Baltimore Running Festival Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Don L.
Potomac, MD

  (12-18-2011)

"This is a 2-part review. Part 1 was written before the race. Part 2 after the race. Here goes...

Part 1 (written before the race):

I thought I was signed up for the Baltimore Half Marathon but I am now informed that I registered for the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Half-Marathon at the Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival. Wow do I hate these commercials.

Oh, and I will go to packet pickup at the Baltimore Sun Health & Fitness Expo, then run with a GEICO pacer, and afterward, find my friends at the T-Mobile Reunion Zone.

PS: The preferred donut of the race is Dunkin Donuts!

That's just a fraction of the commercial names that are plastered over every inch of the race. So I'm left wondering, why did the race organizers need me to pay money for things they're obviously not paying for in the first place? They should pay *me* to be so intensely advertised to. They should pay me for the right to sell my attention to the hundred sponsors of the race.

Part 2 (written after the race):

I'll start by saying there were some very good things about this race:

Volunteers were great.
Police were great.
Crowd support was great.

I'll relate my other comments in the order that I encountered them but first, to fully appreciate the remainder of this story, it will help to understand that the race had 4 major components: marathon, marathon-relay, half-marathon, and 5K. Three of the events started at 8am. The HM started at 9:45. When I registered, that late start seemed like one of the nice things about the race. However . . .

The race had no race-morning packet pickup - its size (25,000) made this unfeasible. We were required to come to Baltimore earlier in the week just to pick up bibs and shirts. I suspect this was simply an attempt to make money because earlier this year, the same organizer (CSE) had a HM in Frederick which had satellite packet pickups all over the state (even had one in Virginia!) that were extremely convenient. The Frederick race attendance was much smaller than Baltimore so if satellite pickups made sense for Frederick, they made even more sense for Baltimore. Why did they force everyone to travel to Baltimore? My guess is they realized they could charge Baltimore sponsors more for the expo. (At Frederick, they couldn't charge as much since since most runners skipped it.)

There is parking at Baltimore but we were advised that the early events would fill it and so CSE recommended people doing the HM take light rail. However, neither CSE not the Baltimore MTA (Mass Transit Admin) had explanations for the obvious questions - such as which stations were near the interstates and had sufficient parking? (In their Facebook page, CSE responded, "Some things you guys have to handle on your own." Why this was inappropriate will be made clear later.) Fortunately, some local people answered some of our light rail questions. However, we discovered the hard way that we couldn't buy advance tickets for light rail at the station so there was a 30 minute line to buy tickets at the soon-to-be-overflowing North Linthicum station on race day morning. Ack - wasn't that the point of using mass transit - to skip the congestion? There would've been less congestion but one of the machines was sold out of round-trip tickets. Grrr. How could MTA not know their machines were low on tickets? (They're all networked.) And the evening before the race, the MTA posted that there would be work at one of the stations, closing it on race day morning. (The MTA admitted they knew about the race when they scheduled the closure!) But the MTA website sucks to begin with. (Don't get me started on that!)

So we took light rail down to the Camden Yards station as directed by CSE's instructions. In fact we took light rail twice - because CSE recommended taking it to the packet pickup as a dry run - which we did but packet pickup was at a different location so it didn't teach us enough because on race day we found that the bag check was at the previous station. Grrr. Oddly, CSE's map marked the previous station "closed on event days". How unhelpful. Race day either was or was not an event day - why not just say whether the stop would be open rather then leaving us to puzzle it out? (But why close a stop on event days anyway? Shouldn't it be the opposite? More crowds need more stops, no?) Anyway, the stop was open. But what's the point of even putting it on the map to suggest it might be closed since we weren't directed to use it in the first place?! (The other maps we were given were equally confusing but I'm not going to spend any more time critiquing their inability to make maps.)

After dropping off our bags, we walked 3/4 of a mile to the HM start line. The walk wouldn't have been so annoying except for 3 things. 1) For already having gone out of our way to come by light rail, you'd think we'd end up closer - indeed the station was right at the start for the marathoners (but not the HMers), and 2) we already had to walk some to get to the bag check. But that was a trivial irritation compared to what came next: 3) We had to cross the course of the marathoners while the marathon was in progress! Try to imagine 11,000 of us HMers crossing the path of 5000 marathoners. And it wasn't a skinny path so you could easily see the breaks in the traffic. No. It was a multi-lane road so the marathoners were all across it making it very hard to find breaks. It was dangerous for us and upsetting to the marathoners as we darted in front of them. The police were cringing as they had no power to pause the race or to stop the walkers. They just watched us dart in and out.

