I always like taking pictures and I don't ever have a camera, except the crappy one attached to my cell-phone. And, to be fair, that one would probably be better if I didn't drop my phone so often. So I've been looking for a small, cheap camera to take on LSDs and marathons. I think I may have found one: a Casio Exelim. It's very small and very easy to use. And I got it for about $150 (incuding the replacement warranty). It's 8.1 megapixels, which seems enough for me! So here are a couple of sample pics from the LSD the other day:

This last is why I particularly like the LSD route we run -- the whole thing is mostly like this. The biggest issue is making room for other runners and cyclists. So no issue at all

In a previous post (GPS Accuracy) I reported the discrepency between my GPS (which is a many-year-old Timex) and my running buddies (which was a Garmin Forerunner). Well, to revisit the issue, he got a new Forerunner. And as of last night's long run, they are still off -- a half mile over a 18 mile run. So something wierd is definately going on. His was the shorter distance.

So I plotted the run on MapMyRun.com and it comes to 18.53. My GPS showed 18.76, the Garmin showed 18.26. So, I'm no nearer to the answer. I'm guessing that the Garmin is losing the signal a little more often and so isn't getting all of the twists and turns? And Mine is showing more because I'm not religious about mapping every turn and bend in MapMyRun? But those are guesses.

Then we headed over to the WBAL area. I had agreed to carry a small video camera and try to record some of the flavor of the first 6 miles or so of the run. So we met the folks from WBAL, got the camera and the headed off to the starting area, which was located on Russell Street out in front of the Orioles stadium.  The whole scene was an organized mad-house with runners being coordinated for the full marathon, the half, the relays and a 5k run. But the organizers did a fantastic job and we found the starting area without a hitch.  We had signed up for the 4:30 pace group and found that coral and to my pleasure, Pacer Dan (the same from our run in Frederick in May) was one of our pacers. We also ran into a number of runners we know from past marathons and from training. And many new friends. Our hope was to break 4:30 and we had trained hard for that.

We saw the gun go off and started the "press" towards the starting line. Somewhat similar to the MCM, it took a few minutes to get across the line.  And then we wereoff. Almost immediately we started the long climb towards Druid Hill Park, first up Paca and then McCulloh streets, through some of the rougher parts of Baltimore with boarded up houses. This first hill kept going up and up and we realized that between the hills and the warmth of the day (and it was getting steadily warmer), we weren't going to be able to hit our goal pace - we were going to have to slow down a little. We were losing about 10 seconds a mile even early on. So we "adjusted our expectations", focusing instead on finishing and having a great, challenging time.

We turned onto Druid Park Lake drive and ran over to 28th street with the old mansions on our right and the lake and Druid Hill Park (pronounced "droodle park" to you outsiders !http://community.active.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif!. It was beautiful and inspiring. I lived roughly in this area in high school and then later after college and it was like a trip down memory lane. We ran up 28th street to St. Paul Street (right past my old family house) and down the long first hill back towards the inner harbor. We met up with one of my training partners (Karen) and her husband (Sean). Sean was doing his first marathon and he looked in great shape. We ran with them for quite a while and chatted away most of the first half. We ran past the Peabody Conservatory of Music (where my dad worked most of his life) and then past Mercy Hospital (where he passed away). Truly nostalgic.

I turned in the video camera in the inner harbor. The video blog is available at http://www.wbaltv.com/sports/17694572/detail.html.  I'm the links for "Steve Carton (that would be me And I want to say thanks to WBAL for letting me do it.

We ran past the inner harbor and out along the waterfront towards Fort McHenry. This was a great part (one of many) of the run.There is something about the working/industrial shipping  parts of the waterfront always hits me -- it's regular working class neighborhoods along the water and the residents out playing music and partying and cheering us along. I had to stop here briefly for a pee break -- I think I had over-hydrated early on and had to cut back on the water for a bit. But the pee stop cost us about 3 minutes, enough to put us well behind schedule (ah well).

Then we ran out and around Fort McHenry. So beautiful. So inspiring. Met another runner along the path there who was doing his first marathon and had not really gotten the prescribed training in. We gave him some gel -- he was running out of energy and didn't have any of his own. Dude - I don't remember your name, but if you read this, please let me know how you did! As we rounded the point and headed back towards the exit of the park, a Baltimore clipper was sailing out under a full press of canvas. I stopped to get a quick shot with my cell-phone camera.

Then back into the inner harbor area and out Pratt St. and into Little Italy, Fells Point and over to Patterson Park. I lived here (Butcher's Hill neighborhood) for a few years after college -- bought and renovated my first house. That was when the hills started in earnest. I agree with some of the writers here on Active.com -- the hills were not steep, though some were long. But they just kept coming. It was a challenge. But we were psyched and set a pace and kept it. It was somewhere in here that I reallized that the half marathoners were mixed in now. My dim brain hadn't registered the point of the actual merge, but  I started to notice that I was passing more and more people. It was neat -- to be passing people so late in a challenging run (and I don't mean that in a mean way).

We ran up the the Clifton Park entrance which is a fabulous old buildingin need of a lot of love and then on out to Lake Montebello and the live band. Tried to dance a little as I ran (and I don't dance well even when not running). Good thing the vidoe cameras were gone! Had to stop again here to pee and realized I was still a bit overhydrated. And by now it was getting very warm and sunny. It seemedlike I would drink a little and in a short while I was parched again. I took to drinking a little and pouring some water on my face to keep cool and that helped a lot.

We ran over 33rd Street to Guilford and then over 28th to Howard. This was another great stretch. Fantastic neighborhood support. Lot's of local flavor -- crab hats, painted ladies, music blaring, gummy bears handed out by the ton. High-fives everywhere.And sooo important (at least to me) because by this time (mile 22) I was seriously fading. It seemed like every time we'd  turn a corner, we'd have another hill to go up. None steep or even long, but energy sapping. And I was definately getting hot. This was also where I was really glad to be running with Spencer. We pitched each other up every hill.

The we finally hit the long down-hill stretch of howard street and could open up a bit. Made up some time and it felt great, though the sun was getting more intense. I took to running down the left side of the street to stay in the shade a much as possible. It helped. Then we got to the Howard Street bridge. That was hard so late in the run, but we dug deep and worked up over it. At this point we were running to get to the next water stop, instead of running to finish. But after the last hill at about mile 25, it was truly down hill to the finish. Crowds got louder and more packed as we headed in towards the finish. Very nice stretch on the outfield track inside Orioles park (the only time I'm likely to ever be on the field! And a full-fledged sprint to the finish -- huge crowds cheering. 

Finished in 4:42:33. 12:33 slower than we had hoped, but given the warmth of the day and the challenge of the course, we both felt we ran our best marathon yet.   If we hadn't stopped to pee (twice) we probably would have bested our MCM time from last fall, so there's a lesson in that somewhere about overhydrating before the race. But I had a fantastic time and will try hard to do this again.

Following the  race, we made our way thru the crowds to find the double-challenge medal pickup line. The Maryland double challenge was for runners (or fools) who completed both the Frederick and the Baltimore Marathons in the same year. The line was very long, but it moved quickly and we got to meet and chat with yet more exhausted but smiling runners.

A special thanks to all the volunteers at the aid stations, water stops, bag-check and so on. Also to all the police officers who lined the route, keeping it safe.  And thanks to the random runners and spectators who shouted "Looking Good" -- that meant a lot, especially in the tough stretches near the end.  I also send a huge thank you to my wife, who put up with the training time (especially the LSDs after work) and to my running partner without whom I would rarely run at all. Thank you!