Race Report: 2014 Celtic Solstice 5-Miler

I was feeling very pessimistic about the Celtic Solstice 5-Miler.  I'd had a run on the previous Monday where my old compartment syndrome symptoms were back and I'd cut an attempt at five miles down to a little over three.  It wasn't terrible, but my calves were very crampy (is that even a word?) and my ankles and seemed swollen, and when I turned around back to my car, I sat down on the curb, just to check, and sure enough, I didn't have the full range of motion in my left foot.

Just as running had started to be something I enjoyed again, it was back to this bullshit.

I rested, doing lots of stretching the rest of the week, and the race actually went ok.  I ran four miles of the five-mile race and didn't have any compartment syndrome symptoms during the race, despite my shins still being pretty achy that morning during the long walks back and forth from the car to the packet pickup area.  (These races at Druid Hill Park are fun, but the parking and traffic situation is a little bit of a mess.)

The race is hilly, with a steep, tough incline at the start, and then more moderate hills after that.  It's not as hilly as Dreaded Druid Hills 10K or, I'm told, the Zoo Zoom 8K, which I believe uses some of the same access roads as the DDH.  I enjoy how the course makes tight loops around the park; normally that would annoy me, but it was nice to be able to watch for Chris as I made the zig-zags around the park.   A significant part of the last 2 miles is around Druid Lake.  It's flat but also boring, and my progress seemed very slow at this point.  I took a one-minuteish walk break at four miles as I was heading around the south side of the lake toward the Moorish Tower, and as I passed the tower with a little over a half-mile (I think) to go, I knew it was literally all downhill from there; the slight incline around the rest of the lake and then down the steep hill we started up.

I finished in 56:33, a far cry from my 42:44 at this race in 2011, one of my best-ever finishes and not-coincidentally my last pre-compartment syndrome race, but a perfectly cromulent finish given my current conditioning and circumstances both within and outside of my control.  It's hard not to be disappointed when I see comparisons like that, but it's important for me to keep reminding myself that during the summer of 2011, I was dropping double-digit mileages several times a week and that I had been in what passes for marathon shape around here, and this summer I had six new surgical scars on my leg and didn't even start running again until mid July.  That simplified explanation ignores that 2012 and 2013 were plagued by injury, but also that there was a lot more I should have been doing to keep myself in shape even when running wasn't going well.


 So, in conclusion, I either should or shouldn't beat myself up too badly over this finish.

Race Review
Falls Road Running puts on a good race, and all their events are both fun and challenging (they have race team that's very competitive, but this race gets participants of all levels), but there's a few small ways that I think this race could be improved.   The start was very chaotic and crowded, so I think some more room in the starting area would help, and also pace signs.  I probably would have ignored them this year, anyway, but I think it would be helpful to at least get the idea in peoples' heads.

There is a good post-race party with hot wine from Boordy Vineyards, fruit, and cookies.  All the cookies were gone by the time we got there, which I thought was definitely not cool, but there were bagpipers at the start, food and beverages (beer was available for purchase) and a Celtic band playing Christmas tunes at the post race party, and a fun, fairly scenic course.  It's a race that I would definitely run again, and probably will. 

Another high point is the swag:  a custom Brooks running jacket that makes the $80 registration fee not seem so high.  You can also do $40 with no premium, but I really like this one:

 

Race Report: 2011 Celtic Solstice 5-Mile

Today was the Celtic Solstice 5-Mile, the last race of the year, and one that I'd been both looking forward to but also dreading. I'd heard form many people that this was one of the best races of the year, but a Baltimore race at 8:30 means leaving at 6:15, and parking looked like a huge mess, with four or five e-mails with instructions and multiple facebook posts going out with parking and shuttle instructions. Stressed out by work and holiday stuff, I just wasn't sure that I was feelin' it, either. I figured I'd show up, collect my premium, and put down a time that I'd be secretly disappointed with, and go home.

