Blog Posts From Turtle Training Tagged With baltimore_marathon

Baltimore Marathon, 2008

Steve Carton — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:54:56 GMT

Well, the 2008 Baltimore Running Festival is in the books and I managed to complete it -- my fifth marathon. And it was by far the best marathon of my limited experience. Not my best time, not even second best. But my favorite now, for sure. And we managed to raise about $1,000 for the Sadie's Gift charitable cause. Thanks to all of you! Here's the blow-by-blow:

I had a reasonable amount of sleep -- But I was too excited to get as much as I wanted. So when my alarm went off at 5:20, I was up and moving quickly (unlike for a day of work). Got dressed in my kit (which

I had set up and been fooling with since the past Thursday). Pulled ona sweatshirt (it was actually cold at that hour), had a bagel and abanana and headed out. The drive to the Ravens stadium is about 45 minutes or less (at that hour) from my home in the Annapolis area. So I was there in plenty of time to park and find the tent for the charity I was running for -- Team Sadie\. Jason and Amy Abell had set up a tent for the Team Sadie runners and were serving bagels, bananas, water, and (most importantly for me) coffee before the race. I got there at about 6:30 and met some of the others -- what a great group. We all crowded around for a team picture with our team shirts. Spencer (my runningpartner) met me there at about 7.

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!

One More Plea for Sadie's Gift

Steve Carton — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:43:18 GMT

I'm running in the Baltimore Marathon THIS SATURDAY and I'm using it as a way to raise funds for a charity -- Sadie's Gift (http://www.sadiesgift.org/) which is raising money for the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. This is my third and final plea:-) We've gotten some responses, but still would like to get more.

If you feel you can and want to make a contribution, please do; it's a great cause. I'll be writing about this and my training progress in my running blog at http://community.active.com/blogs/turtletraining. You can get to the site to make a donation from there or just go to the Johns Hopkins Children's Center website and to the ONLINE GIVING FORM page (https://jhweb.dev.jhu.edu/eforms/form.do?formId=6239).

You can make you donation on that page. Please (please please) indicate that your gift is for "Sadie Elizabeth Abell Endowment" by checking radio box near the top. Please also "Select a Runner" -- Steve Carton (that would be me:-).

Any amount would be fine -- there is no "lower limit". And if you prefer to make a pledge, please email me with the amount and I'll bug you after the race.

Thanks so much for your support. I'll send pictures afterward if you are interested.

Steve Carton

Tapering to the Baltimore Marathon, 2008, Second Week

Steve Carton — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:34:46 GMT

7 miles last night, beautiful and at tempo pace. Passed some runners (or were they walkers?). Felt like I could keep going forever! Nice cool weather. Had to stop mid-way for a nature call (I really should not eat salads and other fiber for lunch on a running day). But a great run along the Mt/ Vernon trail.

We're planning 10-12 for tomorrow, and some easy stuff for the weekend and next week. I think we're ready!

Tapering to the Baltimore Marathon, 2008

Steve Carton — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:30:21 GMT

Well, this is the end of our first taper week (of 3) so we planned to run 16.2 miles easy last night. Interesting weather - drizzle and windy and cool. We ran probably faster than we should have or needed to (and my legs feel it today), but we had near-perfect distance running conditions. In the end, we ran a bit more than our plan.

Our LDT route goes from National Airport (Gravely Point Park) north, over the 14th street bridge and then up and into Rock Creek Park, thru the National Zoo and on up towards the park's nature center, depending on the distance. It's a great route - water roughly every 2 miles, some big hills in the longer distance versions, free parking, well maintained trails the whole way, interesting sites and very few street crossings (6, I think. And only 3 are actually ever busy).

So we ran north, about 8.2 miles, stopping for a few minutes to give directions to some lost teens at the zoo, and turned around. Got back to the zoo, ran through it, and found, to our surprise, the gates at the trail exit were closed and locked. We backtracked a bit and climbed up the embankment to the Zoo road, looking for a way out and couldn't find one. Ended up backtracking to the main entrance and out that way. Added about 1.2 miles plus some mountaineering But also meant we got to run thu the parkway tunnel south of the zoo (which we normally get to miss by staying on the trail) and that was dis-topian - like something from a Will Smith movie.

We ended up back at the car, safe and sound, just a bit further on the distance than we wanted. But a fun diversion. I need to get a small sweatproof camera to carry for these events! Any recommendations?

Next week is a 10 mile long run.The week after, just short and easy.

Slogging onward.

T-Minus 3-Weeks, 4-Days, 21-Hours (and maybe a few minutes) to Baltimore

Steve Carton — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:18:34 GMT

And I'm psyched. Putting more hills in the training and we're past 22 miles on the long run. So if the weather cooperates and we don't have any last-minute injuries, we should do well. I'm back to looking forward to each training run, long or short, which is a big difference from earlier in the summer, when I wasn't interested or motivated.

Still planning to drive the route to see for myself what the hills are about.

