I'll admit, I ran this race for the shirt. Every winter, I see a ton of local runners in great running jackets or vests or half-zip shirts, all featuring a cool Celtic Solstice logo (see below), and I wish I had one.
The Celtic Solstice race is put on by Falls Road Running Store in Baltimore, which is known for great race premiums. They were the sponsors of the Dreaded Druid Hills 10K, which I ran in June. That race lived up to its name in terms of difficulty, but it was worth it for this awesome shirt that I wore for the rest of the summer:
In addition to the promise of the great shirt, I also heard from tons of local runners that Celtic Solstice is a great race and a nice way to end the running year. So, I had high hopes all around.
I'm sorry to say that I was a bit disappointed. For starters, this year's shirt is nothing special. The logo is cool, but (based on previous premiums) I was expecting a jacket or half-zip and got just a plain long-sleeve shirt. So, the premium was just okay, and I think I would say the same about the race itself. The atmosphere was fun and festive, but the course was nothing exciting. It was just a basic loop around the park. In several places, it was too narrow to accommodate the 3,000+ runners, leading to frustrating bottlenecks. As masochistic as it sounds, I preferred the Dreaded Druid Hills course. Those hills were intense, but at least they kept things interesting and took us through the most scenic areas of the park.
My final motivation for doing this race was the opportunity to attempt an official 5-mile PR. I ran this year's Down's Park 5-miler in 48:35, but I ran that race as a worker's run, so my time is unofficial. Prior to Saturday's race, my fastest official 5-mile time was about 52 minutes. I was sure I could beat that official time, and I hoped I might be able to beat the unofficial time too.
As it turned out, I underestimated the Baltimore hills, the crowded course, and the accumulated fatigue of 19 previous races. This was a tough race. I ran mile 1 in about 10:29, which was well off my goal of sub 10-minute miles. I made up a little time in mile 2, coming in about 10:15. So, an improvement, but still off my goal pace. At that point, I started to doubt that I could beat even my 52-minute time. In mile 3, I really picked up the pace and finished in about 9:30. Going into mile 4, I knew that I could not beat 48:35, but that I could come in under 50 minutes if I really pushed it. The last two miles were painful, but I ran them in just over 9 minutes each and finished the race in 49:28. So, not my fastest 5-miler ever, but still an official PR.
In all fairness to the Celtic Solstice organizers, I should mention that the post-race food was excellent, including hot mulled wine and some delicious Christmas cookies. Those treats were made even sweeter when I thought over my race year and realized that I set official PRs in every race distance I ran in 2011!
I look forward to sharing my victorious year-end review soon!
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