Solstice Run

So what happens when you only run once a week for a few weeks? You slow down quickly! Last weekend I had a cousin's graduation party to attend on the east side of the state, so naturally I started looking for races in the area for Saturday morning. I didn't get very far in my search (by very far I mean I started thinking about looking for races) and Redhead emailed me to inform me of the Solstice Run 10 Miler in Northville. This was perfect. My aunt and uncle live about 45 minutes away from there and they were willing to let me come over Friday night and crash at their place, saving me from an otherwise 2 hour drive from home. As if that wasn't generous enough, they mentioned it to my aunts parents who just so happen to live right in Northville and they insisted I stay with them Friday night. I've never felt so in demand before!

So I accepted the offer from my aunts parents to slumber at their luxurious domicile, and to my surprise I pulled in their driveway only to find the 8 mile mark sign for the race was 200 ft from their driveway! How perfect is that? They were not only less than two miles from the start line, but their house was right along the course! That's what I call gettin lucky!

I picked up my bib and pretty cool looking tech shirt in downtown Northville then headed towards the start line. I saw a couple from my running group who were also sneaking in a run before attending a graduation party (all the cool kids do it!). After chatting with them for a few minutes I decided I had better start looking for Redhead and Spike. They spotted me in my bright green singlet and "funglasses" jogging around the parking lot. It was great to actually have time to chat with them before and after the race! Red informed me of her views on arranged dates, and we debated the existence of horses in Michigan with their friend Nichole.

While watching the 10k to start, Spike and I discussed the interesting attire that people wear to races; particularly women who wear long pants and or sleeves when its over 70 degrees and heading towards 80. Then I was alerted to the goldmine, that was the lady wearing jean shorts. Instead of Canadian tuxedo shorts I'm going to refer to them as the "Canadian Chafers".

The race started on a dog? track at Northville Downs and half mile round the track we headed out the streets of N'ville which quickly turned into Hillville. The first was definitely the steepest and longest but for the most part the rest of the course was one continuous roller. At least that's how it seemed.

I never got down to the pace I wanted to, and in fact my average was considerably slower than that of my recent half marathons so, though I enjoyed my little sabatical from running, I definitely need to get back into it!

I really enjoyed this race, the course, though hilly was nice, and the volunteers were great. For the most part it was well marked but there were a couple of spots that were slightly confusing. Especially the part where a group of us missed a turn and ran the wrong way for a quarter mile. Whoops.

I had a fun sprint race to the finish with some guy and due to the sharp left turn four feet from the finish line, we literally had to grab onto eachother to slow down so we didn't bust through the chute. We congratulated each other and laughed about it for a minute.

After Red and Spike finished we found a shady piece of turf to plop down on and share our tales of the race and talk about how much of Spikes mind he has actually lost so far while training for his 100 miler. (really I kid because I'm jealous)

After some bagels, a popsicle and some water it was time to head for the cars and part ways. It was a fun race and hanging out at my cousin's party was a lot of fun too. There were many a margarita and cerveza's drank, and no shortage of barbecue and brisket. All in all a great weekend, and Sunday was spent recovering from it all!

Hope you had a good weekend too!

You can checkout Redhead's recap from the race here!

Oh I almost forgot to tell you how I did!
35th overall ..... 8th in AG ...... 1:09:33