Race Report: Frederick Half Marathon

DATE: May 05, 2024

DISTANCE: Half Marathon (13.1mi/21km)

PLACE: Frederick, Maryland

WEATHER:  52F and rainy

OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: 2:27 / 11:15 min/mi

FINISHERS: 2452

SWAG: Sweatshirt, medal, two post-race beers, and random bits and pieces from the post-race festival

Woo hoo! My first official Maryland half marathon as a resident of Maryland. This half took me to the town of Frederick, which is about 30-40 miles from Washington DC.

EXPO:

There really wasn't much to the expo, because I picked up my bib and bounced. Actually, I take that back. I just realized that I picked up my race stuff at an off-site at a local running store rather than picking up my materials at the official expo. For me, it did not make much sense to drive 30 miles to Frederick to pick up my bib, drive 30 miles back to Silver Spring, then make that same trip one or two days later. I guess I should be grateful that the organizers had a couple options to pick up race materials outside of the expo.

Pre-race:

To be honest, I was over the half marathon before starting it. While driving to Frederick around 5 am, I was very concerned with the early morning downpours. There were a couple of times during my drive that I considered turning around. One time I had this thought was when I had to pull off onto the shoulder of the interstate to pee in the rain. Some folks may know that I absolutely HATE running in the rain. I don't really understand why because I tend to sweat a lot, so it's not like I'm NOT going to get wet while running. Maybe it's my fear of slipping on wet surfaces. In Frederick (about 30 min before lining up), I had to internally tell myself: Look! Stop complaining about the rain. Either shut up and run the half or get in the car and drive home. I think my internal pep talk help. ;)

You know, this is the first time that I've seen corrals marked with pace rather that letters of numbers that's supposed to represent a pace cutoffs.

Actually, I think this a better way to assign corrals. IMO, I think runners would be a bit more "honest" (or rather, cognizant) of their running level/state when the corral's pace is clearly visible. A pace is consistent from race to race, but Corral letters/numbers are not. For instance, Corral E might have a pace cutoff of 11 min/mi for one race, but Corral E might have a pace cutoff of 10 min/mi for another.

The Course:

Overall, I really enjoyed this course because it was very flat and had a few twists and turns that allowed us to explore the historic town of Frederick. I don't know why, but I really appreciate a course that has a few turns. I think it's a mental thing for me because making a turn kind of gives me a mental reset.

You know, 50F weather is kind of annoying because it can feel too cold or too hot. I was planning to run in a short technical T-shirt, but I figured that it would be too cold for that. Fortunately, I packed a long-sleeved tech shirt. Unfortunately, my long sleeve shirt was too tight to put over my regular shirt, so I put the long-sleeved tech shirt under my short-sleeved tech shirt and thought nothing of it. About 3/4 of a mile into the race, I realized that I was going to become too hot running with this set up. Begrudgingly, I had to stop and rearrange my outfit, which involved:

• Finding a spot off the course to change.

• Taking off all of my shirts and putting the long-sleeved tech shirt around my waist. Since I really like this long tech shirt (I think it's from one of my NYC marathons), I didn't want to toss it.

• Unpin the four safety pins and transfer my bib from my shirt to my shorts. I did this just in case, I would need to put my long sleeve tech shirt over my t-shirt.

I guess doing this took longer than I thought because I was VERY far in the back of the pack by the time I finished.

Ha! I think there were about 10 runners and course sweepers behind me by the time I finished dealing with my wardrobe "malfunction".

General Recap:

In previous half marathons, I typically will run 0.8 miles and walk 0.2 miles intervals. For this half, I tried to push myself a little bit by running 0.9 miles and walking 0.1 miles. I'm not sure if it made a HUGE difference, but my time for this half marathon (~2:27) was a bit faster than the one I ran in March (~2:34). Around Mile 7, I decide to push myself a bit more by walking my 0.1 miles after running 2 miles instead of after each mile. Also, I incorporated fartlets and 0.25 mile "sprints" during Miles 8, 10, and 12.

I wonder if Cow Tales are anything like Duck Tales.

At the post-race festival, I learned that Cow Tales are a chewy candy. Although this candy has been around since the 80s, I don't recall ever seeing them.