After finishing the dangerous crossing, we walked around looking for signage directing us to the start. If there were any signs that said "start" we didn't see them. But we finally found signs for each of 5 waves. I was in wave 2 and I found it filled with people from other waves. I would say that 1 of 5 people in the wave had the wave 2 bib on. There were even wave 1 runners in our corral. It was crazy. There may as well not have been waves at all. I asked one couple with wave 5 bibs what they were doing in wave 2. "It's too far to walk to wave 5." There were no officials to enforce the waves as there should have been. The waves were controlled by tape and a dream. People posted complaints about this to the Facebook page and CSE refused to take any responsibility. Instead, CSE blamed it on the participants.

Here's what CSE wrote in response to complaints about the corrals:

"this slow runner issue has to do with A. common runner etiquette B. Not reading our manual; A. slower runners/walker stay right, no more than 2 abreast B. more evidence people don't read our stuff. the walkers that line up first are doing the opposite as instructed. one theory is they think they have to leave early in order to make it to the finish line before 3....common sense: slow in back, fast in front. kind of like 10 items or less in the grocery line."

Not only is that incoherent but it misses the issue entirely and ends up pinning the blame on us. Sheesh!

According to the results, I crossed the start line 8 minutes after the gun. With 11,000 people, that sounds fine but because of the lack of wave control, the start was pretty rocky. Lots of dodging around people running at different speeds. Frankly, this is not atypical for large races but here it was exacerbated because there was a hill in the first quarter mile so the less experienced runners slowed down abruptly causing even more problems.

The next problem was the road had cones running down the center. Since the first few miles were very thick with runners, it was hard to see these cones and I missed a few by inches. Other people were not so lucky and tripped on them. I've never seen cones in the middle of a course unless it was to mark a pothole. But when we did encounter a pothole early on when runners were too thick to see them, the police literally stood over them and yelled warnings to us. (Kudos to the police!) So I'm still mystified why those cones were there. I suspect there was confusion - maybe we weren't supposed to be running on both sides of the street but there were no cars on either side and no one was guiding us to stay on one side of the cones so it left us with this dangerous situation.

At mile 3, we met up with the marathon runners and ran the rest of the race with them. This was both good and bad. The bad part was that the water stops appeared to be designed only with the marathoners in mind, not the half marathoners. There were 7 water stops - which sounds like more than you'd need, yet our first one was at mile 3. That's just plain weird. But they got weirder. The next was one mile away, then 2 miles, then 1.5 for the remainder. It's easy to drink the wrong amount when the water stops are such uneven distances.

Wait, that's not the end of the weirdness. The website promised fruit on course, yet the only time I saw fruit was bananas at mile 10. Also promised were "UTZ Brand snacks" and Larabars at miles 7.5 and 10. I actually like Larabars but I don't train with them and can't imagine anyone does. I was actually looking forward to the UTZ things (which I interpreted to mean potato chips) as a bit of a pick-me-up rather than actual nutrition at the mid-point. But I saw none. However, there were Larabars at 7.5 so I gamely decided I'd get one, until I realized that there was no way to tell them apart at the speed I was running by the table. (Some flavors are not good!) The volunteers weren't handing them out so I was left to just grab one randomly from the table. Then I realized they weren't open. In case you're not a consumer of Larabars, let me assure you these things are well sealed.

And while CSE promised that the snacks would come before the drinks, they didn't. So it took me all of 20 seconds to realize there was no way I could possibly open that damn wrapper with one hand hanging on to the cup of gatorade. Quite possibly, I couldn't have opened it even without the gatorade. Running just doesn't make certain things easy plus my hands were sweaty. I could've stopped but by then I figured I was already spilling the gatorade over my hand. After about 10 more seconds, I couldn't think of a way for this to end well and so I dropped the bar - only to find other people had done the same. (At the finish, I found more uneaten bars that people had grabbed, not eaten, and just carried to the finish line, probably in a shorts pocket - the bars were severely squished.)

I never did find the Utz at mile 10 either but by then I wasn't looking too hard and didn't stop for fluids either.

Locations of all food and drink on the course was specified only according to marathon mileage. What are we - chopped liver? The bulk of the runners were there for the HM, yet we got treated like 2nd class citizens in several ways. I already mentioned the first aid station was at mile 3, obviously not for the convenience of the HMers. And the official pacers were only provided for the marathon. There were no pacers for the HM.

