Well the Solstice fun came in two varieties this year! Running and Mtbing.
Obviously the Solstice needs celbrating, marking the shortest day of the year and the birth of the new year! Good enough reason to build bloody Stonehenge, good enough reason to get out there into the open and do our thing!
Fun started on Saturday 20 Dec with the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler in Druids Hill Park Baltimore. Talked into this by friends and MLW! Not really a 5 mile kind of guy - especially so soon after the JFK 50. Was a bit worried that all the snap would be gone from the legs and I'd be even slower than usual! Managed to put pressure on myelf even more by foolishly mentioning (at my work Holiday Dinner, after a couple of "sherbets") that 6 min/mile pace was what I thought was reasonable. Hell! What was I thinking! So the morning came, cold and windy, adn MLW, some friends and I find ourselves huddlng for warmth at the start, generally mumbling about who's bloody stupid idea this was in the first place - not guilty!
Turns out it's a bloody big race too! Nearly 2000 runners this year.
At 8am (or there abouts) the "gun" goes and we start the run with a rather nasty little hill. Over an overpass and up to the swimming pool. By the time I reach the top I'm feeling winded and am hoping that the first mile will be out of the way - no such luck! A glance at my watch tells me we have been running for 3 min 40 sec! Shite it's going to be a long day - hands are sodding freezing to. When the 1 mile marker finally hoves into view the pack has thinned out and the watch says 6:20, repectable but not 6 min/mile pace. THe second mile is mainly flat but with a couple of inclines, find myself running with a young guy in a black shirt and shorts - decide he looks a good target and get towed by him for the next mile or so - second mile goes (thankfully) easier than the first and the watch says 12:15 so I had clawed some of my time back. Up the hill to the turn round point and I pass my friend in black. Heading back doen the hill I see MLW heading up, looking strong and well ahead of her friends, way to go! By the time I hit the lake loop I am just trying to hang in and maintain some semblence of form. I know I am running a reasonable pace and just need to keep it all together, at some point round the lake my friend in black reappears and passes me. I try to stay with him but my legs just don't have the spring. Once we have circumnavigated the lake we head right and before I know it I am at the top of the initial climb, heading down this tinme toward the finish. All the time I have been aiming for a 31 min finish to save my blushes, but the watch is not even at 30 yet so the ears are pinned back and I do what I can to stretch the stride. Mr Black is too strng and I find myself loosing ground, but hold on just well enough to cross the line at 30 min 8 sec on my watch! Good Enough. MLW has a blistering run - finishing in 37 min and change (clock time), to be in under 7:30 min/mile pace - from a girl running over 8:30 min/miles only a year ago! fantastic run and good enough (once "chip" issues have been resolved) to earn her a podium place (3rd in her age group). She is getting pretty consistent at podiuming this year! Must be the third or fourth time. My time (though good for me) was only sufficient for a 5th place in my age group - still no complaints, fun all round and one of the Bollux-clan on the podium is reason for celebration enough.
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