I've run this course before, and had a great time running it in 2007 with MLJ (now MLR) and SR (now SM). I knew what to expect, to a certain extent. But still, it was a bit different. The 9:45 am start felt much later than 2007, but MLR said it wasn't. They started in waves, be we couldn't really figure out where the waves starts were. We should have been in Wave 5, but I think we ended up in Wave 2. And that was still 10 mins or so after the gun went off.
I stuck with MLR, who was walking the half, for about the first 2 miles, and then I started running. I know, it's bad. But, and I can't believe I'm writing this, I like running. As one sign said, "Sweat is fat crying." There were some great signs and shirts on the course.
Now ML said she saw the little dixie cups of beer and candy that people hand out, but I must have missed them. And believe me, I was looking. That was one of my fondest memories of the race the first time. The crowds, the beer, the candy - starbursts, swedish fish, gummy bears - that spectators would pass out. I saw bits of it on the ground - twizzlers and red candies, but I never saw them. It's not because I was running fast, but because it was always so crowded. Still, they had lots of water on the course, and around the lake, they offered bananas (unlike the orange slices in 2007) and pretzels/chips.
All that negates the fact that you feel like you run uphill for most of this race. Seriously, until mile 11, I felt like was running uphill the entire time!
The only really bad part was the finish. Trying to get out of the runner's area was tough. There was a bottle neck and it was sooooo crowded.
The other thing I did wrong was, forget to reset my garmin at the end. I tacked on just under 3 miles, by running back to MLR's friend's M's house in Baltimore. I didn't notice until about half a mile in.
My chip time was 2:27:04 (which was better than my 2:36:24 from '07).
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