This race does take place in Druid Hill Park, yes. However, I believe the race more commonly associated with the park is the “Dreaded Druid Hills 10K.” However, I believe that race is typically in late June/early July. I’ve also learned in researching this explanation that the Celtic Solstice 5 Mi is supposed to be much flatter than the DDH 10K. Who knows, maybe there will be a PR in my stocking this Christmas…

Bullets are my new style ... • The temperature was actually a few degrees colder than it was two weeks ago, yet the lack of wind chill today made all the difference. I actually felt close to sweating at a couple points this morning. • Just before the first quarter, Perry said, “Hey DR” and caught up to me. I was but one step behind until about 0.6 miles in, at which point he began pulling irrevocably ahead (I believe I hit the first mile just past 6:00, but then the course marker didn’t appear until the Forerunner clocked 1.07 miles — despite the fact that it was perfectly in sync with the second mile marker). I did, however, manage to keep Perry in sight for most of the race’s remainder. To measure the dividing distance as the museum turn-off loomed near, I began counting in my head as soon as he passed a street sign. Thirty-seven seconds elapsed before I achieved that same street sign — indicating that I didn’t gain or lose much ground after that. • Similar to Perry’s predicament, I didn’t have anyone to catch at the end — and there was no one to catch me. Thus today was one of those races where I more or less coasted in to the finish. • My finishing time of 19:19, though three seconds off my 2006 Jingle Bell time and 47 (!) seconds off my 2007 Jingle Bell time, marked major pace improvement from over the past three weeks: 3.01 miles in 19:57 = 6:37/mi (on 11/15/08); 3.21 miles in 20:24 = 6:24/mi (on 11/22/08); 5k in 19:19 = 6:14/mi (on 12/6/08). • You know, as recently as early October, I thought breaking 18:00 would be a realistic goal for today. And as it turned out, breaking 19:00 was not even to be. I’ve decided, however, that — in my aspiration to keep running for decades to come — I really can’t hope to keep steadily improving year after year. If everyone did that, you’d see a lot more people running in the 16:00s! We just have to accept that some years ... some seasons ... some races ... will inevitably be steps backwards — giving us all the more motivation to try harder next time. • I charted the course via mapmyrun.com, and accessed the elevation feature. Believe it or not, there’s actually a 12-15 foot incline from about where the two mile marker is to where we turn off back towards the museum. • Though the woman who won the women’s race today does resemble Jessica Schwab, she was actually Scottie Fuchs (pronounced “Fewks”) — the female winner of the Robbie Miles 5k last May. And yes, those were my parents there, cheering and taking many photos. • Since so many young men finished ahead of me today, I didn’t get up much hope for the awards — especially not when considering that 18:32 gave me third place in the age group last year. So imagine my elation when I was announced to be the FIRST place finisher in the men’s 19-29 age division today! I’m on a gold streak. • It was great to see Perry and Crystal there today, yet I was greatly disheartened that this was the fourth consecutive race in which I was joined by not one single high school running comrade. Hospice back in April was the last time we had a decent group together. I’m beginning to fear that Joe is just one stride away from hanging up his running shoes for good — which would be a real shame, since he seemed to be undergoing a bipedal revival back in August and September. I earnestly hope that the hour may come again when we all draw strides together. And mainly I just miss the camaraderie of it all.

That actually sounds quite appealing, especially since I hope to do a couple long-fast races (10k to half marathon) during January and February. And a birthday celebration will certainly make the trip more worthwhile.

Original Jingle Bell (Solomon's Dec 6) results: http://www.marathoncharitypartners.org/acf/20081206.html After some MS-Excel manipulation, I created a version that includes age-group placement and also gender placement: http://www.geocities.com/cbrc_stuff/JingleBell2008b.htm

That's quite a warm up you ran before the race!

Over nine hours?? That would equate to an average pace of about 1:50:00/mi! But I'm sorry to hear that you were among the unfortunate few to get screwed over by the chip glitch, especially in light of your strong performance.

It looks like most of the confusion has been sorted out... my chip time is now listed as 35:20.90. Confusingly, Val's gun time is list as 42:20, which is the same as her watch time (she hit her watch mat-to-mat, not as the gun sounded). Her chip time is listed as sub-40! However, Val is confident enough in her watch time to accept that as her new 5 Mile PR. I question how prepared the results-team was for this many people for a "local" road race. There were 1,926 official finishers as of the 12/22 revised results, and probably another hundred or so who DNF.