Baltimore Marathon

 Now I remember why it's just about every two years I run a marathon or why Rosie Ruiz allegedly took a taxi to race the 1980 Boston Marathon. It hurts.
 Admittedly, though, it's my own fault that the lower half of my body wanted to shut down completely by the 20th mile as I didn't train well enough. Going 13 miles as your long run is great-if you're running a half.
 Out of four marathons I posted my slowest time, 4:58.41, but I enjoyed it the most as I ran it with my nephew David. We got separated once, around the 19th mile when the Port-a-John called, but I was able to catch back up with him at mile 21. It was nice to have someone to help push through the pain in the latter stages. I think we both hit the wall around mile 16 or 17, so it was a good fight to the finish. He also went out faster than I've ever gone and we finished the half in just over two hours, my best halfway split yet.
 It was also my first marathon on American soil. Psychologically it might have helped seeing numbers end at 26 (miles) instead of 42 (kilometers). Baltimore put on a nice race, starting at the beginning with the skydiver who carried a large American flag to the starting line. They had a few bands along the course and seemingly each one was belting out some good old rock-n-roll that gave me a good surge of adrenaline for a few yards.
On their website they say there are hills from mile 16-22 and they didn't lie, but it seemed like it was just one big long hill. And it's too bad they couldn't have made a deal with Mother Nature. Breezes I don't mind, but this went beyond it in places. When you have to fight a headwind to get down a hill, much like the wind, it blows.
 People along the course were very supportive as well; outside the normal volunteers manning the water/Gatorade stops, there were those offering up Snickers bars, gummi bears, etc. Toward the end every time we traversed a hill, someone would say, "That's the last hill," and then we'd turn the corner and see yet another one. I wanted to go back and hit'em with my shoe.
 There weren't a lot of people dressed weird for the race. A couple wore crab headgear and there was at least one Elvis. Actually, it may be a contractual thing that every race have at least one Elvis. There were a few good T-shirt slogans. I especially liked one a girl wore with "Running like she stole something" on the back and the two women wearing shirts reading "If you think training for a marathon is hard, try chemotherapy." The latter was especially fitting this month.
 While splitting time at the end running and walking, I think David and I were doing well mentally with our race-until we got passed by an old guy wearing a white tuxedo. Thank God he wasn't wearing dress shoes!