Baltimore Running Festival-I DID IT!

Well I survived! While I didn't train as much as I would have liked and I was super nervous about the logistics and to top it all off I was basically going to be sans hubby and Lilly and pretty much had to fend for myself the entire day (post to come on this topic later) -I ended up having a BLAST which kind of was a big surprise to me.  The run was hard work-whoever told me the entire first leg was flat really needs to hear a thing or two from me (for what it's worth I cannot recall who even told me this!)-there was a reason it was the shortest leg!  Holy heck!  The entire first leg was uphill minus the few minutes we ran through the Baltimore Zoo.  Girlfriend got her workout on!!! I was smiling like a total doofus when I finished.  Mainly because there were Dunkin Munchkins at the end but because here I was, totally down and out about this whole loosing weight post preggers thing, worried because I barely had any time to train, oh and not to mention the cutest little baby that came out of my tummy 6 1/2 months ago and I DID IT!!!  Grant it I did walk a few moments (OH THE HILLS I TELL YOU!) and I may have stopped to take pictures of the animals I saw at the Zoo- But I ran 5.7 miles and I did it in a little over an hour.  Official chip time was 1:11, although I think it's less since I actually didn't run over the sensor before I handed over the chip-Erin, who was running the second leg, did.  So I would say it was more like 1:09-not THAT much of a difference but I will take all I can get!  I carried my camera with me the whole time because how often do you get to run through the (hilly) streets of Baltimore?  It was such a new perspective on the city which is the part I loved the most.  Before I get to rambling I am going to share the pictures I took of my day/run and take you through my journey (sounds soooo dramatic I know!). 

The events of the Baltimore Running Festival really started on Friday.  Tommy and Lilly picked me up from work and we headed downtown to the Baltimore Convention Center to pick up my race packet.  Lilly really enjoyed herself!  We had to take a shuttle from the parking lot to the Convention Center.  Lilly loved riding on the big carter bus!

Apparently Registering gets her excited!





Team Relay here I come!!

This is what M&T Bank aka Raven's Stadium looks like at 6:10am.  I got there SUPER early so I could get parking and find everything-leaving plenty of room for error-but really it was nothing to stress over-super easy! 

Here is my team!  I actually didn't know these wonderful ladies prior to registering.  A mututal friend of ours had to drop out and offered for me to take her place.  I jumped at the chance to have some motivation to get back in shape and ended up meeting 3 super nice girls who all rocked the race by the way!  Go Chicks Run Ragged!  We thought we were going to be so creative by wearing NEON yellow shirts....but we definitely were not the only team who had that idea!

Once I got my bag checked I made y way over to the marathon start-race began at 8am and I didn't want to miss it!  Here is the view of the start!

I was feeling ambishous...

1 minute before gun time!

...and we were off!

When I was standing around waiting to start I actually met a really nice woman and we got to chatting.  We both were nervous about the run and decided to run together for a while to keep eachother going.  I found out she was a Baltimore City Detective-go girl!  We were running through partof her district and it was so fun to hear some of the horror stories along the way-big surprise there since we ran through the ghetto!  At about mile 1 (which seemed to take forever since it was all up hill) I realized I had caught her name-would do you know it was Kelly-with a y!  hahaha!  Here is sunny mile 1. 

We shared a good laugh about that and ran together until about mile 2. Taking pictures while running is hard!

I was pretty much right behind her the whole time and even saw her at the end of the race and she finished about 1-2 minutes before me.  I had told her about my blog and how I was doing a blog about my run and asked her if she wouldn't mind taking a picture with me and she happily agreed-here's to unplanned running buddies!  

 

So back to the race...This guy actually jump roped the entire thing!!

Funny because I seem to remember running another race with him...

See what I mean-HILLS!

I was feeling pretty good at mile 3-more than halfway there!  I felt sorry for the suckers running the marathon-not sure what I would be thinking if I had 23.2 more miles to go!

This part of the race is probably what took my mind off my hurting body and pushed me through until the end.  One of the coolest experiences-running through the Maryland Zoo.  This was something new they did this year and I even got to see some animals along the way!

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore"

Crikey!

This little guy wanted to come with me!

Leaving the zoo and only 1.7 miles left!  Mile 4 was brought to you by Utz. 

Gun time was 1:06 when I passed mile 5...only .7 miles left!

Ahhhh so hungry after the run-this was perfect!

This was the hill I finished on...began with hills, ended with hills! 

I had to hop on a shuttle to get back to the festival where I killed some time waiting for my team to finish...and of course picked up my medal!

I rewarded myself with this-hey it was free so why not!? 

Celebrated with Poe!

Me and my cousin Joe!  He is from NY but goes to school in DC at CUA.  He was there cheering on a friend and while we planned to meet up we actually just ended up running into each other! 

Cheering on the finishers!

I have to say my team did well!  Under 5 hours!!

I had a BLAST and I am so excited to do it next year!  After the race I headed to my parents house and relaxed a bit with Lilly-we enjoyed the rest of the beautiful day!  If this isn't great motivation I don't know what is!

When's the next race?