The Offical Runners Handbook Arrives and Makes the Race Officially Official.

Yesterday I received the "Official Runner Handbook" for the Baltimore Running Festival. It was my first hint that this race is just a wee bit bigger than the Marine Corps Half in Fredericksburg was. The handbook boasts that they will "....top out at over 17,000 runners this year...." Um. What? Did you say 17,000?

The Running festival has a full marathon in addition to the half but still, that's a lot of peeps to run with! 3,800 people crossed the finish line in Fredericksburg and I remember thinking "look at all these people! This is huge!". Oh boy. I read on.....time line, healthy & fitness expo, multiple 'carb-load dinner parties' , loads of host hotels, shuttles, airport information, public transportation information, pace groups, medal engraving, celebration village (this time I will take advantage of that beer ticket!), more information than anyone could possibly know what to do with regarding the Baltimore Ravens football stadium parking, and on and on and on. I'm obviously not in Kansas anymore. Now I'm a bit freaked out!

I turn to the course map. It's tiny. I need a magnifying glass. I skip down to the elevation chart....gulp.....moving on.... I decided to look for the rules. I'm a stickler for some rules. No dogs (no problem), no in-line skates (I wonder if I could wear those shoes that area all the rage with the kids, you know, the ones with the wheels in them?), no musical devices (and I know people will wear them anyway like they did in Fredericksburg but I'll be the hold out convinced I'll get in major trouble if I get caught) and no bikes. Gotcha.

Then there was the 'D-Tag Timing' thingy. I'm new to this so hopefully I'll get it on my shoe properly....I'm assuming it will be fine since there is a full paragraph telling me exactly what to do. Then there are all the what not to do's with respect to the D-Tag. Don't forget it (duh), don't exchange it with anyone (damn, I was going to find me a Kenyan), don't secure the D-Tag to anything other than my shoelaces and then the final two "Do Not!" warnings: "Do Not cross the finish line twice and Do Not go back on any part of the race course. Really? Seriously? They really need to tell people that? I somehow don't think I'll be saying to myself "Wow, that big hill at mile 6 was awesome! I think I'll go back and do it again just for fun!" And how many times does anyone want to cross the finish line? Once for me thankyouverymuch. And I shall consider myself lucky if the once even happens.

So that's the basics of my handbook. I got an email letting me know just how close the race is and telling me in all caps "READ YOUR RUNNERS HANDBOOK WHEN YOU RECEIVE IT IN THE MAIL!" As I said, I'm a stickler for rules so I read it all. Even the stuff on the 5k which I have no intention of running.

In other news. I made it out to the group run this morning although I was an hour late. I had to wait around and find out if my son's baseball game got cancelled which it did but I didn't find that out until 8:00. When I got out there, there were still plenty of members around as the marathoners were to run 20-22 today. Ugh. I'm sticking to half marathons so the sentence "I'm running 20-22 miles today" never comes out of my mouth. Instead, I ran a happy 12. It was pretty muggy out there but I got it done and now have my legs propped up on the ottoman. Ahhhhh.....

As a crazy side note....I read today that it's Shaun Cassidy's 50th birthday!!!! Holy shit. I had a t-shirt with his face on it when I was a kid. I'm old as f-ing dirt.