As we drove down to Baltimore I was just feeling less and less up for it. We easily got a parking space, and walked approximately a mile to the starting area, where chaos reigned. The starting area is in a big tent, and it just seemed like it wasn't big enough for the masses of people that were picking up packets, tying chips on their shoes, and trying to stay warm. Luckily, the only giveaway item was the premium Brooks long-sleeve racing shirt. We'd not been aware that there was a bag check and had no bag, so Chris tied her premium around her waist and I attached mine to my hydration belt.



We headed for the starting area. The temperature was around 40, and I was freezing in my shorts, long-sleeve technical shirt, and cheap-o gloves. I dress for the middle of the run, not the beginning, and I love these temperatures, but my equipment strategy breaks down on race day when I have to wait around before the start. I'm not one for running before the race...every mile I run prior to the gun is one less I can run after! There were about 3000 people in the race, and with anticipation of an about 50-minute finish time, I started about 2/3 of the way back.



After a procession featuring bagpipes, Irish wolfhounds, and the race director, the race started...and the next five miles passed in a blur. I'm not sure where in those first moments my attitude toward the race changed, but the course started on an incline and I know that I charged up it. I used the stress and frustration I am feeling and I ran this race as aggressively as I've ever run one. Druid Hill Park is very scenic, but I might as well have been running in a tunnel. All I noticed through most of the race was the other runners I was weaving through. I hit mile 1 at right around 9-minutes, mile 2 at 18, at which point I recall making a conscious decision that I was going to run this as fast as I possibly could. I hit mile 3 just under 24, and I don't recall mile 4 but I believe it was in the 32s. I felt like I was running out of gas at mile 4, but at that point the remainder of the course was the flat path around Druid Lake and a downhill back to the starting line. I held my pace around the lack, picked up speed down the hill, and kicked as hard as I could across the bridge that was the final approach to the finish line.

42:44.

Is it a PR? I'm not sure. This is the only 5-mile race I've ever run. My official chip time for the Briggs & Al's 8K in Milwaukee was 42:42, and I consider that to be one of two best races I've ever run. I'm not sure whether my official time for this race was 42:44 or 42.43, but I assume that since 5-miles is three-hundredths of a mile more than an 8k, and the course much hillier than Al's Run, that it's fair to say that I ran a better race today. What I am sure of is that more than any race I've ever run, I left it all out on the course today.

Event Review
I was in a bad mood on Saturday morning and completely prepared to not enjoy this race and to rip this event, but I think the only problem where I might have a legitimate complaint is the chaos of the registration tent. There just wasn't enough room for all the people who were trying to collect their bibs and put on their chips. I'm not sure there's an easy answer to it, and I also suspect that I'm probably making too much out of something small because I was so ill-tempered at the time.

I also think pace signs would have been a good idea. 3000 people ran this race and the course was very crowded. It probably wouldn't have helped me today, since I ran this about 7 minutes faster than I expected I would, but in general I think pace signs are helpful for a race of this size that is large enough to get crowded but not big enough for waves. That said, I definitely don't think I approached this race in the spirit of fun which it seems to have been meant.

There is a lot to like about this race. While I can't say I appreciated it enough, the setting is beautiful, the course challenging, and the post-race party excellent. There were christmas cookies, soup (I didn't have any), and heated wine from Boordy Vineyards. Crowd support along the course was good (and I'm very thankful to our friend Ada, 1/4 of the original Earn Your Donuts marathon relay team, who showed up to cheer us on!). I also think that the Falls Road Running Store really did do a good job in letting people know exactly what to expect. It's a race that's very crowded for its setting, and they sent out plenty of e-mails and facebook posts with detailed parking maps and instructions. The premium is a very nice Brooks Equilibrium long-sleeve tech shirt. It's quite heavy, the equivalent of a light jacket in my opinion, so for me this is a piece of gear that's going to be saved for days when it's 20 degrees or less.

The bottom line is that I've run two Falls Road events this year (Druid Hills being the other) and they both exceeded expectations. While the logistics of a Baltimore race vs. a York race may send us back to one of the local Jingle Bell 5Ks next year, I would highly recommend this race for anyone in the Baltimore area.