I'm hurting today

Steve Carton — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:46:23 GMT

Yesterday evening my RB and I completed our first 22+ in preparation for Baltimore. We'll be doing one more next week and then start our taper towards the 10/11marathon. http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/dc/washington/457409879

The run last evening was fantastic. Temps in the mid-70s and resonable humidity. We ran slowly, though pushing a little throughout. I hurt today, but not from anything be the effort. So I'm pleased with where we are.

Hills Monday.

6 Weeks to Baltimore (Or Thereabouts)

Steve Carton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:57:07 GMT

Well, it's a bit more than 5 weeks or a bit less than 6 (depending on if you are a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full kind of person) to go until the Baltimore Marathon. Here's my training plan for this last bit:

This week (9/1)

Monday: Intervals 6x800

Thursday: easy long run: 16 miles

Saturday: Tempo run, 10 miles if Hanna permits.

Week of 9/8

Monday: Hills 8x

Thursday: Long Run: 22 miles

Saturday: Tempo run, 10 miles

Week of 9/15

Monday: Intervals 8x800

Thursday: Long Run: 22 miles

Saturday: Tempo run, 12.

Week of 9/22 (Start Taper)

Monday: Hills 8x

Thursday: Long Run: 16 miles

Saturday: Tempo run, 10.

Week of 9/29 (Taper)

Monday: Intervals 6x800

Thursday: Long Run: 11 miles

Saturday: Tempo run, 8

Week of 10/6 (Taper)

Monday: Easy Run

Thursday: Long Easy Run: 6 miles

Sunday: Marathon

Plus the usual bit of cross training and stretching that I plan to do, but never manage.

Breaking the 20-mile wall

Steve Carton — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:15:08 GMT

Not fast and not pretty, but my RB and I managed our first 20 miler in our quest for Batlimore marathon glory. Yesterday evening was an an okay running evening in DC - around 70 degrees and very humid, but for August in DC? A welcome respite from the oppressive heat.

So we decided to extend our planned 18 mile LDT run and see how we felt doing 20. And it was just great. I could easily have gone more. What a big psychological boost as we head into the last weeks of training for Baltimore.

Team Sadie and the Baltimore Marathon, 2008

Steve Carton — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:01:59 GMT

I've aligned myself with Team Sadie for my run in the Baltimore Marathon, October 11, 2008. Team Sadie is raising money for "Sadie's Gift", a charity established to raise funds for Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center. You can read about the charity at this site: http://www.sadiesgift.org/.

Here's the short version:

Sadie’s Gift has been established to raise funds for Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center. After acheiving great success in 2007, we hope to establish an endowment that will be created in Sadie's memory. This endowment will support the training program for doctors who care for critically ill children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) along the east coast.

I'm a true sucker for this kind of thing, being both a parent and a grandparent, and I grew up in the Baltimore area. And my dad taught at Hopkins (Peabody, actually), so Hopkins is near and dear to my heart. So I'm dedicating my run to this cause. What does that mean? Well, first it means I made a donation of my own. But I'm also asking anyone who reads this to donate. You can do so easily and securely, over the internet...

Just go to the Johns Hopkins Childrens Center website and to the ONLINE GIVING FORM page (https://jhweb.dev.jhu.edu/eforms/form.do?formId=5733).

And most of all, thank you. Thank you for the support and thank you for the gift.

Steve

7 Weeks to the Baltimore Marathon

Steve Carton — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:30:02 GMT

Actually, a little less. And reducing that by 3 weeks for the taper means we have 4 heavy training weeks to go. At this point we're up to 18 miles on the long runs and 6x800s for intervals. I'm still hoping to get as far as 10x800s before the marathon, but it doesn't seem likely. I am comfortable that we'll get a couple of 22-milers in. This week is 18, then 20, then 22. One thing I have to add in is more hill work -- Baltimore is hilly in the latter half. I'm planning to do some strong hills in place of some of the intervals runs in the next few weeks so as to prep for them.

I'm getting comfortable with my hydration and fuel plan too, though the jury is still out on protein in the fuel. I think it's a good thing and will probably keep it in -- I've been doing my long runs with the Hammer "Sustained Energy" for a while now and it doesn't bother me much, except it means wearing a belt for the marathon and I would prefer not to. So I should look for a prepackaged gel that has some protein in it. Or suck it up and wear the belt (I'm such a whiner). But, I'm feeling good -- like I should at this point.

Getting Psyched for Baltimore, 2008

Steve Carton — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:48:12 GMT

It's been awhile since I've written. I'd like to say I've been hard at work training, but that just ain't so I went through a funk in July, coupled with a long vacation and some work travel that left little time for running. But October 11 and the Baltimore Running Festival is drawing closer and I definately needed to get going with the training. Thank goodness for the great base we've created in the last 18 months. I was able to jump back into the long runs at about the 16-mile point. Not fast, but in the DC summer heat, I slow down a lot anyway. But now I'm back on track and feeling great about it. This is an off week -- my mother in law passed away and my family is embroiled in the funeral so not much time for training, but that's okay -- I'll be back on it next week.