To return to the subject of mile 3, this was the point at which the marathon and HM merged and ran the remaining distance together. This could have worked well but it didn't - because CSE didn't bother to attempt to have our speeds match. So the marathoners had to weave through the remainder of their race. Had they matched speeds, it would've been so much better for everyone. So why didn't they? Because they wanted the marathon winner to cross the finish first for that ideal photo op. (With matched speeds, a HM would've crossed first because the first HMer runs at a faster pace than the fastest marathoner.) I don't see what the big deal is with photo ops - after all, several male marathoners invariably finish before the first female marathoner and that doesn't create a problem, does it? (If they really want an isolated photo-op, all they have to do is temporarily open a separate chute coming into the finish for the lead marathoner. That's done all the time in multi-loop races. It's not a big deal.) I posted this comment to the Facebook page and CSE responded that "We have discussed that but as you have seen in some of the other posts not every lines up by pace . . ." But that's because CSE doesn't control its own corrals. In other words, CSE is blaming it on something under their own control.

As I came into the finish, the HM finish-line clock wasn't working, only the marathon clock was working. Since I don't wear a watch, I figured that if my timing chip wasn't detected, I was screwed. No way to figure out my time. Fortunately, I found out later that my time was recorded but many people posted to the Facebook page that their time wasn't recorded. I realize the timing "chips" are not 100% reliable but isn't that one of the reasons to have a clock at the finish? And I saw no timing clocks (other than the broken clock at the finish) along the course. If there were clocks, they weren't evident.

After I crossed the finish line, I entered the hell known as the refreshment area. Even though I got there pretty early, it was already a confusing mess. CSE's handbook said runners were to quickly get their food and then move to the "Celebration Village" where they could get their bags. (I asked CSE why we couldn't get our bags first so we could put on warm clothes - their answer was that they were afraid people would stuff them with food. That's absurd.)

CSE had promised the food area would be efficient but it was terrible. Huge lines for mediocre food (uncut bagels with no spread, uncut oranges & apples, pretzels, potato chips). Hidden away behind the food tables was Phillips Seafood giving 1 oz cups of seafood stew. reGen was giving boxes of pseudo-chocolate-milk but I wasn't the only one who realized too late that it had to be shaken before opening. Shaking after was impossible. I apologized for the mess (but they said they understood and pointed to the messes from other people doing the same thing) and handed me a 2nd container. I heard some people praising the taste but I suspect they were just thirsty. To me, it tasted like watery cocoa. Good cocoa flavor but the wrong texture because of the water. All that sugar (2nd ingredient after water) didn't save it.

All the CSE documentation claimed they wanted people to get their food and immediately go over to the "Celebration Village" but the design of the food area didn't accomplish that. People just wandered around the food area since, well, it had the food, it was roomy, and there was nothing forcing us out. To the contrary, it was near impossible to get out. The exit was very wide (25 feet across?) but it was still jammed with a huge crush of people trying to exit and going nowhere. I read in a friend's blog that she "took one look at the gigantic line for food, then decided to skip it and leave the finishers area" only to find herself waiting for 15 minutes to get out. That must have been torture on her legs.

One of my calves was cramping so I just wanted to stretch at that point. I found a quiet corner of the food area and stretched. Then I walked back over to the food tent with its lengthy lines. All I wanted was a banana and pretzels. They had warned us earlier to only take one of each item. But no one was checking so after a lengthy wait, I got two bananas and a few bags of pretzels. A shame they had to make this so difficult. I hobbled around the food area for another 20 minutes trying to find anyone I knew but there were just too many people. Went over to the info tent (which didn't have an official representative facing the food area!) and asked if there was another exit. A woman apologized for not being able to let me out (said she was yelled at for letting runners out earlier) and suggested there *might* be another exit at the other end of the food area which meant another 50 feet of hobbling in the other direction. I followed her advice and was able to bypass the crush of people.

What I wasn't able to avoid was the crush of trash. Every trash can was overflowing and I frequently found myself tripping on empty water bottles and other debris. What was particularly odd about the trash was that CSE's previous HM in Frederick was very clean. There were people stationed next to every receptacle asking if they could take trash from us. And there were recycling receptacles all over. At Baltimore, I only saw a single recycling receptacle - and it wasn't even for the bottles but for the mylar sheets. Of course, it was overflowing.

CSE had come up with an incentive for people to run both Frederick and Baltimore - a special "Double" medal. Having qualified, I now had to ask several people where to get it. CSE had previously stated it would be marked by a specific color balloon but there were no marker balloons that I could see for either that or for the bag check (which was similarly marked) though I did see other random balloons people were carrying. The idea of using an object that random people carry for fun makes no sense as a directional aid. There were occasional guidance signs painted on the pavement - those were much easier to follow. Alas, the Double medals were not part of that marking system.