I'll say that for 80% of the race, I did not feel like I was struggling. I didn't feel super strong, BUT I did not feel weak while running. I hate to admit this, but I think the rainy weather might have had something to do with my improved performance because the rain prevented me from getting too hot while running.

HA! I was ecstatic to run past Olde Mother Brewery, which produces one of my (newly) favorite beers.

Once again, I will say that I was quite impressed by the city of Frederick, and I would not mind visiting again for a day trip.

I'll say that it was very interesting to finish up the half marathon on a racetrack (for motorcycles, I think).

Post-Race:

Overall, I thought the post-race festival was very nice because there was plenty to do...on paper. However, the rainy weather kind of put a damper (pun intended) on the festival because the festival area was full of mud. I remember almost slipping on a few occasion while making may way from point A to B to C...

However, I did not let a little mud stop me from enjoying my post-race beers.

Because of state or city mandates, they had to open and serve BOTH cans of beers, so I guess everyone was double fisting beers. While the race and post-race party were organized very well, I think in the future they should provide runners with 21+ wristbands. Many runners were turned away from grabbing their post-race beers because they did not have an ID. So, folks had to walk a bit to go to the back check (which was outside of the post-race festival area), get their ID, and return for their beer. Had it not be for the mud and coldish weather, I would have stayed a bit longer at the festival.

However, I was getting cold and really wanted to get my dry bag to put on my sweatshirt.

I have to LOL about the sweatshirt. When I picked up my race materials at the "expo", I thought that it was kind of dumb to provide a sweatshirt for a May half marathon. However, the sweatshirt definitely kept me warm after the race, AND it's a very nice really nice sweatshirt. I thought it was kind of funny that I saw so many discarded race sweatshirts along the course. Maybe these folks have run this half marathon a few times and didn't need (or want) another sweatshirt.

Luckily for me there was a Planet Fitness about a few miles away. I decided to hit up the Frederick Planet Fitness, to stretch, use a hydromassage table, take a shower, and change into clean clothes. After that, I drove by home, picked up the husband, and had brunch (fish n grits and mimosas) at a local Creole (or as my friend says "Beyonce Creole, not Haitian Creole") restaurant in Silver Spring.

While the mimosas were delicious, my fish n grits were off because the dish was way too salty. Although Sunday was Cinco de Mayo, I really did not want to go to a Mexican or margarita spot for my post-race feeding...and drinking. I was tired and did not want to be around a million and three people guzzling down margaritas, wearing sombreros, and being loud.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

-The half marathon did not go as well as I would have liked (weatherwise), but I definitely want to run this half again next year. Also, I might be interested in checking out one of race challenges.

-The quaint, historic city of Frederick is very nice and deserves a non-racing day trip.

-While I did not achieve the time I wanted, I am somewhat happy that my time improved from my last half. Actually, I take that back because I never set a time goal for this half.

Playlists:

Since Eurovision 2024 is this week, I gave the Class of 2024 one more complete listen before the contest's kick off.

Race Report: Spin in the Woods (4 mi)

DATE: March 30, 2024

DISTANCE: 4 miles

PLACE: Wheaton, MD

WEATHER:  mid 40s F

OFFICIAL TIME (mm:ss) / PACE (min/mi): 44:26/11:03

FINISHERS: ???

SWAG: Nada

LOL. This weekend's "impromptu" race was my first official trail race in my 10 or so years of running. What do I mean by impromptu? Recently, I joined Montgomery County Road Runners Club (link: MCRRC), but I had forgotten that the club organizes what they call "low-key" races throughout the year, which are free for members. Last week, I was randomly looking for some races for April and saw that there was a race in a couple of days. Since I was supposed to run 10 miles over the weekend and the location of the race was a couple of miles from my apt, I figured why not add a race to my long run.

I kind of like the concept of the club's Low Key Race Series. For these, there are no medals, no shirts, no swag bags, and no huge expos, you pretty much show up, grab your bib, run the race, and go home. ;) These races kind of remind me of my cross country meets during my high school years.

One minor drawback to these races, I'm responsible for keeping track of my red tracker for the entire race season. I didn't know folks still used the tracking chips that you have to attach to your shoes.

