This is a model for how races should be managed: efficient, professional, runner-focused and electric. The town embraces the race and comes out in droves to support it. The finish, in the horserace track stadium, is pretty special. It’s a pleasure to run year-after-year. Flat and fast, this is a great target for a half marathon personal best.
Coming on the heels of setting my new PR in the half marathon in March at the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC, AND my new marathon PR at the Delaware Coastal in April, I wanted to find a half to really see what I could do at the distance. Qualifying for Boston is very much in play if I can somehow get my half marathon time to extend over a second 13.1. I needed a course I could push for the entire half-marathon distance.
I ran the Frederick Running Festival three years ago on the path to the ‘Nut Job,’ which is a second medal you receive for participating in the twilight 5K on Saturday evening and the half marathon the next morning. It was notable, not so much for the time (1:54:32), but really for the fact that I participated in both races, then had a hockey game Sunday afternoon. It was also the first leg of the “King Crab” challenge from promoter CSE that you earn for also completing the Baltimore 10-miler and Baltimore Marathon.
Frederick was, by far, the best of those three races. It’s only 45 minutes or so from me, but it feels like a long way from Washington DC. It’s a small-town, really, with a minor league baseball team (Frederick Keys), a quaint, steeple-dotted downtown, and an old-school county fairgrounds, which serves as the home base for the race. The two-day running festival, culminating with the half marathon on Sunday morning, is truly a source of community pride. The residents cheer from their steps, come to the curbside, and generally make the runners feel incredibly welcomed. It’s part of the allure. It makes it feel like more of an event.
I was able to register a week before the event, which meant no personalized bib and no opportunity for an early bib pickup in Rockville, MD. Thankfully, they do offer limited same-day pickup AND the opportunity to pick up your shirt after the race. Double bonus! The registration on the website was great and the shirt, a long-sleeve black jacket-type thing with a zipper neck and the Maryland flag down the side was really one of the nicer ones. CSE does this very well, as their Baltimore 10-miler shirt is equally good. Much better than the typical throw-away tech shirt.
It’s also a relatively fast course. No backbreaking hills (unlike Baltimore), only one turnaround (around mile 11) where they had to find an extra 3/4 of a mile, and usually cool and dry weather this time of year. 2017 was no exception, though we did have a touch of rain for a few miles in the middle of the race. Not inhibiting at all.
My plan for this race…just go for it. Start out at a sub-7-minute pace and fight to keep it as long as I could. I was aiming for some time under 1:35 and the feeling that I had something left in the tank, which would translate into a 3:10 marathon if I could sustain it for another lap.
My initial five splits were fast. The course starts out on some rather industrial/commercial roads (toward the baseball stadium and along the cemetery) before darting into the downtown area. You’re downtown until about mile 4, then spend the next 4 miles running through some lovely neighborhoods and through Hood College. I was feeling great at this point, but my splits were in the 6:20 range, which was way too fast–no way I was going to sustain that for another 7 miles.
From mile 8, you enter some additional residential areas and then back on to a larger highway-type road (Schifferstadt Blvd) for two miles of pain. This stretch features the turnaround and a moderate hill as a bridge climbs over Carrol Creek (near the airport). I slowed my pace down a bit on this stretch to make sure I’d have enough to run the finish. I was running 8-minute miles along here with maybe even a 9-minute mile up the hill.
The finish is a few turns before entering the horse track, where you do a half-lap around the mile-long course with music blaring and a sizable crowd in the grandstand along the home stretch. It was a bit of soft terrain, having had some rain the day before, but you feel so good at this point that you’re basically flying.
Finish: a new PR of 1:31:08. Wow. Had I not slowed down on the last three miles, sub-1:30 was in the cards. Why do runners do this to themselves? I ran hard, had very little left in reserve (which, yes, suggests that there’s no way I can carry that for another half-marathon distance), felt good…why do I beat myself up over the the lost 68 seconds? It’s insanity really.
In any case, I was proud of my finish, a 6:57 pace for a half marathon, 7/211 in my age group and 74/3829 runners overall (top 2%). Someday I’ll crack the 1:30 barrier…it will probably be here.
Post race was fine, though I wasn’t able to stay very long. Free beer (passed, as I was driving back home), some decent food and snacks, plus food for purchase. The infield of the track was a bit damp, so it wasn’t that appealing to stay, but it was fine. I picked up my medal (which was very nice and included a bottle opener, which is both quaint and ghetto), my shirt (had to hustle to get the right size…not sure why this was a challenge, and headed the 100 yards to my car. Again, really well organized all around.
Overall, I can’t recommend this race enough. I have three DC-area half marathons that I really enjoy: Parks and Navy-Air Force in September and this one in May. All very different races, but this might be my favorite.