Finally found the Double tent by looking for the Engraving tent. (The Double tent had no sign on it but the Engraving table did.) Can you guess what happened next? Yes, another huge line. Yikes. A person I had asked for directions had clued me into the fact that there was a 2nd line that was much shorter. The theory was that names A-M was one line and N-Z was the other. But for because there were no directions and the place was such a mob scene, almost everyone lined up in the longer line. (The short line was too small for most people to notice.) Realizing they wouldn't turn people away, I lined up in the shorter line - only 3 people, I got to the table in minutes and the worker crossed over to look up my name with the other person - effectively making two people do the work of one with the result that two lines just funneled into one. The other people continued waiting on the long line. What a nutty system.

From there, I began to walk back to the light rail station but first I passed the tents for the charity runners. There were about 15 or so tents. All of them had much better food than CSE provided. I found a charity that I had donated money to earlier this year and picked up some cantaloupe followed by some veggie pizza. On the other hand, some of them asked their runners to give upwards of $1500. Wow. (Do you know that if you don't reach your fundraising goal, they'll conveniently charge the remaining balance on your credit card?!)

CSE just emailed us all surveys. They warned us not to complain about two things that they already know about. Time tracking updates didn't work. They blamed this on a contractor. The relay busses were not efficient. People posted to their Facebook page of hour+ trips for just a few miles - and missing seeing their team members cross the finish. CSE hasn't blamed this on anyone but they haven't explained why it happened either. Fortunately, I wasn't affected by this - I'm just mentioning it because it's one of the few things CSE admitted going awry. CSE also apologized for running out of pins (blaming it on runners taking too many), and medals (blaming it on volunteers misplacing them) and shirts (no explanation). They're really good at shirking any blame themselves.

A couple of miscellaneous comments:

Much of the course was ugly sections of Baltimore. Abandoned housing, boarded up tenements, industrial areas, adult movie theaters. Miles of this stuff. At the mid-point, we ran around a beautiful park that should have been a nice oasis but there was a helicopter hovering over the lake. Of course it was the best place on the course to get photos from on high but it made running around the lake far less than serene for us. Instead, it was loud and windy. In promo material, CSE repeatedly played up how the marathon went through the Baltimore Zoo. Not the HMers, though.

The way CSE provided info was utterly confusing. Too many places to look for info including the website, a runner handbook, emails, and Facebook page. Each of these was incomplete but with different bits of info that were important. The most up-to-date yet the hardest to follow was Facebook. CSE kept making frivolous postings that pushed earlier stuff aside so it couldn't be found. Even if you know the topic of the comments, Facebook gives no way to find them by searching. 95% of CSE's posts were inane or repetitious - and some were complaints about us - that we weren't reading all their documentation and kept asking the same questions over and over again that were already answered elsewhere. They clearly brought a lot of this on themselves as they started answering personal questions which just encouraged more people to ask personal questions that should have been resolved by a call or emailed to CSE directly. (Despite their willingness to answer inappropriate questions, they also gave the answer I mentioned earlier - telling us we were on our own to figure out something we had no way of figuring out ourselves. And at some point, CSE started switching back and forth between allowing posts from other people. And then they did the same thing with showing posts from other people. It was maddening.

Combined with the light rail charges, this $80 race - already expensive - became an $86.40 race. Maybe this is simply what it costs to host a race in Baltimore. (There were a huge number of police on the course - maybe we needed them to run through much of Baltimore?) On the other hand, some of the things they spent money on just made the high price that much more painful - for example, the technical t-was a ghastly orange. Not only haven't I bothered to try it on, it's still in the package.

Unless I go color blind, I can't imagine wearing this at any time in the future. I heard lots of HMers voicing similar complaints. (No complaints from the marathoners and 5Kers - they got nicer colors.) Also, please see my observations (Part 1 earlier) of sponsor names over everything in sight. Why were we even paying anything at all?

Lest you insist that HMs take a lot of money to put on, I suggest you look at races like the $40 Parks HM (which gives clothing instead of medals) or the $10 Bachman Valley and $20 Riley's Rumble. All are close to Baltimore and with excellent support, food, and courses. Yes, none offers medals - I can live without them. In fact, the Baltimore Medal is engraved "scratch 13.1 miles off your bucket list." What a dumb thing to put on a medal. The only way that makes sense is for people who will never do a 2nd HM. Well, after Baltimore, they probably won't. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2011

David F.
Baltimore, MD

  (10-16-2011)

"My first Baltimore Marathon. It was a fun time. Crowds actually were pretty good. There are spots where there aren't too many people but then there are spots where there are great crowds. The hills are brutal even though overall there are not too probably not too bad, it just keeps going up and up and up from 16-23. The finish is great as you run through Camden Yards to M&T Bank Stadium. The run through the zoo was new and the zookeepers brought out a lot of the animals such as penguins, ravens, and an alligator.

