As usual, I’m posting two versions of my Race Report. The just-the-facts version, and then the long stream of consciousness version, which I invite you to skip right over.
My goal for the Celtic Solstice 5-miler was to run a 32:30 (a 6:30 pace). Things went really well, and I ended up with a 32:39. Maybe I could have reached my goal if I didn’t zone out a little in Mile 4, but this was an ambitious goal for me and I’m totally satisfied. Finished #10 out of 197 in my Age Group, and 77 overall out of 2,700.
Here’s the long version:
The Celtic Solstice 5-miler has become a holiday party tradition for runners in Maryland. People wear Santa costumes and kilts, and there’s a big post-race party with mulled wine, soup and cookies.
My wife and her friend were also running, so we all drove over together. Her friend kept us waiting out in front of her house for about 5 minutes, then subsequently realized after we had been driving for about 5 minutes that she had forgotten her bib. All of which was great, because by the time we were finally on our way for real, my HR was elevated to the point it was like I’d already run a warm-up.
However we still got to the race site in plenty of time. I bid farewell to wife and friend, and went off to run a couple of warm-up miles for real. At my advanced age, I need to warm up for at least 15 minutes, and probably a little more. I ran the start of the course, which was good, because it showed me just how big an uphill the first mile is. I also ran a mile on the flat part of the course around a reservoir – in this mile, I threw in three 30-second surges to race pace, followed by minute-long slowdowns. I finished feeling warmed up but not tired and was happy to see that my time for this mile was 7:20 – I figured if I could run a mile that fast and still feel like I had a lot in the tank, it boded well for the race.
I jogged back down to the start to ditch my jacket and pants – it was mid-30s and just warm enough to run in shorts and a long sleeve shirt. I made my way up through the crowed so that I was about 10 rows back from the start; with so many recreational runners in the race, I didn’t want to get stuck behind a wall of people. The horn sounded and we were off. For the first mile, which was uphill almost the entire way, I focused on running as fast as possible while keeping my breathing easy and regular. For the climb, I just wanted to go by effort alone and not even think about time.
Finally, there was a slight downhill right before the first mile mark, which I hit at 6:50. That was a tiny bit slower than I was hoping for, but I was feeling good about my effort level. The second mile featured more climbing, though not quite as much – I continued to run by feel and was happy to post a 6:32 time. Finally at about 2.25 miles, you hit a turn around, and it was mostly flat and then downhill from here. So I figured it was time to pick up the pace a little and I blew by a dozen or so people. Also, we began running back past the thousands of people behind us, so that was cool and inspired me to go a little faster – I was hoping some people I knew might see me fly by, and I reached the Mile 3 marker at 6:22. Now we hit the reservoir, it would be about 1.5 miles around, before a steep half-mile descent to the finish. If there’s any part of the race I’m a little disappointed in, it’s this stretch.
Once we got to the reservoir path, after that fast third mile, I was a little beat. There was no burst, no additional gear I could crank into. So I relied on the one thing I did have – the brute animal endurance and mindless determination of a marathoner. If I couldn’t pick it up, the least I could do was keep grinding it out at the same pace until I reached the downhill. For that entire stretch, I committed to maintaining my pace no matter what. I didn’t make a move on anyone, though I did pass a few people who were blowing up and dropping back. And I couldn’t hold off anyone who did have some gas in their tank, and got picked off by 4 or 5 runners who were surging toward the finish. Edited to add: my time for Mile 4 was 6:29, so I did pretty well while just tuning out and counting on my body to keep going.
I finally got snapped out of this semi-trance shortly before the downhill when two more people came up to pass me. From my left came a woman, surprisingly largish for her speed (or maybe surprisingly fast for her size), wearing an ironically ugly Christmas sweater. At this point, I was so winded that instead of angrily thinking “I can’t believe I’m going to get passed by a surprisingly largish woman racing in a Christmas sweater,” and trying to hold her off, I initially thought, “Good for you, largish sweater-wearing woman.” But then from my right came her nebbishy guy friend and I was a little irritated that they were crowding me so tightly on either side with an entire open trail around us. It felt like they were getting up in my stuff a little too much. And to top it off, she was wearing an elf hat with a jingle bell at the end of it that tinkled with her every stride. It was so annoying.
So that did it for me – no way was I going to be subjected to watching her oversized hindquarters and hearing her jingle bell all the way to the end of the race. Right as they were about to get a full stride clear of me and come back together, I accelerated right between the two of them, and then I just took off sprinting. I made the right turn off the path onto the downhill and let momentum and gravity carry me to the finish – my split for the last mile was 6:12. Probably the fastest mile I’ve run since quitting my high school cross country team in the fall of 1985.
My final time was 32:39 – a 6:32 pace. The McMillan Calculator says that equates to a 3:12 marathon. Sadly, in my case I know that’s not true since I ran a 3:20 just three weeks ago. But it does have me thinking something like a 1:32 HM – a 7:00 pace – might be possible for spring. We’ll see. My first goal is to get through the holidays without missing any workouts and/or gaining 5+ pounds.