2025 Charles Street 12 Race Recap

On August 30th I ran the 2025 Charles Street 12, a 12 mile race starting in Towson and finishing in downtown Baltimore. This was my 4th time running this race, and it’s always a good one. Although I am not usually thinking that during some of the hills.

While the Charles Street 12 is a net downhill course, there are plenty of big rolling hills, especially in the beginning. It ends on about 2 miles mostly flat roads, which feels hard after the downhills. But it is a fun and scenic race, and even better when you luck out with nice weather like we did this year!

2025 Charles Street 12 Race Recap

You can read my past recaps here:
Charles Street 12 2014 Race Recap
Charles Street 12 2015 Race Recap
Charles Street 12 2019 Race Recap

I signed up for this a few weeks before the race, feeling like I just wanted to do something different for a long and see where my fitness is. After 2 not so great races in the spring, I wanted to have a better experience before my full in November.

I didn’t do a full taper, but cut back a little bit the week of the race. I ran 15 miles the Saturday before, so my legs definitely weren’t fresh.

Back to school week was pretty hectic so I was kind of distracted and no thinking about the race much, which can be a good thing! I just tried to make sure I was hydrating well and eating some extra carbs on Thursday and Friday.

Race Morning

The race starts at 7:30 and is a point to point course. The start is closer to where I live and the finish is in downtown Baltimore City. They offered paid parking at the finish with a shuttle bus to the start line. I opted to take Ubers to and from the race just to save time.

On Saturday morning I woke up a little before 5, drank coffee and water, and ate a half of a bagel with peanut butter. I got ready and had a half of a pop tart while I was waiting for my Uber around 6:30.

Getting to the race was really easy. I got dropped off close to the start line and was able to wait inside the Shops at Kenilworth (a mall) since it was a little chilly out. At 7:00 am I ate a honey stinger waffle and ran a 10 minute warm up. Then I did dynamic stretches while I waited to start.

Charles Street 12 Race Start (Miles 1-3)

After a bad experience not being able to line up correctly at the Baltimore 10 Miler and getting horribly boxed in, I was happy to see there was plenty of space to line up for this race. I saw pacing groups and tried to line up between the 1:35 and 1:40 groups. I was hoping to run sub 1:40, ideally closer to 1:38 if all went well.

The weather could not have been more perfect for this time of year. It was right around 59 at the start with low humidity and a little breeze. After the hot and humid summer we had this felt amazing!

The race started right at 7:30 and I wasn’t too far from the front so I started pretty quickly. There was a bit of a downhill for the first 1/4 mile or so, and my watch showed I started out around 8:04, but then there was a hill for the rest of that mile and I slowed down quite a bit. I didn’t want to use too much energy on mile 1!

Mile 2 was mostly downhill, and mile 3 was mostly uphill. Somehow I always forget how hard some of these early miles are with the hills. The course was also slightly different than in past years but probably had about the same elevation profile.

Mile 1- 8:44; 128 ft gained, 39 ft lost
Mile 2- 8:07; 7 ft gained, 157 ft lost
Mile 3- 8:34; 82 ft gained, 16 ft lost

Charles Street 12 Miles 4-6

After mile 3 someone nearby said “ok we made it through the worst of the hills, now we can cruise for a bit”. I hoped he was right! My average pace was way off where I wanted to be but I tried to remind myself that there was a long way to go and I could use the downhills to my advantage.

I took my first gel (Carbs Fuel) around 30 minutes. I was also drinking Skratch from my handheld. It was nice to not have to worry about stopping for water.

These miles were a little better than the first 3, but still challenging. There are also portions without crowd support but I knew that would get better as the race progressed.

Mile 4- 8:26; 82 ft gained, 49 ft lost
Mile 5- 8:06; 26 ft gained; 72 ft lost
Mile 6- 8:10; 23 ft gained; 95 ft lost

Charles Street 12 Miles 7-10

This is where things started to improve. We ran through the colleges including Loyola University (where I went to college) and Hopkins and there was lots of crowd support and more downhills than uphills. I finally started to see my overall pace start to drop which gave me more confidence about meeting my goal.

I took my second gel (Honey Stinger) at 60 minutes and made sure to keep drinking my Skratch even though I didn’t necessarily feel like I needed it.

This was the more scenic part of the race but we also ran through some parts of town where people were very unhappy that the roads were closed. I know it’s tough- last year when I didn’t run we got stuck when trying to pick up my car from getting service. It really blocks off a main road right down the middle of Baltimore.

Mile 7- 7:57; 16 ft gained, 105 ft lost
Mile 8- 8:02; 20 ft gained, 115 ft lost
Mile 9- 8:04; 46 ft gained, 75 ft lost
Mile 10- 7:53; 39 ft gained, 102 ft lost

Charles Street 12 Miles 11-12

I always know the last 2 miles will be challenging because they are alot more flat. This year the race finished near the stadiums so I didn’t really know where we would be going because the course map was hard to read. Even though I used to live down in that area and run that way all the time we went a way I was not familiar with.

I took my last gel right before mile 10 started, even though I didn’t want to, because I knew I needed it.

Mile 11 felt pretty good, but I never saw the mile marker saying we finished mile 11. There was a bridge around that time (not at all what I wanted to see at that point in the race) and there was even a headwind during the last mile.

There were lots of turns and a quick out and back before getting to the finish. I was pushing hard but felt like that mile would never end. I knew my watch was a little off but I think the downtown miles threw it off even more because of poor satellite connections at times.

Mile 11- 7:51; 33 ft gained, 26 ft lost
Mile 12- 7:51; 39 ft gained, 33 ft lost
Last .13 on my watch-7:07, 3 ft gained, 0 ft lost

Overall elevation on my watch: 545 ft gained, 886 ft lost
Overall pace on my watch: 12.13 miles in 1:38:46 8:08 pace

Official Results:
12 Miles
1:38:43
8:14 pace

Post Race

We finished in front of M&T Bank Stadium and the post race celebration was in the parking lot there. I knew I had to figure out how to get an Uber home and had no idea how a driver would get there with the road closures.

I immediately just started walking towards a neighborhood to try to get somewhere to wait since I knew it could take a little while. It took about 20 minutes for the Uber to get to me, but then once I was in there we made circles trying to get out of downtown. I finally got home around 10:20 after finishing the race at 9:10.

Race Reflections

This felt like a comeback race after 2 tough races this spring when nothing went right. I ran the pace I wanted and felt pretty good the whole time.

It’s hard to not compare myself to where I was 10 years ago running this race, or even 6 years ago. I feel like I have been crawling my way back over the last 10 years and keep having setbacks. In 2024 I made alot of progress and then felt like illnesses early this year really set me back once again.

I am really glad that I did this to prove to myself that I can run these paces. It also gives me a decent idea of where I am for marathon training.

But tell me this- if I just ran 12.1 miles at an 8:08 pace (according to my Garmin) why does Garmin give me a race prediction of 1:49:43 (8:22 pace)? Does it really think it will take me 11 minutes to run one more mile than I did in this race? This is just a reminder to myself to not trust the Garmin data!

The Charles Street 12 is a challenging but fun race that takes you through many parts of Baltimore. I’m sure the after party was great, and maybe one of these years I will be able to enjoy it instead of rushing home!

Also, I got this nice sweatshirt as a premium (and they had free race photos!) The hoodie came in 2 color options and the material is really soft.

Now it’s time to get back to marathon training!

Have you ever run a downhill race with lots of rolling hills?

You may also like:
Baltimore 10 Miler 2025 Race Recap
2025 Frederick Running Festival Half Marathon Race Recap
NCR Marathon 2024 Race Recap

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