The expo was much better since it was at the Convention Center compared to M&T Bank Stadium. Much more space and more vendors. With the added space I would have liked to have seen Under Armour do more but it was a decent expo.\

Need to work on my leg strength a little more as the hills really sap your strength."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2011

Sid B.
Goose Creek, SC

  (10-19-2010)

"This is one amazing event,from packet pickup to the finish,it was great. The expo is held at Ravens Stadium,plenty of parking and with in walking distance for us out of towners. Getting my Goodie bag shirt and bib number went very fast. Nice expo,lots of stuff to buy.
The marathon starts by Camden yards,and the hang glider bringing innthe American Flag as well as the great singer was Awesome. The course gives you a good tour of CHARM CITY,and the people of Baltimore sure made all of us runners feel at home. The Police were exceptional,not only controlling traffic,but giving us encouragement which i know got me to the finish line. Volunteers were fantastic from those at the expo to the ones on the course. A special tribute to GUMMY BEAR MAN AND EYE OF THE TIGER MAN.I will be doing this event again next year."

Reviewed by a: Repeat Participant for 2010

Michael K.
Manassas, VA

  (10-18-2010)

"This is the first Under Armour Baltimore Marathon that I have run. I was surprised to find out that there were only 3359 finishers. The starting area was good, water stops for the most part were good, some later in the race had the first table or two empty, but the rest were well stocked. At some of these there was someone announcing that issue and told the runners to proceed to the other tables. Course was a little hilly than I thought it would be from looking at the elevation chart, but nothing drastic. The merging of the half marathon onto the course caused some additional weaving since there were groups of half marathoners that had obviously not started in the correct corrals. Spectators were throughout the course cheering, some areas much heavier than others, but even the one or two on their front steps in the light sections were cheering. The biggest issue was the finish area. This was a serious bottle neck. I would recommend that they have multiple lanes to pass out the space blankets, medals, water, etc. Also have the materials ready, they were still unwrapping the medals from the plastic in order to hand them out. Having run other marathons, with the materials ready to hand out and having multiple lanes works the best and keep people moving from the finish line. The overall flow of the food area wasn't great either. Also at the runner's exit, they had the relay team members entering at the same point, I would recommend giving them another point of entry. Overall a good race, but I would recommend that they look at some of the larger races to see how to handle the post race logistics better. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Heather G.
Myrtle Beach, SC

  (10-21-2009)

"Great race! a lot of hills, which was a big surprise to someone like me, coming from a sea level, incredibly FLAT town!

The pacing groups are AMAZING at this race. Numerous pace leaders for each distance.

Great water stops, and a lot of local crowds out cheering you on. Many with music, food, candy , etc of their own for the runners! I felt very welcomed by the city of Baltimore for this race!!

I unfortunately had a less than ideal race, physically, so I can unfortunately assure you that there were adequate aid stations and porta potties along the course!!

Under Armour provided awesome tech tees (even a ladies fit for the ladies!) and the crab medal is really neat.

I think the only complaint I have of this race is the "scenery" per se... a huge portion of this race was run through what appeared to be abandoned neighborhoods. Boarded up or broken windows in apartments stretched for what felt like miles. And, the roads were closed to traffic, but had not been closed to parked cars. There were many times when I had to either hop up on the sidewalk or veer out of the way of running into a car parked in the street (more so at the beginning before the crowd had thinned out). "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Elisabeth A.
Laurel, MD

  (10-16-2009)

"This was my first marathon ever, and it was very close to home. I was injured during training, but decided to do the best I could and just finish.

The things that I enjoyed about the race:
1) The organization was impeccable. Although this was my first marathon, I've done several other races, and this was by far the best organized.

2) The race expo was huge.

3) The race shirt is awesome.

4) Water/fuel stations were numerous and well-stocked

5) The medal is pretty cool

The things that I didn't enjoy:

1) The course winds through some very seedy neighborhoods. When running with a large group, this probably isn't as noticeable. When injured and walking, it's a little unnerving.

2) I was not impressed by all of the dead rats that I encountered on the streets.

3) Did I mention the dead rats?

4) I was not a fan of the hills, but that's just a personal thing. (p.s...the person who reviewed this race and said that it was a "relatively flat course" has lost their mind entirely).

5) At times, I was downright confused about where the course was headed. This probably wouldn't have been a problem if I wasn't walking though.

Overall, it was an 'ok' experience for me. Next year, I'll travel a little bit farther from home and find a race that suits me better. With no dead rats on the streets hopefully. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Ann B.
Millersville, MD

  (10-13-2009)

"For five years I have woken up on the morning of the Baltimore Marathon and thanked God that I was not running that race. Because for five years, without fail it has been unseasonably hot on marathon morning. What possessed me to sign up for it this year? I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but it was the shirt.
The marathon starts less than fifteen miles from my front door. So, every year I am faced with marathoners who are sporting the extremely cool Under Armour Baltimore Marathon shirt the rest of the year. This year I decided I had to have it too. Was it worth it? Well, yes. The shirt actually fits, is a true technical shirt and, in the words of my fifteen year old son, is “hot”. Of all of the marathons, road races, and triathlons I have run, this one, by far, gives out the best race shirt.
And the marathon? Though not in my top three marathons, it was a well organized blast. This is one of the few marathons I have run over the years that is put on by a race management company and the advantages of a professional organization putting on the race were clear.
The race takes advantage of two great Baltimore sporting venues. The race expo and packet pickup was held at the M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, with more free parking than a runner could desire. The same parking was arranged for race morning and better yet, that stadium as well as Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, opened their restrooms to the runners before the race began. Real bathrooms, not port-a-potties, are this runner’s dream.
The marathon is held in conjunction with the Baltimore Running Festival which includes relay teams, a 5k and a half marathon. I was not sure what I thought about adding so many people to a race that I thought would only have 4000 runners, but it proved to be a real plus on several levels. First of all, the atmosphere before the start of the marathon was much more festive with so many other runners milling about. Second, because Baltimore does not have a great base of fitness residents, the other runners and their families brought much needed spectators to the course. Third, and most importantly, because the half marathoners don’t merge with the marathoners until mile 16, just as we started to hit the dreaded seven miles of hills, they gave us a psychological advantage I had not considered. Their fresh legs and the fresh legs of the relay runners were not slowed down as much by the hills, they were not walking as much or making it look as pitiful as the marathoners alone may have made the scene look. I found myself feeding off of their zeal and finishing the race much stronger than I have finished marathons in the past.
The course itself is a city course which leaves a lot to be desired. Though the organizers developed the course to take in the best of Baltimore, the city is still not the world’s prettiest city. The roads leave a lot to be desired and the city residents did not show up as heartily as in other cities I have run in.
That being said, the positives on the course made up for the negatives. The neighborhoods that did show up were enthusiastic and creative in their support. As we ran past the art museum there was a nice crowd with music blaring, giving high fives and entertaining us with their dance moves. And the last neighborhood we ran through before going back into downtown Baltimore, was filled with spectators sporting hula hoops and The Eye of the Tiger blaring from a car topped with a dad dressed in a tiger costume. If there was a contest for most enthusiastic neighborhood, this neighborhood would have taken the prize.
The best part of the race though by far, was the crowd that lined the road as we came to the finish and ran through Camden Yards into another line of spectators cheering the runners across the finish line. As I said before, this race doesn’t make my top three marathons I have run, but it did have one of the best finishes of any road race I have run.
Will I go back? Probably not because there are so many marathons I want to try. But I would definitely encourage others to give the Baltimore Marathon a try.
"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Maria C.
Boalsburg, PA

  (10-13-2009)

"Fairly flat course for those that train on hilly areas. Very crowded race course, so stay away if you like your space.

Atmosphere was awesome. I wish I could have stopped to listen to the bands. Neighborhoods showed incredible support w trays of M&Ms, gummy bears, Bruce Springsteen blaring Born to Run and of course the guy in the tiger suit dancing on top of the car. I had a blast."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2009

Dane R.
Salt Lake City, UT

  (09-15-2009)

"A Runner's Ramblings: Volume 3; 17th Edition
356.1 miles raced in 2008
Race: Baltimore Marathon
Place: Baltimore, MD
Miles from home: 2080 miles
Weather: 60s; sunny

After last week's run with Bill at the Brooksie Way Half-Marathon, I knew I was in for an inevitable letdown. Fortunately, being the Charity Chaser at Baltimore Marathon was the way to combat this and keep the high going. Having been fortunate enough to do the same thing at the Frederick Marathon in 2007, I knew what to expect. However, this time, with Baltimore being a larger race, I also knew I was going to be bobbing and weaving for miles and miles. I almost thought about wearing a GPS just to see how far I actually would run but decided against it.

