Summer Solstice 8.5 Mile Trail Race
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
As I wandered around Minnewaska before the start of tonight's race, I realized that it's been 10 years since I first ran the Summer Solstice Run and discovered one of the most beautiful places I know of. After that first time in 1999, I didn't come back until 2005... but I've run this one every year since then and hope I can keep running it for many years to come.
As I was running tonight I kept thinking of the Navajo/Irish poem that's recited at the start of each Leatherman's Loop:
Somehow that just fit tonight to a "T".Beauty before me when I run.
Beauty behind me when I run.
Beauty below me when I run.
Beauty above me when I run.
Beauty beside me when I run.
Beauty within me when I run.
I see Beauty all around.
In beauty may I walk.
In beauty may I see.
In beauty may we all be.
Rather than go through a blow-by-blow description of the race I think this year I'll simply provide a few "snapshots" to give an idea of what it was like...
About 10 minutes before the scheduled start, black clouds moved in and it started pouring - it was raining hard enough that it was tough to see. Runners scrambled for any cover they could find, and I walked back to my car to ditch my camera, change into a shirt with sleeves (it was pretty chilly), grab a hat, and put on one of my rain jackets. I should have skipped the last one, since I took it off about 5-10 minutes in and spent the rest of the run with it tied around my waist.
The 4 mile climb to Castle Point is always tough, but this year my battered legs found it even tougher than usual - lots of walking breaks. One of the highlights is peeking off the cliffs to see the wonderful views - initially all I could see was grey cloud cover (yup, we were up in the clouds) but as I got further along the views cleared up and I could see over to Gertrude's Nose and eventually off into the distance along the Shawangunk Ridge. The water stop at the high point has the best views in the park!
It felt good to hammer the downhills after all that climbing - I managed to pass a few other runners along the way. I find the last three miles tough going - contrary to what everyone says, it's not all downhill, and I always struggle to find the balance between hammering the downhill bits and switching to a lower gear on the gentle climbs. Along the way, I managed to pass another half dozen runners, which always feels good - nice to know I haven't been totally wasting my time slogging through long slow distances.
There's a cliff we run under about 2 miles from the finish... tonight the sun came out and lit up the rock face in all sorts of shades of tan and gold. Beautiful!
This has to be one of the hardest finishes of just about any race I do... a gradual uphill to the shore of Lake Minnewaska, and then a short steep climb to the cliff overlooking the lake! Didn't have a prayer of running up that - I walked almost to the top and ran the last 50 m or so. I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 1 hr 34 min - 4 min faster than last year (though the course was changed slightly and was about 1/4 mile shorter) and only a minute or two slower than my best times. Not bad at all, considering I'm still recovering from Sunday's long haul...
Caught glimpses of the setting sun as I was changing clothes in the parking lot, so I hurried to get out of the park and down the road to the overlooks... only to find them completely fogged in! Guess I should have hiked out to one of the viewpoints up on top of the ridge.
Here's to my next ten years of running at Minnewaska!
JMH
2009 Event Totals
Run 168.4 mi, 42 hr 06 min
Bike 16.2 mi, 1 hr 25 min
Snowshoe 54.6 mi, 13 hr 05 min
XC Ski 3.3 mi, 1 hr 2 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT
