Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Summer Solstice Run results
Summer Solstice Run info
Wow, Lake Minnewaska is a beautiful park this time of year. Too bad I was too busy running the race to really appreciate it. (That's why I'm going back in July with my ATB... to really see the park instead of a pretty blur.)
The Summer Solstice Run is a 14 K (8.7 mi) along some of the carriage trails, which were pretty damp and slippery from the rain today. The first 4 miles is pretty much all uphill (with a few short flat sections between the climbs.) Then there's about 2 1/2 miles of downhill/flat followed by about 2 miles or so of more gradual uphill. The sadists who picked the course have the last 30 m or so to the finish line straight up a STEEP hill... on the plus side, the trails are wide and not terribly technical... you could probably run them in road shoes with no problem. And the scenery is great... part of run goes along the cliffs with some wonderful panoramas. If I hadn't been trying to make good time I would have stopped and really enjoyed it.
This was a good evening. I got to the end of the uphill section in about 45 minutes, with really consistent running... just at the edge of losing control of my breathing, but never did. Then I booked through the downhill/flat section (leaving behind these two chatterbox women who were 100 feet behind me for the first 4 miles... they never shut up! I wanted to turn and tell them to run faster, since they clearly had far too much breath to spare. But I didn't.) For the last half I had one person visible on the trail with me... I followed him most of the time (he was about 100 m ahead of me.) The last mile or two hurt, but that's OK. Made good time overall... 93:08, for an average pace of 10:42 per mile... so all the work I've been doing seems to be paying off (and I lucked out and had a good evening.) I came in 160th out of 185... seems more and more fast people are trail running, and more and more of the slow people like me are staying away. When I ran this race 6 or 7 years ago, I finished in about 80 minutes and was 4th or 5th in my division.
Not that the winners have anything to worry about... in my age group (30-39, and soon to be 40-49) the top guys finished in 55-60 minutes. Yow. Must be good to be biomechanically blessed. I couldn't do that if a bear was chasing me the whole way.
I'm really looking forward to going back down there mid-July to see the park at a more leisurely pace.... if you're down that way, I recommend it as a really nice place to go. The 'Gunks in general are gorgeous.
JMH
Next up - the Indian Ladder 15K (the race I've run the most times - 5 times in the last 7 years.)