First and foremost the Baltimore Marathon is doing everything right in becoming a great mid-sized marathon in a large town. Baltimore itself has a nice feel to it, and even though it is just 45 minutes or so from Washington DC, has a completely different vibe to it entirely. Even though I was so close to where I was staying for the weekend at my best friend's in DC, it felt like we were hours away.

Prior to the race, I had a chance to meet up with the United Way people, for whom the money I raised with my legs would be benefiting. they were very happy to have me running for them and I was more than pleased to be running for such a great cause. At the expo on the day before the race, I worked the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) booth. I saw old friends and made new ones as we let everyone know why there would be a guy standing around near the start, not moving, when the starting gun was fired. Just in case you weren't aware, my task for the day was to be the absolute last runner to take off at the marathon. For each person that I ended up beating to the finish, RBC would make a $2 donation to the United Way. Pretty cool!

With that, knowing I would be running with purpose the next day, I hit the bed as early as I possibly could.

Race Day

A beautiful day is what greeted runners and spectators on race morning. Unfortunately, as we all know, beautiful mornings often make for tough race conditions. While I knew it could be much worse, I was hoping the bright sun and the predicted high 60s temperatures would not be too detrimental.

The race gun was fired and thousands of people began to stream by. And by. And by. I stood and watched as I tried to think about the best plan of attack for passing everyone. I wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible as I passed the runners (because, it is their race too and they do not deserve to be impeded) but I assuredly did not want to run on the outside of every single turn and curve. Luckily my singlet stated "charity Chaser" and See Dane Run on the back of a very bright blue background.

As the crowd thinned, the announcer let the crowd know what I was doing and they cheered wildly. I acknowledged their enthusiasm and smiled inwardly. It is still rather difficult to realize that random people are cheering specifically for me!




Finally a few stragglers made their way across the starting line. Soon thereafter, about 5 minutes or so after the gun went off to start the race, I took off myself.


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First 10k:

When I had ran the Frederick Marathon Charity Chaser in 2007, the crowds had thinned by 3-4 miles. With many more runners here, I knew it was going to take longer to weave through the masses. I had been assigned a cyclist (Paul) who was radioing back information about my whereabouts to those at the finish. If I think I had it bad, this poor guy had to try and keep up with me as I jumped in and out of the sidewalk to the road and then back again. I knew my best chance to pass the biggest amount of people would be in the first 3 miles. With an uphill start, I would be able to use the elevation gain to my advantage and pass as many people as possible.



I kept missing mile markers as my eyes were on the road in front of me or runners around me (or the inadvertent elbow I took to the face from one gentlemen who then told me to watch where I was going. Both Paul and I laughed as I assured this man I most definitely had not intended to ram my face into his elbow). with an unstated goal of trying to run a sub-3 hour marathon I knew pacing was going to be crucial. However, with the extemporaneous stimulation of runners around me who I was passing with ease, it gave me the impression I was running far faster than I was. as such, missing mile markers became a problem. Soon however, I did settle into a groove but mile after mile still have hundreds of runners in front of me. I t was so neat to see the back of the packers and shout encouragement as I ran by. I looked for many friends who I knew were running the race but found it very difficult to pick people out from behind in the crowd. Luckily for me, I was easier to pick out and many of my friends shouted out to me, as did those who had simple seen the commercial on the local TV station telling all what I was doing for the United Way.

With the crowds thinning ever so slightly as I approached the 10k mark, I was happy to see I was on pace and feeling good. the sun was indeed out and it was getting warmer but much shade was providing by the buildings we ran through and the trees lining the streets. Baltimore is a pretty town!

To the Halfway Point

The city was really out to support the runners but what was even better than that were the thousands of relay runners waiting for their runner to pass the figurative baton. As runners would go through these areas, teeming bodies of nervous energy would cheer and shout for those they knew or the occasional loud-mouth guy saying "Let's Hear it! (i.e. Me).

After a trio around Ft. McHenry and the Northwest Harbor area of Baltimore, I finally caught the 3:10 pace group. Since I wanted to run 3:00 or under and had a five minute deficit, meeting this group around mile 10 or so was a good sign. Nearing the halfway point, I looked to be right on schedule and hit the half with a little to spare in the tank in a 1:28:20.

