Baltimore Half Marathon Post Mortem and Next Steps

So, with a day to digest my race and the entire weekend, I have to say that while I regret not being better trained for the race and bummed that I wasn't able to really challenge my National Half Marathon time, I am pleased that I was able to make the 13.1 miles and didn't crash and burn.

Nonetheless, I am sorer today than I remember being after the half marathon in March, which is definitely a symptom of sub-par fitness, but also the general hilliness of the course. I had no idea just how many hills there would be along the way yesterday, especially considering that much of the half marathon course was the back half of the full marathon course. With that in mind, I think I fared pretty well.

In addition to the hills, I was also surprised at just how many spectators there were on most parts of the course. You always expect lots of people to be at the start and finish lines, but I saw people out along much of the course, which was great. As bad as Baltimore's rep is (I mean, The Wire was so hated by the Baltimore political class because it was so accurate in showing the corruption and incompetence of the city government), there's a lot to like about living here, and running through the city seeing people cheer on runners on a Saturday morning was a good example of that.

So, once my legs recover (hopefully by Tuesday morning), what is next? Well, the next two weeks will be consumed with the wedding (next week I'll be married! Whoa.) and then the honeymoon to the Caribbean. Hopefully I can find some time to run during all that time. The Richmond half marathon is about 5 weeks away and I fully intend to be properly trained for it so I can set a new PR.

Ideally, I'd like to set a whole slew of PR's this Fall and Winter, starting with Richmond (half marathon) and then at the Green Valley North Turkey Trot (5 mile) and/or Celtic Solstice (5 miles). Maybe after Christmas I can enter a winter 5K and set a new PR there as well, we'll see.

For tonight, I will continue to recover and rest up so I can hopefully get back to running on Tuesday before flying out to Cincinnati on Wednesday.