Under Armour Baltimore Marathon 2007

For many, Saturday was the pinnacle of the season, with the commencement of the Baltimore Marathon and associated events. Our squad was in full effect all day, appearing in the 5k, Relay, Half and Full, not to mention the fantastic cheering section comprised of me, Terence, Kris, Barf, Becky, Emily's husband Bryan and Sara Spears. I have posted the results on the sidebar so you can see the finishing places, but I'll do a quick recap of each event's highlights.

Marathon: Arjun was set for a great day but the rookie marathoner felt the 22 mile blues and his day went south from there. However, he earned himself a new nickname (Nails) due to his Herculean effort to get to the finish line. Another tough competitor, Lee DiPietro, was struggling with a calf problem from the early stages of the race, and would eventually pull out. Some had great races, though, such as Travis, who cracked the 3 hour mark, and Denise Knickman, who worked her way into the top 10. David Shumway and Bill O'Keefe also turned in great performances, with a 3:11 and 3:37, respectively.

Half Marathon: This was where TWSS was repped the most, with 7 finishing in the top 50 or so. Chris Chattin and Dave Berardi proved that age is only a number, finishing in 6th and 11th, respecitvely, and the big man, Justin G, was right on their heels in what was a 4-minute PR (1:19:33). Chrissie was just out for a marathon pace run, as she had a 2 hour run slated for the following morning. Despite that, she finished 7th in the women's race and ran a great race. Kristen Till was just behind her in 9th (1:23:44). Mellow Mike and Mike Zero weren't far apart from each other, and Tim Parker followed in 51st place. Finally, my cousin Emily finished her first ever half marathon (and the longest she's ever run!) in a stellar time, running faster throughout the race.

United Way 5k: Although I didn't physically observe this race, the times show that our teammates did really well. Tom Stewart drove it home in 15th place (17:37) and Alex Viana ran a solid race in 28th. On the women's side, Deneen captured 8th in just under 21 minutes.

Marathon Relay: There were a lot of folks in this one, with Kip running not only the first leg of the relay for Falls Road, but also pacing the first half of the marathon for the elite runners. Despite a pedestrian 5:48 first mile, Kip managed to pull off a sub 1:08 for the half. Not bad for his first "race" at the distance. He also put a few minutes into his own teammate who ran the 2nd leg. Mike Prada and Ryan Schmidt joined forces with the Breitenbachs, Mark and Katie, to win their 3rd (or 4th) straight co-ed relay title. Among the other performances were OJ and Matt Adami on the 3rd leg, respectively, and Claire, who ran the 2nd leg I think.

It was a fun day, good weather with chilly morning temps and a little bit of wind out there on the course. Party time on Saturday night was another highlight of the day, with just about everyone making it out to Fed Hill for a celebration.

And in other racing news, I had to cut my Saturday evening short to get some (4 hours worth) sleep before the Terp Trot 5k down in College Park. I was attempting to defend my title, and win my third Terp Trot since 2002. Last year I ran 17:33 en route to a 50 second victory over 2nd place Larry Washington of Rockville. This year, just looking around at the start line, I felt like it would be a little more competitive. As the gun went off I looked around to see who else would be willing to go to the front, but decided my best race would come by running from the front at my pace. I tore through Lot 1 and down past Van Munching. As I made the turn at the Commons to head uphill it looked like I had about 8 seconds on two others. By the top of the hill, the one guy had made up some ground. We stormed down Campus Drive and down past Administration. It was at this point, at about 1.75 miles, where the eventual winner passed me. His rate of speed was greater than what I could keep up with. As we ran behind Frat Row and back onto College Ave, I knew I couldn't contend for the win so I looked back to make sure 2nd was locked. In the end I finished in 17:25, 8 seconds faster than last year and good for second. The kid who won ran a 17:08 apparently, which means he put nearly 12 seconds into me in the last mile. It was a little while back to 3rd, but 3-10 were pretty close, as Tom Stott was 8th, outkicking some DB to run 18:36.

More importantly we saw tons of shorties, the hottest I've seen there in a while, and one girl we knew was young but we then found out she was the winner of the 14 and under category and felt bad.