In January 2025, I joined a cute little Discord server that has a fun annual tradition. Each year on New Year's Eve or Day, they do a speedrun race of Celeste, the winner gaining bragging rights and not much else.
Caoimhe' has summarised the results of the previous few years' races. She's also done one for this year that has cute emojis and formatting :3
I had done three practice runs in the weeks prior, but kind of let it slip in the days before the race. I did one test run on the 30th to shake off some cobwebs, and joined the stream channel on 31st December to throw myself against Caoimhe' and Ruby, two girls who were well experienced with this race. The former was handicapped by her delightful cat Easóg was nestled around one of her arms. Not that she was fazed, as that cat does that to her rather often.
Ruby had been making noise in prior weeks about my light use of speedrun techniques - mostly hyperdashes and two specific skips - that she was worried about losing out to. In advance of the race I showed her the Search Skip to balance the scales. It's one of the easiest and most impactful skips for new speedrunners (apparently) and none of us were going to be doing high-level techniques.
In Chapter 1 and 2 I eked out a small lead, with the occasional hyperdash and superdash but nothing silly. I adore Chapter 2 and rarely lose much time here.
I despise Chapter 3 and often get tilted here. 20-40 deaths here isn't uncommon. I pulled off the demo dash skip on third attempt, and despite losing considerable time in the final sector, finished in around 10 minutes.
However, all of my lead was lost, and moving into Chapter 4, Ruby and I were literally neck and neck, often being at the same stage of the same puzzle in the same room. Every death, I'd glance at the streamed screens from Caoimhe' and Ruby', and comment on the marginal differences, to keep it fun. Caoimhe' had a difficult start, feeling pretty tired on the day, but was only 3 minutes behind, and could easily catch up if either of us got tilted or stuck at any point.
I started Chapter 5 in the lead, losing a portion of it throughout, but was still pleased with my best run yet. Chapter 6 frustrates me to no end, with its excessively long Badeline fight, and on two separate occasions I died 9 times in a row to specific puzzles. Caoimhe' continued to stick close to me, and rarely dropped away. Entering Chapter 7, Ruby and I were separated by 21 seconds.
This part was a delight. Ruby and I swapped the lead as we often did, but with microscopic gaps becoming the norm. A single death in a puzzle would swap the lead, and hesitating would throw away any advantage we may have had. I lose the lead at the end of the 1500 metres section, at a puzzle I know I hate, and pull it back cleanly at 2000 metres. At 2500 metres, I had a small lead, but here is where the dream ends.
Ruby had mentioned previously that she'd achieved the Golden Berry in Chapter 7. And I haven't. This became painfully clear when I made silly mistakes in more than one puzzle, and she simply didn't, pulling out a lead of one room, then two rooms, then three. About halfway through 2500m, I hear a voice in the chat: "Thirty". Ruby had reached 3000 metres and was counting down the checkpoints.
By the time I reached this section, she was on Checkpoint 21. And she machined through those checkpoints, while was slow and stumbled on 22, 20, 17, and repeatedly on 14. By the time I hit Checkpoint 9, she had hit the peak. Her first sub-1 hour run!
With the pressure now off, I proceeded to fumble Checkpoint 3 several times, drawing out the gap a disappointing amount. I finished at 1 hour 2 minutes, my personal best but the drop-off in Chapter 7 killed me. I don't think I could have won, but it could have been tantalisingly close.
Caoimhe' finished with a personal best of 1 hour 7 minutes. I didn't get a good look at how she fared through Chapter 6 and early Chapter 7, but near the end she was increasingly reeling me in.
It was a lot of fun and a very charming tradition that I look forward to continuing :3