The Spin in the Woods took us through two loops in Springbrook Forest. Since I'm training for another half marathon in May, I sandwiched this race between a 2-mile pre-race run and a 2.5-mile post-race run.

Ha! A couple of deer even "greeted" me along Sligo Creek Trail during the 2-mile pre-race run.

I know that deer are pretty peaceful animals, but they do scare the sh*t out of me when they just randomly cross the path and stare at you before running away.

While I was supposed to run 10 miles this weekend, I did not feel like adding another 1.5 miles to the 2.5 mile post-race run . . . especially bc I was really close to my home. Looking back, I kind of wish that I pushed out that those extra 1.5 miles bc I do feel a little guilty about not running them. Oh well, there's always next weekend's long run.

Overall, I thought the trail race was nice, and I have no complaints about the course and organization. I will admit that I was VERY nervous about tripping and/or twisting my ankle on rocks, tree roots, or the uneven surfaces. Fortunately, I did not trip over anything and bruise something like my ego. ;) Since I'm a bit slower these days, I was also a bit nervous about getting lost somewhere in the woods after the thinning of the pack. Fortunately, that did not happen.

The course was a little challenging because there were a couple of hills (the blue circle in the pic below indicating the race's elevation profile), but it wasn't anything that I could not handle. Actually, the hills kind of surprised me because I did not look up the course's elevation since it was "only" four miles.

All in all, it was nice to try something new, and I'm open to running another trail race in the future. However (at least for now), I think that I prefer road races over trail races. I thought the MCRCC did a great job with marking the course because there were plenty of orange flags throughout the course. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were a couple of water stations along the course. I wasn't expecting that because 1) it's a low-key race; and 2) concerns over runners tossing their paper cups into the wilderness. This experience reminds that I have to remember to sign up to volunteer for one of the club's races in the near future: 1) to the return the favor of the volunteers for this race and other races; 2) to meet some new people in the area.

Playlist:

Speaking of trying something new, I decided to listen to Beyonce's Cowboy Carter album while running this race. In this album, Beyonce is doing something a bit different and taking a crack at Country music. I thought it was a decent album; however, I wasn't blown away by the album. I have to admit that I don't really listen to Country music, but the album sounded more Country-Pop with R&B and hints of Trap music.

Race Report: Kemp Mill (C)hills 10K

DATE: February 11; 8:30 am

DISTANCE: 10K

PLACE: Kemp Mill, MD

WEATHER: 48F; rainy

OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: 21:10:01 / 11:30 min/mi

SWAG: light pre- and post-race snacks

Boy oh boy, it has been a long time since my last race report, but I was somewhat happy to run my 1st race as a resident of Maryland.

Thoughts:

Although this was a race, I really could not run as hard as I wanted to because I incorporated this race in to my 10 mile run. I ran 2 miles from our house, the 10K race, and 2 miles back to the house. The race was organized by the Montgomery County Road Runners Club (MCRRC) and was very low-key. Actually, this race was a part of MCRRC low-key race series, and I think it was the smallest race that I've completed. I think there were about 70 folks running. I wonder if more runners would have showed up had it not been for the rain or the Super Bowl. While it was a smaller race, I was actually a bit intimidated because everyone (well ~90% of the runners) had great running bodies. Geez, some of those male runners' quads and calves were on fire.

Course:

Although the name of the race has hills in it, I did not think that there was gonna be THAT many hills.

After hitting the first major hill within the first 0.5 miles of the race, I really considered running the 5K instead of the 10K. I forgot to mention that we had to option to run either 5K or 10K around mile four. However, when I saw the fork in the road (left for 10K and right for 5K), I decided to power through, especially because I really wanted to run 10 miles for my long run.

When they said low-key, they were not kidding because we started at a local elementary school and ran through the a quiet Kemp Mill neighborhood. I guess it was nice to have this low-key race because it gave me a little opportunity to explore the neighborhood a bit, even though I do not really remember where the hell we were running. Since the race took us through a Kemp Mill neighborhood, unfortunately, the roads were not completely closed with a few cars driving along the course.

