Mountain Goat Run, Syracuse

A race is a major event when it has its own statue.

Syracuse’s Mountain Goat Run, a ten mile race first run in 1979, is one of the oldest and largest races in the area. Last year, nearly 2,000 runners and walkers climbed to the three highest points in Syracuse on their way to the finish—though the course no longer involves climbing to the water towers in Strathmore and Thornden Park.

Part of the course runs through Upper Onondaga Park, home of the goat statue commemorating the race and site of the Strathmore Parks Run (which does climb to the water tower). Like the Strathmore Run, the Mountain Goat Run is part of Syracuse’s Syrathon race series.

The race typically takes place in the first weekend of May. I had signed up for the 5K and half marathon races at the Pittsburgh Marathon scheduled for the same weekend. That would have been my third half marathon over a four week period starting with the Skunk Cabbage Classic followed by the Helderberg to Hudson Half. With 2020 plummeting down a Jumanjiesque rabbit hole, Helderberg was postponed until August, and the Skunk Cabbage and Pittsburgh races joined the long list of cancelled events.

Similarly, the Mountain Goat organizers offered participants a choice: a partial refund, a virtual run, or a deferment to next year’s race. The pandemic poses a significant threat to local race organizers and the charities they support—the Mountain Goat tased nearly $20,000 for a variety of local organizations last year—and there’s considerable doubt about the future of some local races.

To make matters worse, many of the organizers of the spring races, including the Mountain Goat and the Good Samaritan Run, ordered shirts and medals before Covid shut the state down, leaving them with sizable expenses.

The Syracuse Post Standard’s Donna Ditota wrote at length about the plight of race organizers and the charities their events support in an article published on April 21 during the height of the pandemic. I had already entered several virtual events hosted by local or national organizations, so it only made sense to support local races. With Helderberg postponed and Pittsburgh cancelled, I registered for the Earth Day Half Marathon, the Good Samaritan Run, and the Mountain Goat Run.

One of the beauties of a virtual race is that it can be done anywhere at any pace. I opted to earn my Skunk Cabbage medal by running a half marathon on the Erie Canal trail, as Ithaca was a bit far out of the way for a virtual event. But I live within ten miles of the venues for the three races listed above, and I wanted to have the experience of actually running the respective courses.

The shirt, shoe bag, and medal for this year’s edition.

I was already familiar with parts of the Mountain Goat course, as I ran the Strathmore Parks Race last September. We live just over a mile from Thornden Park, and I often run through part of the course on my way to Westcott, so I had an inkling of what was in store.

I opted to run the course on the first day of the virtual event. A steady trickle of runners took to the course from Clinton Square, the traditional start/finish area, while I encountered a trio of friends in Shot Clock Park and fell in with them. It was a rare warm day in what had been a cold spring, and we decided to run the course at an easy pace.

The statue in Upper Onondaga Park.

As the title suggests, the course is known for its hills, and the terrain makes itself known long before the first climb. I had never noticed this before, but the Strathmore water tower is clearly visible from Onondaga Street during the opening portion of the race, a harbinger of the climbs ahead.

The first of the three climbs begins on Stolp Avenue, about 1.5 miles into the race. The initial portion kicks up with an 8% grade before moderating. The climb, which consists of three “steps” over a mile, ends on Rider Avenue. After the climb, runners work their way through the Strathmore Neighborhood to Upper Onondaga Park, pass Hiawatha Lake, and crest a small hill by the goat statue. Without the urgency of the race, clusters of us stopped for photos near the statue and took in the expansive view of the city from the top of the hill.

The course descends sharply to Lower Onondaga Park, threads its way through Kirk Park and a few city blocks, then turns on to East Colvin Street, where runners encounter the second climb at mile six. Roughly half a mile long, the hill offers little respite and hits runners with a short 10-12% grade near the crest of the hill.

A few of us congregated at the statue. This was taken before we summoned Baphomet with our rituals.

A small group from Fleet Feet cheered us on as we made the turn on to Comstock near the Manley Field House. This portion is long, straight, and initially flat, though the course gradually climbs a series of small hills and grades as it passes Mount Olympus and the Syracuse University campus.

This year’s medal is designed to interlock with the 2021 medal.

The next turn at University Place steers runners into Thornden Park and the third of the race’s major climbs, the west face of Thornden Park hill, roughly at mile 7.5. We were greeted with inspirational chalk messages and Cherise, our equally inspirational coach, on the climb, a short, steep ascent that brings runners close to the water tower.

A steep descent on Madison sets up the final segment of the race, a flat stretch on East Genesee to Clinton and the finish line, or in our case, a trip back to Armory Square.

The course was well-marked, and in a nice touch, some of the organizers came out to cheer us on.

It was hard to gauge the difficulty of the climbs. None of us were running anywhere near race pace, and we would occasionally circle back to check on a friend, so we were far fresher than we would have been on race day. I’m at my best when I can maintain a steady tempo. Based on that, I would rate the second climb (mile 6) as the most difficult, as the grade kicks up considerably near the top. The first climb (1.5) is the longest, but the climb offers several respites and the steepest grade is at the bottom. The third climb (7.5) is the shortest, but is relatively steep, falls late in the race, and follows a gradual series of climbs on Comstock.

This year’s participants received a shirt, in this case a striking short-sleeve tech shirt, a shoe bag, and a large, heavy medal, all courtesy of CNYRacing. Usually, the race concludes with a festival in Clinton Square, something we obviously missed this year.