Bah! Humbug!! Oh, well, they can’t all be good. L
Actually, it wasn’t all that bad. Just not what I had hoped it would
be.
The day was nice. After almost a week of warm-to-hot, muggy weather, and strong
storms late yesterday, it cleared nicely overnight. Race time was around 70 degrees, sunny, not too humid and a pleasant breeze.
The setting was good. Oriole
Park at Camden Yards.
The entire ballpark was opened, so there were no toilet lines. So what went wrong? A couple of things.
Firstly, we got away from home late, which put us arriving in front of the
ballpark 25 minutes before race time. Still time to get into the designated race parking lot just around the corner, warm
up and hit the starting line. Except that it took almost 15 minutes to go two blocks and get into the parking lot which was
full and folks were parking in the lanes.....that blew the warmup time. Bah! Humbug!!
Hit the toilet (thank goodness for no lines) and jogged a couple hundred yards
to the starting line in the parking lot along side the Camden Yards Warehouse, which is part of the Ballpark and is the longest
building in the USA east of the Mississippi River. It’s an historic site. Got there 3 minutes before scheduled race
time.....stood and waited during the 10 minute delay in getting the race underway. Could have spent the time warming up. Bah!
Humbug!!
Fairly big field of several hundred. Located myself not too far from the front.
Noticed that every kid under 12 years old (must have been a hundred of them.....well, maybe only 25) and two women with baby
strollers were lined up ahead of me. Only took 8 seconds to cross the starting line, but couldn’t go anywhere. Problem
was that the course made a right turn after only 20 yards, then immediately crossed 3 sets of light rail train tracks and
a street, stepped up over a curb to climb the grassy slope of a street median, down the other side, over a 4 foot wide brick
sidewalk, stepped down another curb into the street beyond. Several hundred runners had to cram through three bottlenecks
(a turn, train tracks and a street median) within the first quarter mile. At the same time, most were trying to maneuver to
pass the slower moving runners ahead without realizing what the holdups were. Couldn’t believe it! Double Bah!! Humbug!!!!
Finally got a pace underway after about a half mile of confusion and frustration.
Then there were no split times or mile markers for miles one and two. Sound familiar, Governor’s Cuppers?? No way to
measure the effect of the lousy start conditions or progress from there. More Bah! Humbug!!
Other than that, the course was fine. Mostly flat with just a few slight to
moderate inclines. I especially enjoyed the finish inside the ballpark on the warning track in center field.
My race just never developed the way I hoped it would. I had set goals of Floor-26:30
minutes, realistic-26 and ceiling-25:45. I ran 27:04 on the clock....a net time of 26:56 after adjusting for the time to cross
the start line. So, I didn’t even make my floor goal. I probably ran negative splits, but only because of the jam up
at the start. And with no warmup, the first mile served that purpose. Finally got into a rhythm somewhere in the second mile.
Toughest hill (incline, actually) was in mile 3. Didn’t handle it very well. Psychologically, my race was shot at that
point. Pulled it together near the end and had a strong kick entering the ballpark and around the warning track. Out on the
course, I felt as if I was running hard all the way, after the jammed up start. But, I knew right after finishing that I had
not emptied the tank. Things just didn’t click today.
Last bottleneck of the day was in funneling the finishers into the post-race
refreshment area. Won’t try to describe it, but it amounted to jamming several hundred sweaty runners through a 6 foot
wide corridor with water bottle containers on one side and a box for collecting random drawing tags in the middle. Everyone
was trying to get to both while moving ahead. Chaos! Bah! Humbug!!
Once in the party area, it was very nice. No entertainment, but nice goodies.
Hot dogs, bagels, fruit, pastries. Chocolate cake.....are you listening Nurse Kratchett?? CJ?? Carol?? Many excellent random
prizes. Several combinations of a wind suit and Oriole baseball tickets. Several
$100 gift certificates from Holabird Sports.....some of you will recognize them as a mail order firm that advertises in RW.
They are located in Baltimore and had their own expo set up in the party area. The “grand prize” in the random
awards was a baseball autographed by Cal Ripken. It kept most of the field there until the last. Nope. As usual, I didn’t
win a darn thing. Bah! Humbug!!
BTW, this was my 150th race. A milestone of sorts. Wish I could
have run it just a bit better.
That’s about it.....except for one thing. I had a great time!! Didn’t
like the course. Disappointed with my performance. Frustrated with some of the arrangements. But, loved it! Don’t let
my “Bah. Humbug” comments fool you. I’ve been through enough races to know that most have their imperfections.
It’s just a matter of degree and when they happen. Most things about this race were first class. Besides, I know the
race director and know that he does the best he can with the conditions and limitations imposed on him. I’m certain
that the course problems were not of his design. Besides, it was a beautiful weekend morning and I can’t think of a
better way to enjoy one than with a good race, despite its shortcomings. I’ll be back next year even if I know that
nothing will be different. Kind of reminds me of what an old southern comedian named Dave Gardner used to say about sex....the
worst I ever had was wonderful! J
Jim2
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