Baltimore 10 Miler

I signed up for this race on February 1, 2010---I believe this was the start of the snow era earlier this year. In fact, as I look at my iCal I see that I had the opening registration date set on my calendar...I probably signed up for it early in the a.m. Little did I know that when June 19th came I would be exhausted beyond belief.

It was a busy week for me...On Monday was graduation practice, Tuesday graduation, Wednesday the Awards Breakfast and Ceremony, Thursday the 8th grade Dinner Dance (and my last AU class for the semester) and Friday was the picnic---and packet pick up--in Baltimore.


Sunday was Mark's first full triathlon. It was a busy, busy week.

We left right after school to drive to Baltimore for packet pick up. It was at the zoo. It took us two hours to get there with the Friday rush hour traffic.

Packet pick up was beautiful and serene. We were excited because it was yet, another new part of town. Druid Hill Park that we went past looked wonderful...as did the zoo where the packet pick up was.

I walked up and got my bib number and D-tag for timing and was told that the shirts would be given out at the finish line.


It is here that I should mention that Mark and I had had a serious discussion on the way up about the next morning's timeline. The race started at 7:30 am....I had to be there by 7 am, which meant leaving the house around 5:30 am or 5:45. The more we talked about it, the more we both were exhausted. So we decided to take the play-it-by-ear approach.


Flash forward to the woman telling me that the awesome shirt would not be available until race morning. I ended up explaining my situation to her and sharing my entire 8th grade schedule....she very nicely told me to talk to Julie in the corner. Julie was kind enough to break open one of the boxes with the shirts in it and give me mine early just in case I didn't make it to the start line. THANK YOU!


Since we were in Baltimore we decided to pay a dinner visit to the City Cafe--a favorite of ours!

We were not disappointed! We ordered these nachos that were to die for! A white welsh rarebit sauce of sorts, green chili sauce, and pico de gallo on a bed of corn chips....delish! I'm still raving about them!

Dinner was polenta with fried fresh mozzarella with white beans in a pesto sauce. It was good but I wish I had ordered another round of the nachos!

Mark ordered steak and frites.


We got back to DC around 10 pm.

That pretty much sealed my race thoughts right there. I decided to sleep in until 7:30 or so under the strict condition that I would get up and run my 10 miles first thing in the a.m. So I charted a 10.15 mile course and set out at 8:15 on Saturday a.m. It was hot and I was happy with my decision....It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes---that includes stopping for traffic lights, walking breaks due to the heat, etc....

I know it's not quite the same as a race, but I'm counting it...I ran the same mileage at the same time (essentially) as the other race and plugged along.....

#12 done.