I decided to run Baltimore as a part of "Team Sadie" representing Sadie's Gift Charity (http://www.sadiesgift.org/) if they'll have me. So if this kind of charity interests you, please let me know how much you would like to donate and I'll hook you up. More on that later.

I've been trying some protein mix in my fuel for the long runs and this seems to work well for me. Or, at least I don't feel bad or anything. Hard to tell if it is actually doing anything, but as the runs get longer, the protein may pay off. We'll see. At least I'm not smelling amonia anymore.

The Smartcoach Plan

Steve Carton — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:07:36 GMT

Jay Silvio mentioned an internet training planner program called smartcoachin one of his blog entries (Jays Week That Was: Baltimore 1 of 16). One of the things I've been troubled by is the lack of goal or target times for the various runs in my marathon training plan. Since I'm working towards the Baltimore marathon as my 5th marathon, I'm no longer just interesting in finishing (though that's always the fallback goal, should the event go badly). I want to improve my times. I ran the B&A in March in 4:35, so I would like to break 4:30 in Baltimore, assuming it's not too hot or humid or... And that seems like a reasonable goal.

The training plan I put together (based on Moores Marines plan), has lots of speedwork and distance running, but the thing that eludes me is something of a target pace for each run. I know the distance runs should be slower, but how slow, if I want to hit a specific target for the marathon? And really, it's too hot and humid now to run that fast (for me, anyway). And as for speedwork, I have no idea how fast I shoud be running intervals. I have some mileage goals but no target paces.

Smartcoach gives me that. I don't know if they are too aggressive or too easy, but at least I don't feel like I'm floundering anymore. As I look at the plan, it seems like the target paces are slower than 've been pursuing, but I've had trouble maintaining my paces, so that's probably a good thing. So I'm going to try it out, for a few weeks anyway, and see if it feels right.

Training for a 4:30 Marathon

Steve Carton — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:05:00 GMT

Well, after a short break (two weeks of no running at all following the Frederick marathon May 4, one week in the Bahamas partying hardy), we've started training for the Baltimore Marathon. It's running this year on October 11 and it's part two of the Maryland Double Challenge (the things we do for a medal to hang in the closet!). We've decided to start over, from scratch. Sort of. We (my turtle partner and I) are determined to break 4:30. Our fastest times are around 4:39. So we're close. But how do we train for a target speed?

After looking at lots of plans on the internet and talking with other marathoners, here's the basic idea: interval, tempo, and distance runs every week. We're starting out with intervals -- 4x800s with a couple easy warmup and cooldown miles on Mondays. Except that every other Monday will be hill work -- 4x hill ascents and descents. Increasing the number of reps every few weeks. Since we're trying to hit a target finish time of 4:30, we're working the intervals based on the Bart Yasso 800's theory -- so we are aiming for intervals in under 4 minute, 30 seconds. As I understand it, intervals should be run at a speed just short of gasping for air. 4:30 is too slow for that for us. So last night's intervals ranged from 3:40 to 3:50. Perhaps too fast, but I would like to have some extra gas during the marathon. I haven't figured out how fast to do the hills yet. These are especially important because the Baltimore marathon is very hilly.

Every Thursday is the distance run. A 4:30 marathon means a 10:18 pace. So we are planning to run at a 10:18 pace during our long runs. This may not hold up as the distance extends beyond 16 miles or so. I've personally run 18 miles in 3 hours, which is a 10-minute pace, but after that I faded. But I have to believe that if we want to improve our speed, we need to actually run faster. I guess it's a balance between running fast and having enough recovery time between distance runs. We'll start with only 10 miles, so we should be able to build nicely. We'll run each distance for a couple of weeks, then drop back a bit for a recovery week and then increase by a couple of miles. Gotta work out the water, especially as the DC summer rolls in.

Every weekend will be a tempo run -- 70% effort as I read it. I really don't know what that means except for a loose definition that we can converse (like all-stars), but it's hard. I think for me, this means running at about a 9:30 pace. I ran a 10-mile tempo run earlier this spring in 88 minutes, so I think somewhere between 9 and 9:30 should be about right. Maybe a little slower, but under 10 for sure.

So, that's the plan. I'm working on putting it all down on paper (or spreadsheet). Hopefully it will pay off.

2008 Marathon Schedule

Steve Carton — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:58:22 GMT

I've cast my die and registered for three marathons in 2008. Now I have to get kickin with the training again. I signed up for the Baltimore-Annapolis (B&A) marathon on March 2, the Frederick marathon on May 4 and the Baltimore marathon on October 11.

I had pretty much committed to doing Frederick with my RB -- he lives close to that area, and it turns out there is a "special" (as in "rode the short bus"?) deal called the "Maryland Double" -- register for and complete the Frederick and Baltimore marathons in 2008 and get a discount on the entry fee and also a special double-finisher medal. So that seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I was planning to run something in the fall, and I think the Marine Corp is just too big.

So I had two. And then I started remembering how much I loved the B&A marathon, which was my first one (spring 2007). I couldn't resist. And, since I'm a member of the Annapolis Striders anyway, it's pretty much a requirement to run that race, isn't it?

So let the training begin...