She Runs by the Seashore

The Baltimore Marathon is in October, but it’s closer than it seems. Actually, Oct. 17 is only a little more than three months away.

I started training for the marathon at the Baltimore Running Festival — my fourth 26.2 — on Sunday, with a solo 10-mile run. It was the first time I’d run 10 miles since May 21, but I am planning to run 10 miles for four more consecutive weekends (one may be on a Friday) to get used to the long distances again.

Sunday’s run was longer than I’d been used to recently, but it didn’t feel like it dragged on too much. I took it pretty slow, and including all of my walk breaks except for one, where my boyfriend brought me a new drink, my watch logged an average pace per mile of 10:32.

I got to explore some new roads on foot, which made it interesting, and I was excited to get back out there for a 10-miler, even though I usually enjoy having company.

For my marathon training, I have generally just stuck to a long run schedule, because it’s hard for me to follow an exact schedule with my job as a reporter and different commitments. And, I want to make sure that I’m able to enjoy my hobby of running. I am planning on incorporating some hill work, as I did when I trained for the Big Sur International Marathon, which took place April 26.

I’ve based my long run training schedule off of the Big Sur training schedule, which was based on a Runner’s World plan.

This will be my first marathon in my home state of Maryland, and I’m excited to run the streets of Baltimore, a city I love. I’ll be preparing — Oct. 17 will be here before I know it.