Speaking of low-key, I had to LOL (in a good way) because MCRRC uses old school timer chips that one has tie on their shoes. I haven't seen one of these since my early New York Road Runner (NYRR) days back in early 2011.

Hey, it was all good in the hood. As long as the racing chip tracks the time, I don't really care where it goes. Random, I wonder if these chips are sensitive enough to be attached to running clothes or bib.

Since I was in long-run mode, I stuck to my walk 0.1 - 0.15mi at the beginning of each mile. With all of those inclines and declines, I definitely need those bits of recovery. Actually 24 hrs post race, my quads and calves are still quite sore, so I guess this race gave me a great workout. Also, it showed me that I REALLY need to do more hill work and that I have a long to go on my fitness journey. Also, this race made realized how much I missed participating in races, so with that I'm 99.9% certain that I'll register for an MCRRC membership.

Playlist:

I was feeling an 80s vibe, and this Spotify playlist has some pretty nice uptempo beats. Although I am an early 80s baby, I wish that I was an adult during that bc the music was so fun. Ummm....maybe not, bc from what I know HIV was a bit of a b*tch back then. Well, the virus is still a b*tch in today's times, but it's a bit more manageable now.

"Quick" Review of 2023

Winding down 2023

I guess I'm a bit late for this wrap up, but I'll keep it brief. On IG, I normally post a brief year in review. Like I said on IG, 2023 was more of a crockpot year because things were kind of slow and steady - not saying that's a bad thing.

Let's start with the highlights

January: Hubby and I saw Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. Going into the show I wasn't really expecting much because I've never been interested in the Cirque du Soleil brand. I gotta say that I REALLY enjoyed the show because of the dancing, the fun, and all of the AMAZING acrobatics. Maybe it's an age thing for me. In my 20s, I would not have been caught dead at a Cirque du Soleil show, but now in my 40s, I'm down with it.

February: One City Half Marathon (Newport News, VA). I remember registering for the full marathon, but I couldn't (or didn't) run it for whatever reason.

March: Shamrock (half) Marathon (Va. Beach, VA). While my half marathon time was not amazing, I thought this was a wonderfully organized race. If you are ever thinking about running a race in the southeastern part of VA (i.e., Hampton Roads/Tidewater), I highly recommend running a J&A Racing event. They do a great job putting on a race, AND they have amazing post-race parties.

April: Yearly (or near yearly) trip to Spain to visit the hubby's family and friends. During this trip, we visited Bilbao, which is a city in the Basque region of northern Spain. This day trip was my first (and hopefully not last) trip to Bilbao. I have to say that I was really surprised (in a good way) with the amount of cultural and culinary diversity in Bilbao. To be frank, I think that I saw more diversity in this city compared to typical cities that one thinks of when talking about Spain, e.g. Madrid and Barcelona.

May: Eurovision in Washington DC. Since we were not traveling to the UK to see Eurovision 2023, the hubby and I decided to do a weekend trip to DC to attend a Eurovision party. We ended up going to one viewing event, but the bar's A/V system was a hot mess, so we ended up watching it at another bar. Funny thing: Originally, this was just supposed to be a Eurovision trip to DC, but I got a new job in Maryland around this time. So Eurovision in DC became Eurovision in DC and apartment hunting in the DC metro area. We probably should have spent less time "Eurovision'ing" and more time apartment searching. Fortunately, the day after Eurovision, we found two places that somewhat fit our needs.

June: The "big" move from Va Beach, VA to Silver Spring, MD. Geez! in one year, we had two major moves: New York, NY -> Va Beach, VA and Va Beach, VA -> Silver Spring, Maryland. I did not plan on doing this, but my new job's work schedule made it a bit impossible to do a VA <-> MD commute. While the position is hybrid, my onsite days are Tuesdays and Thursday, which would require staying in Maryland three to four days a week. Although we are both enjoying living in the DC metro, I will admit that it has been tough on me. The job and apt (for the most part are fine), but I do not really know people in the area, and it has been a bit hard to meet people. Let me take that back, I know OF people (e.g., former high school and college classmates), but I don't really know them to say Hey X, lets grab a drink next week. One of my goals for 2024 is to reestablish old relations and get involved with a couple of organizations in an attempt to meet new people.

