Scht, scht

Time to dust off the running shoes and put some real miles on them!  Finally willed myself out of bed and out the door to the first Baltimore Marathon course run put on my Falls Road.

We met in the Inner Harbor by the Baltimore Visitor's Center.  What a great turn out!  I looked around trying to find B and KBF.  Instead of finding either I ran into Billy.  I haven't seen Billy since we were training for our Spring marathons, so I gave him a big hug and we agreed to run together.  Just as we were about to head on B aka Brenda aka Speed Queen shuffled up and we took off.

I introduced the two to eachother and we sunk into a comfortable pace.  Speed Queen (SQ) isn't just a nickname, the girl is fast!  But she's coming back from injury and was happy to go easy.  Billy and I trained together a few times before so we knew we were about the same pace pre-slacking off.

Running through the not so nice areas of Baltimore, we passed some condemned buildings and were greeted and encouraged by the early morning smokers out on the street.  Two miles in and Billy does a face plant.

Now, being the insensitive person that I am, I had to hold back a laugh.  He landed pretty hard on the curb and it really shook him up.  He cautiously clamored back on his feet looking around for what he tripped over.  I saw nothing and joked that he tripped over his feet or crack in the sidewalk.  I've certainly come close to the same thing more times than I want to admit.

Billy bends over to pick up a big coat hanger ring.  His feet were entangled in it and this is what threw him to the ground.  Poor Billy, he scraped his chin and knees and his finger was bleeding.  We spiffed him up with water and SQ's tushy wipes and started back at an easy pace.

There were always other people around so we weren't in any trouble of getting lost.  When we would come up behind another small pack of runners I would quietly say, "Scht, scht" and point around them.  This was our clue that we need to pass these people who are holding us up without actually saying the words, "Lets pass these polkies."

It was about mile 6 I spotted KBF aka Karen.  She jumped in late and was running by herself.  I introduced her to SQ and Billy and we all ran together occasionally splitting up and rejoining.  Glad I was in good company and still feeling good, we ran back to home base to refill water and thank Jim Adams for putting this on.

SQ and Billy were in the lead and KBF and I hung back.  We ran out to Under Armour and then turned back.  This gave us just over 11.5 miles.  KBF parked way out in BFN so I said good bye and headed back to home base hoping to see SQ and Billy.  But alas, they were gone, my guess putting in more miles.

I was secretly hoping one of the could give me a ride back, but I had to run it in to bring my total to 13.3 for the day.  That was juuuuuuuuuust right for my first long run back since I don't know when.  I guess I should start focusing on marathon training.  I'm signed up to run Philly, but the thing that's really got me concerned is doing the Ultra Ragnar Relay in October.  I'm on a team of really good, really competitive people.  Time to focus!