Happy hump day lovelies!
We’re half way through the week and that’s always good news!
Thank you so much to everyone who shared their opinion on whether I should register for the Baltimore Marathon or the Marine Corp Marathon. I haven’t made a definite decision one way or the other yet, but you all gave me a lot to think about.
But I did decide to register for the Frederick Half Marathon yesterday.
With training going so well for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in a couple of weeks, I figured I was ready to get my first half marathon of the season on my calendar.
The Frederick race is on May 2 and I am so excited for it.
I am not however, excited for the 6:30 a.m. start time. Yikes! That means I’ll probably need to leave my house at 4:30 a.m. to get there, find parking, find the porta-potties and be ready to go.
Have you ever run a race that started so early? What is your advice on getting up and out the door on time?
Good luck on the Frederick Half. Do you live in the Baltimore area? I noticed you have a lot of Baltimore/Washington area races scheduled.
Hi James!
Yes I do live in the Baltimore-Washington area. I live close enough to both that it's not too tough for me to do races in both places without having to worry about travel. Since we have a pretty good race scene in this area, it's nice not to have to worry about paying for hotel and transportation to every race I want to do.
Are you from this area as well?
Jess
yikes. 6:30 start time *is* early for this time of year
6:30 is super early!
I was going to do the frederick half since that's my hometown, but since i have a half the prior weekend, i thought that just might be pushing it. maybe next year!
hopefully parking won't be as bad as the baltimore one?! that was a NIGHTMARE this past October!
Good luck! Besides the pouring rain for the last 8 miles of the race, the Frederick half was a great race! I'll probably do it again in a year or two.
It is an early start and I am not a morning person at all, but it wasn't too bad. I just made sure I was in bed earlier than usual and had everything ready to go for the next morning. The last half mile is practically all uphill, which I didn't know, so be prepared for that
The last half mile is all uphill? What kind of evil race directors are these people???
Early would be the Disney Marathon! had to get up at 3 AM to get on the bus by 4 AM to start the race at 6 AM! Yikes! Talk about being tired that night. I think I passed out around 7-ish and didn't come to until the following morning!
I wouldn't worry about getting up. Its a race. There's motivation there
and coffee….
6:30 am?! Oh that sounds just awful! I am not a morning person at all so that would be a struggle for me. The last race I did, I had to get up at 5:45 to get ready and I was too excited to be tired.
You should move to Europe, races here never start that early!
I am sure you will be fine, but make sure to do a shake-out run (or something like that) as soon as you get up, just 5 minutes or so, it will help you to wake up and get ready. Good luck!
Yay congrats! You're going to do so well!
Eww that is really early!! The earliest start I've ever done is 7:00 AM!
Ah that's super early!! I have never had a race start that early, but I have read some blogs who had an early race start like that. I remember reading about someone who woke up, ate breakfast, and then went back to sleep for an hour, haha : ) I think the important thing is get a lot of sleep the week before and go to bed early the night before, other than that don't stress too much about the lack of sleep, they say a bad sleep the night before doesn't affect your performance.
All races in FL that are an HM or longer have a 6 am start time, so I am very used to waking up at 3:30 or 4 am for a race. Don't worry about how you sleep the night before; the sleep that counts is two nights before a race.
6:30? I have never heard of such a disgusting thing. How exciting though.
Holy cow! That's an early start time!
Jess,
Yeah, I live in NW Baltimore County. It is nice having so much available. I'm return to running after a 5 year pause, and I was surprised at how many races there are already this year.
I think I've started at 7 before, which is kinda close to 6:30? I've had to wake up at 5 for races, which is nutso! I have no tips other than to just do it…obviously. I've tried going to bed earlier (and waking up earlier as a result) during the week leading up to the race so I'll go to bed earlier the night before the race, but my nerves usually take over and it doesn't matter anyway!