Summer Solstice 8M

 

Hebron, CT

Saturday, June 17, 2023

I last ran this race eleven years ago.  At that time the race featured two distances only, a 5K and 5-Miler, the latter distance which I ran and finished in 6th.  This year they had an 8-Mile distance, which also served as one of the USATF-CT MUT (Mountain/Ultra/Trail) races.

After a one-hour drive from Westerly, I arrived at Gay City State Park with plenty of time to spare.  I digress for a moment to satisfy my innate curiosity:  why the weird name?  I'm assuming it has more to do with the traditional meaning of the word gay being "happy" rather than the more modern usage of the term, but in turns out both guesses would be wrong.  Originally settled in 1796 by a religious sect, the surname "Gay" was more common than any of the other residents, and it gradually became known as Gay City and developed as a mill town in the 1800s before burning down post-Civil War and eventually turned over to the state of CT as a state park.  Huh ... who knew?

Big field was used for start, finish, registration, and awards.

Back to the race:  I was on a trail winding down my warm-up when I heard the national anthem play.  I kind of freaked out as I feared I'd miss the start.  Did I screw up?  Not really, as my watch showed 7:21am against a 7:30am start and I was only a quarter-mile away.  Turned around and quickly ran to the field with the start/finish line just as the national anthem was finishing.  No one was on the start line; this was weird but reassuring.

Start:  I was in the first of three waves, and made sure to get up close to the start line, in about the second row.  The first quarter-mile or so was on pavement before we split off onto single-track.  I entered the trail in about 10th place.  The lead woman passed me early on and I enjoyed watching her pass the two guys ahead of me, but it didn't last long.

I just ran my own race, but in doing so, gradually worked up my up in the pack.  The guy immediately in front of me was likely a faster road runner, but each time we got to a technical section he really slowed down.  Then the short technical section was over and he picked up the pace again.  Finally in one crazy section where we had to jump over a partially downed tree in the middle of a rocky trail section, I went past him and didn't look back.  Also caught up to teammate Dave Goodrich, who let me go by, and then on a downhill, re-caught and passed the lead woman.

Early on, behind lead woman.

The rest of the first loop was pretty uneventful and on pretty easy terrain.  I passed two more runners and then at five miles, the five milers peeled off to the finish and we started a second, shorter route.  Grabbed a water at the start of this loop and off I went.  

Start of second loop.

This second loop was not only shorter but also easier.  There was a fair amount of double-track and a long gradual downhill section early in the loop, where is where I ran my fastest mile of the race (Mile 6) in 6:38.  I felt good, the loop went by quickly, I passed two more runners, and I crossed the finish line in 4th place.

Finished!

Final result:  55:28, 4th out of 97 finishers overall, 1st in age group.  Full results here.

Age group award.  Top three got a pie;
just missed that one.

One teammate, Marc Olivier, won the race outright, and with Dave moving up to finish in 6th place, the three of us combined to win the men's open team race today!  This race wasn't particularly hard or technical, but had just enough variability to make it fun.  I would definitely run this again if it fit in my schedule.

(l-r):  me, Mark, Dave