Rockin the Jingle Bell run

If there's something my recent turkey trot experience taught me it's the idea of running in the cold and the rain is not a pleasant one. So yesterday, thanks to a confluence of events, I was able to pick up a sweet new water repellent jacket that carries a sticker price of $100 for only $26 out of pocket. It came at a good time, because I was scheduled to run the Jingle Bell 5K this morning and the forecast was for some kind of precipitation ranging from rain to snow. No one seemed to know, but I was hoping for the best. And by that I mean the worst weather conditions.

When I got up this morning to get ready I noticed the temperature outside of my house: 50 degrees. That stinks because for me that's shorts and a t-shirt running weather. Also, it hasn't been that warm here in the Baltimore metro area during any part of the day for weeks. Also, it's usually several degrees cooler at the homestead than it is in Baltimore City, where the race was being held. And while it was raining the last thing I want to wear when it's 50+ degrees out is a jacket. Sigh.

I was determined to wear my stupid jacket, however, so I put it on and headed down to the race. I got there a little less than an hour before the start whistle was to blow and had a minute to take a picture of the view from the parking lot across from where the race was being held and looking out over the water:


Yes, it was a picture perfect London Baltimore morning.
Feeling that it was just barely cool enough with the breeze that was blowing to wear the jacket I kept it on, left my car, walked past the homeless people sleeping while taking cover under the canopy that surrounds the Clarence "Du" Burns Arena and waited for the race to start.

Here's the biggest thing I noticed pre-race: They didn't bother with port-a-potties outside because the arena has a bathroom. And about 30 minutes before race time the mens facilities were barren while the womens had a line snaking half way down the hallway. Ah, it's good to be a man sometimes.

Anyway, about the race. I ran the Jingle Bell 5K once before, in 2007. It started and ended at the same place as this year and I figured it was going to be the same race. Boy, was I wrong. I don't want to get too hyper-local, but if you've ever run a race to the east of Harborplace in Baltimore then you're aware of a generally pretty standard route that includes a tour of the Canton and Fells Point neighborhoods, and maybe featuring a brush up against the border of Harbor East, a newer, tonier kind of Baltimore neighborhood. The streets are laid out to make it a nice even circuit and that part of the city is generally pretty flat.

What we got this time was a start at the same place, then a quick right that took us straight uphill for about a half mile. Then we were jumping curbs and running this weird curly out and back within Patterson Park that featured a really tight turnaround before we headed back and jumped another curb or two to finish up the same way in 2010 as we did in 2007. Here is a shot of the differences in the route:


Legend: 2007 and 2010 route - black; 2007 only - blue; 2010 only - red
I'm not sure what caused such a drastic change in the route, and since there were some hills that weren't there a few years ago my time was about 15-20 seconds slower this year than it was in '07, but I should really not complain because I finished 2nd in my age group, although I didn't know it until I left the race, came home and checked the results online. There were 51 people in my age group, and clearly not everyone was taking the race seriously -- there was an entire battalion of elves and some guy dressed up as a Christmas tree, lights included, running -- but I take my victories when I can get them.

The one bad thing is that each mile was slower than the last. I tried very hard to not start off too fast and there were a couple runners who were right around me the entire time, but I can still run a better race. Maybe I'll get a chance Saturday when it'll be even more important to pace myself since I'll have two more miles to run.

One last thing. At the start line there was a lady who looked to be a very serious runner. With her was her son, who couldn't have been more than 8 or 9. They took off at the start line, and while I caught up to and passed the boy eventually I didn't see his mom again until just before we got to the finish line where she was holding up waiting for him (and then made sure she crossed it before he did). Granted, I'm not a seriously competitive runner, but I'm not sure that's the way I'd train my kid to follow in my running footsteps.

But whatever works, I guess.

Oh, and my new running jacket is splentastic! I was a little warm though....