July: Hubby's birthday month. I'm posting this because with the move and getting settled into our new place, I really did not celebrate my birthday, which is in June. Sooooo, I kind of celebrated my birthday with the hubby's by having a really expensive dinner. Random trivia. Our birthdays are separated by one month and one day. After posting, I realize these pictures are not from the really expensive restaurant but from a Spanish restaurant where we had brunch. I was too lazy to change the pictures. ;)

August: This is where the year took a freaking nose dive. While I was on track (for the most part) in training for the Marine Corps Marathon (October), I had a flare up of a herniated disc in my lower back. This injury took me out of everything for about 2.5 months. For most of August and early September, I had major issues with pain associated with sitting, standing, and/or walking. During this time, I remember debating during the early mornings if I wanted to deal with the pain of getting out of bed to use the bathroom or just pissing the bed. Although things are better for the most part, I have been VERY dedicated to stretching 2-4 times a day. The next step is to get my weight under control . . . more on that in a future post.

September: Eh, nothing really worth mentioning because I couldn't do much of anything due to my back injury. At least walking with a cane, prevented me from touching random surfaces with my fingers. ;)

October: I managed to make it to my first yelp Elite (MD Burbs) event. It was great for two reasons. 1. I met a few new folks. 2. It was one of my 1st social event since the back injury.

November: Lol. A friend told me that she saw me in the New York Times article about the benefits of walking vs running. Funny thing, the article was published in November 2023, BUT it's an old picture. After going through the photos on my phone (and based on the color of my shoes), this picture must have been taken in 2018 or 2019 when I was living in NYC.

December: TROPICAL CHRISTMAS in Cancún, Mexico. A few interesting things:

• We survived our first (and hopefully last) Spirit Air experience. Here's the thing, Spirit Air was the only airline with direct flights from the DC metro area to Cancún that were not crazy expensive . . . I'm talking about $500+ in addition to the all-inclusive package, which included the resort stay and airfare. Also, I thought it would be dumb to have a layover for a travel time of 3.5 hours. Again, I was really surprised that there were not more direct flights since we live in a major city and were traveling to a popular destination. All in all, we had a decent experience on Spirit Air, but maybe we were lucky...very lucky. I have to admit that I was very nervous because I (like most) have seen those Spirit Air customers vs employees or customers vs customers fights on social media. Also, word on the street says that Spirit Air is known for canceling (or rather delaying) flights for days. Fortunately, we did not experience either of those situations.

• Tropical Christmas wasn't really all that tropical because the region had an abnormal cold spell. We're talking about temps in the 70s F with rain. Although the weather was not optimal, we did enjoy ourselves and managed to spend a few minutes in the sun. Hey, I even came in third place for the resort's flags of the world contest. I probably would have won if I didn't screw up Aruba's and Mauritius' flags.

• We did a nice catamaran excursion that included snorkeling, a trip to Isla de Mujers, and (of course) drinking. The excursion was nice for the most part, BUT I did not enjoy the captain's 10-15 minute lecture about tipping. Here's the thing, the excursion was about $120 USD with an additional $20 USD marina docking fee. Not to be rude, I'm not buying that $20 USD marina docking fee because I don't understand why that fee could not have been included in the price of excursion. You mean to tell me that EVERYONE has to pay this docking fee, when we are on ONE boat. Our catamaran had about 30 people on it, so the city/county/state/country receives about $600 USD from this boating company on a daily basis. Keep in mind that there are SEVERAL tour companies that operate out of this port. Ok, back to the tiping. The captain kept telling us that they do a lot of work to organize these tours for us. Yes, that is true, BUT the tourists have paid for this service. I understand that this probably more of an issue of the company not paying their employees enough money. I just didn't like the lecture. ALSO, a lot of the crew had pretty nasty attitudes. You're NOT gonna lecture me about gratuity while having a fucked up attitude because you have to do YOUR job. To be honest, I did not notice any of the tourist being rude and condescending towards the ship's crew. If tipping is such an issue, then these companies should add a gratuity fee to the excursion price. Lord knows they add a fee for everything else.