do a long run this weekend, so around the middle of last week, I decided that I might as well do the Baltimore Marathon to make the run a little more interesting. I decided that the inconvenience of driving up to Baltimore was offset, since I'd be more likely not to slack off on an up-pace long run if it was in a race.

I had done the race once before, so I knew it was easy enough logistically. It's less than an hour from Reston and parking is easy since the start and finish are right by Camden Yards and Raven Stadium. The only hassle was getting to Baltimore the day before the race to sign up, and to do packet pick-up. (Now that I see that several RATS were doing the marathon and half marathon, I'm kicking myself for not trying to coordinate with someone else.)

Anyhoo, on to the race... I was aiming for something around 3:00. Since this was a training run at the end of an 80 mile week, I expected "something around 3:00" to be anywhere from 2:50 to 3:20. The first mile felt slow, but we went through in 6:35 --- a little faster than 3:00 pace. As long as that felt easy, I decided to stick with it. I briefly chatted with a woman who was aiming for 2:48, and decided that it would be silly to get much ahead of her in the first few miles. So occasionally after some of the long downhills, I would pull back the pace to let her catch up. That way, I ended up running with the lead pack of women.

Somewhere before 10 miles, I needed a pee break. I finally spotted a McDonald's on the course, so I jumped out of the race to use their restroom. By the time I caught back up to the lead women a couple miles later, the pack had split apart. So I ended up running the second half alone.

The first few miles are mostly downhill, then there are 10 flat miles. The last 10 miles of the race are challenging --- a lot of climbing between miles 16 and 20, and it felt like there was a headwind in every direction. Fortunately, this being a training day, I never felt compelled to "dig deep." I was sure I was running 8:30s near the end, but reviewing the data in my watch, it looks like I never broke 7:00 miles (except, probably, for the last mile). I ended up going 2:47, which was a bit faster than I expected. I glanced at my watch at the half way point, and it said 1:22:XX, so I positive split the race by about three minutes. Part of that, though has to be from the wind and hills that came later in the race.

After the race, I stuck around just long enough for a massage, a bit to eat, and a couple minutes of post-race decompression. I got home around 12:30pm, and I realized that if I had done my own long run around Reston, I probably wouldn't have finished any earlier. Not a bad deal. And I got a new shirt out of it.

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By the numbers:

1 6:37
2 6:16
3 6:07
4 6:32
5 5:58
6&7 12:30 (mile 6 marker was missing)
8 6:19
9 6:43 (includes stop in McD restroom)
10 5:58 (I must have felt much lighter)
11 6:11
12 6:10
13 6:10
14 6:10
15 6:15
16 6:12
17 6:16
18 6:21
19 6:40
20 6:35
21 6:30
22 6:40
23 6:32
24 6:23
25 6:59
26+.2 8:02