On to Lake Montebello (Mile 20)

I told Paul that after the halfway point, I begin to play tons of mind games with myself to stay focused. To me, mile 14 is huge. After the big emotions that come with passing the halfway point, I almost invariably have a slow mile 14. In order to average a 3:00 marathon, one must run an average of 6:52 per mile. When 14 was a 6:48, I was pleasantly surprised, especially when I had 80 seconds to spare. I knew the next three or four miles would really tell the tale as this is where the race began its uphill ascent once again. But a 6:59, 6:57, 6:58, 6:52, 7:00 had me feeling great. I knew that mile 20 and the loop around pleasant Lake Montebello was going to be a flat reprieve before the last up hills of the race.


The Final Hills

I figured that this flat section would be where I could bank a few seconds per mile, rest up and prepare for the final push. However, a 6:56 and then an almost unexplainable 7:04 followed as I traversed the circumference of the lake. Knowing that I had a solid hill left before a nice steady downhill had me worries a bit. I told Paul how quickly a nice little reserved can be lost as soon as you had one bad mile. I was determined to not have a bad mile but was unsure what would happened once I left the lake.

Almost immediately we began a climb through a mercifully tree-lined section. I happened to look down at my royal blue RBS singlet and notice it was completely caked it white salt. Crap. The sun had snuck up on me and was depleting me without me even knowing it. I pushed hard to the next aid station to take in some fluid asap. Two full glasses of water, one glass of Gatorade and a surprisingly fast (for an uphill) 7:04 mile had me feeling good. The slight downhill miles began and I was hoping I was ready for them. However, try as I might I could not get the legs to turnover. Even on a (mostly downhill grade) all I could muster was a 7:08 and 7:14 for the next two miles.

Paul radioed ahead and told them I was going to be pretty close to sub-3. I think this helped me pull a 7:02 mile out of what felt like a 7:30. With 2.2 miles left I was praying to hit one more downhill to roll into Camden Yards with a sub-3.



Unfortunately, I got an uphill (not much but one nonetheless) and I was sapped. I knew, if this were, say my first attempt at sub-3 and I did not mind collapsing at the finish, that I could have given everything I had and made that push. But it wasn't my first, there were no runners that were within passable distance in my sights and the sacrifice was just not worth it. I could only hurt myself (with a half marathon, a 12 hour race and a full marathon in the next 21 days) and gain nothing more for the United Way. So I settled into what the hill was going to give me, prayed my watch would surprise me but gritted my teeth when I saw a 7:45.

The last mile had me trying to do calculations in my head to see how much I was going to miss sub-3 by. One of my goals is to not repeat same minutes. I have run a 3:01 (in the first of my two Bostons marathons on the same day earlier this year) but never a 3:00. In fact, I never want to run a 3:00. It is too close to 2:59! But as I hit the last .2 with Camden yards to my right, I could not do the math quick enough in my head to realize where I would finish. And, as I drew closer I could see the camera and microphone waiting to interview me at the end. All I could picture was a sprint to the finish to break some arbitrary goal of mine and then an "Agony of Defeat"-like crash at the end. I decided to simply cruise in and accept whatever time I had.

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3:01:08. Well, damn it, if I knew it was only 8 seconds I would have run faster!

Regardless, I finished 77th overall out of 3114 pure marathon starters. I am unsure how many marathon relay people I passed but I know about 5 teams passed me in the last mile or so. Nothing kills the ole ego faster than some fresh-legged runner sprinting past you in the final mile of a marathon. Nevertheless, by my estimate I will have passed a total of 6,000 people. As such, the United Way will get roughly $12,000 from RBC.

That should make for a nice Columbus Day present!


"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008

Chad B.
Boyds, MD

  (08-19-2009)

"This is a wonderful event. The course is lined with local support. Almost every turn had locals playing music, cheering you on, high fiving or people in chicken costumes. The event shirts are from the Bmore based company, Under Armour. I will be participating in 2009 as well."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008

Gina W.
York, PA

  (08-06-2009)

"Great crowd throughout the race. The city run was nice, but there was a block or two that made me want to run faster to get out of that area. Overall, there was great support and organization of the race was good. If you live in the area, I would recommend it for a 5K. But I was from out of town, and probably wouldn't go through the trouble of traffic and crowds unless it was for the 1/2 or full Marathon."

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008

Alan C.
Brooklyn, NY

  (08-03-2009)

"Great first marathon - excellent logistics, people and atmosphere. It was a great tour of the highlights of Baltimore - Druid Hill Park, Fort McHenry, the Inner Harbor, Clifton Hill, Lake Montebello and Johns Hopkins. The initial crunch subsided after Mile 2 or so, which is better than most half-marathons!"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2008