History

Race history from original race director Tom Brown.

The B2B Marathon's first year was 2002. It was a celebration of Steve Thienel's 50th birthday, and the night before the race runners were invited to his home for a pasta carb-load get-together. The shirt that year had a drawing of Steve on the front — they command a very steep price on eBay when they come up.

We based the "informal" style of the race on the four Masochist Marathons put on by Joe Wasserman in 1989–92. That course included the "old," "long" Bagel Run course (Sheppard Lane!). It started and finished at Wilde Lake Village parking lot — with the exception of 1992, when the course went point-to-point out to Mt. Airy, MD on Rt. 144. (That was to honor a runner in 1991 who got lost and ended up in Mt. Airy; he had to take a cab back to Wilde Lake Village.)

I cannot remember which year a hurricane hit several days before the B2B. The course was covered with blown-down trees. Some of the runners' homes still didn't have power. Runners had to climb over the trees, and several got poison ivy from the vines on them (funny if you weren't one of the ones who got it). Times were terrible that year due to the conditions — but times were never really the point. If you could climb the steps to the Rams Head deck finish line, who cared about your time?

In 2010 we did not run the B2B. Instead we ran the Patapsco River 60K to celebrate a number of HoCo Striders turning 60. That course was mostly trail, beginning in Sykesville and ending at Ralph Massella's home in Catonsville. It echoed the Patapsco River 50K we ran in 2000 on the same trails — same reason, just a different age.

The yellow arrow on top of an upside-down "T"; Rick Hatfield marking the course the morning of the race because of the "paint-over" bandit; getting lost on the course; great aid stations (how many races have two aid stations a half mile apart — Rusty's and Nelson's?); the post-race party at happy-hour pricing — these are all part of the B2B good times. The family aid stations make it really special.

Keep it going.