Trip No. 2 to Baltimore wasn't simply to visit our friends. Paul had business to complete: running the Baltimore Marathon.
Paul finished the 26.2 mile course last Saturday with a time of 4:20:14, about 15 minutes faster than last year at the Columbus Marathon. And the faster time comes despite what he said was a surprisingly uphill course. Who knew Baltimore had hills?
Overall, Paul placed 1,006th out of the 2,023 male marathon runners. Compared to last year, Paul said this year he felt much better much sooner after he crossed the finish line. Even still, he could barely stand.
The race started and ended at Camden Yards, at the Baltimore Orioles' baseball stadium. Our friends Allison and Phil live just north of downtown, so we claimed their foldout couch for the weekend. I dropped off Paul just before the 8 a.m. start.
Unfortunately, the course seemed to make a circle around the starting line, and everywhere I turned to get back to Allison and Phil's seemed to be blocked by the course. The GPS wasn't much help since it continually directed me toward streets that were shut down by the race. What should've been a 20 minute drive turned into 90 minutes.
But one good thing did result from the hassle: I actually saw Paul about a half-hour into the marathon. Traffic was stopped, waiting for the runners to race by. I watched hundreds, maybe thousands, of runners go by when my eyes alighted on Paul. His training paid off. He looked just as strong at the finish line as he did there, at about mile 3 or 4.
Near the finish line. I think Paul is the third runner from the left.
It was so much fun! Glad we were able to see him cross the finish line, too!
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