Recap of the Baltimore Running Festival

It's hard to believe it's already the middle of the week and the Baltimore Running Festival is long gone. Are you still recovering from the race? What's your next race on the calendar?

I did a quick search of the results on the site and found tons of Catonsville runners, which was great to see. Catonsville's top finisher was Brendan Morrison, who placed 64th overall and finished in 3:01:59. Congratulations to Brian Darmody, who was right behind at 68th place overall, but placed first in his age group (55-59) with a time of 3:02:45. Catonsville's top female finisher was Lisa Farias, who ran an impressive 3:30:43.

I was out there cheering on some friends and co-workers and soaking in the atmosphere. I resisted the urge to get up for the start (although last year I was on Paca Street taking pictures as everyone streamed up the first uphill) and sauntered over to Key Highway around 9:15 a.m. Did anyone see the guy wearing the Dunkin Donuts cup?

The atmosphere at the finish was great for the winners, who finished hours before the herds of people. It's fun to get there early and hang on Eutaw Street in Camden Yards and watch the elite athletes come down one by one. The story behind the men's winner was interesting, as 24-year-old David Rutoh of Kenya paid his own way.

Here is a link to some of the coverage from Towson Patch:

http://towson.patch.com/articles/runner-celebrates-tenth-marathon

I also heard this story on WYPR Tuesday morning about torture victims from Ethiopa running in the race. What a great story.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wypr/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1714520/news/Torture.Victims.Run.Marathons.As.Therapy