Weekend in Baltimore

Last week my dad came to visit! We had fun.

He hung out around town while I worked Thursday, and then Friday we went to Baltimore so I could run a half marathon.

We took the train. I thought the first couple hours were fun and the scenery was beautiful. But then after some delay and impatience I was ready to arrive already. And then we did, around 3pm.
 

Welcome!

We took the light rail to the convention center and then walked a few blocks to our hotel in the Inner Harbor. We checked in and dropped off our bags, then headed back out. We ate (finally) at the Pratt Street Ale House. Then we went to the race expo so I could get my race packet, and I bought a new belt that would fit my phone plus some food. Then we walked around and explored the harbor.

After all that walking my feet were ready to stop walking, since I had a race to look forward to in the morning. We had dessert at a restaurant and then headed back to the hotel. I was still able to hang out and relax a bit before going to sleep at 10pm.

Saturday morning I got up, ate my bagel with peanut butter, banana, orange juice, and coffee, and then was ready to go run a half marathon! Our hotel was right across the street from the start line, which was awesome. I went to the start, while Dad headed in the opposite direction so he could see me later along the course. We took off at 8:45.

I was in the first wave, and started pretty close to the front. Which meant lots of people passed me in the beginning as I forced myself to take the first mile easy.

I trained enough to safely run a half marathon, but I didn't necessarily train to be really fast. I still planned to attempt a PR though. (Spoiler: I did it!) Luckily the course was relatively flat. And sometimes there were good not-too-steep downhills and I was able to go faster than intended. I succeeded at negative splits, too!

Dad and I planned to see each other three times along the course. There were over 8,500 runners doing the half marathon (which eventually joined up with the full marathon course), and Dad was worried about finding me. But I knew we'd be fine as long as he was where we planned, since I'd be looking for him, too. Unfortunately he missed the first spot, but he was there as planned just before mile 5.

I ate a GU at mile 3.5 and started eating chews at mile 7. I also carried a little bottle of Gatorade and refilled it every once in a while at water stops. I felt pretty strong the whole time. I made sure to look around and enjoy the scenery, I loved reading the funny signs and appreciated the cheers along the way, and I grinned ear to ear as I ran past two women blaring Hairspray's "Good Morning Baltimore." I saw Dad again at mile 12.

The last couple miles I was getting kinda worn down, and while I wasn't really able to kick it even faster for the last mile I did manage to hang on to my pace. It felt like it took forever to actually get to the finish line though, because there was a big crowd and photographers right before we entered Camden Yards and I thought maybe that was it, but then we went through Camden Yards, which was a little lonely with very few spectators. When we got out of there the crowd picked up but the line was still a little ways off. Man oh man I was ready to stop. But I felt happy because I knew I would finish under 1:57, which was my PR from my very first half marathon.

The elusive finish line.

I finished in 1:55:12! My pace (according to my Garmin, which says I ran 13.35 miles) was 8:39. That's pretty exciting for me. I came in 77 in my division (out of 897), 416 for my gender (out of 5158), and 1306 overall (out of 8643).

I sat and stretched in the finisher area and ate some snacks, then met up with Dad (who was walking from that mile 12 point). Finishers got beer tickets, so I shared with him.

Finally we headed back to the hotel so I could shower and rest a little. Eventually we headed back out and walked to Fell's Point, where we had mussels and paella for our early dinner. After more walking we ended the night with dessert at another restaurant. (We sure ate well during Dad's whole visit.)

Sunday we got up and headed out to the National Aquarium. We saw all the fish and animals, and watched the 4D movie on sea monsters.

After the aquarium we still had some time to kill before our train, so we went to another seafood place for a good lunch. Then we grabbed our bags at the hotel and took a cab (Dad's first!) to the train station. Adios Baltimore, it was fun.

Back in Charlottesville Sunday night, Dad and I ate cheese and crackers and guacamole and chips and grapes while watching tv. Monday I went to work while he hung out on his own again. We ate dinner at the Local, followed by an evening of hanging up pictures around my house. Tuesday morning we went out to brunch before I dropped him off at the airport.

So my plan to run a half marathon as an excuse to have a mini-vacation with my dad was a success! And the PR was a nice bonus.