Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon Race Recap

The Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon was the first event of the running season for Hartford Track Club/Sonic Endurance. As an ambassador I was incredibly excited to be a part of this event.

I did have issues finding the location initially. I woke up later than I had anticipated but when I entered "MDC Reservoir" into my GPS it sent me to a location 20 minutes away from the actual race aka MDC Reservoir #6. Although it is a reservoir the sign out front is Water Treatment Plant and that threw me off. Figures I'd be the person to have issues. I ended up arriving only 20 minutes prior to the start. I felt the walk was a little long to get to the start/finish line but that could have been my nerves. I can only imagine how gorgeous this place looks when it's all green.


Signage was well placed and parking wasn't awful considering the reservoir was still open to the public and there were 600 estimated runners! What a turnout!

When I picked up my bib and shirt I was relieved to see they had a bag check as it was too close to the start for me to get back to my car and drop the fantastic long sleeve shirt off. Kim, Kathy, Sandra, Anne and I all hung out until the start.


I didn't hear anything signifying the start but the large mass of people moving was identification enough that I should get going. Kathy took off and I followed. I knew she had a 5k pace I liked so I thought about staying close to her. Kim and Anne were doing run/walk and were behind me. When I reached Mile marker 1 I realized that I needed to slow it down. I wanted to be able to handle the Middletown Half the next day. Kim was the next one to show up and I thought, what better company! I also decided to make sure I wasn't running too hard I would do burpees, each mile marker I would do that number of burpees and continue. I have to take this Spartan Race for all it has. This was the best choice I could have made.

I had an absolute blast being with Kim. Most of you know her from her runDisney "Why I Run Disney" video, but shes even better in person. She is so inspiration and motivational. She told me to relax my shoulders when going down hill and that's something that I found helped me immensely both this race and for Middletown. We stayed together from 1 mile to mile 4 and chatted. By mile 4 I stopped, dropped and did my burpees but there was no way I could catch back up to her. I just kept chugging along as she pulled away. I made some new friends, got a great wet puppy kiss from a little chocolate lab and finished strong. About 1:24 which I have no issues with. 6.55 mile and 21 burpees done!


Kim and Kathy we were waiting at the finish. I went over and snagged some snacks. there was so much to choose from! Definitely a great array, bagels, cupcakes, oranges, little cake bite things. I loved the effort and heart put into this event. As the rest of the finishers were crossing they began the raffle drawings.


Our group took a photo after everyone crossed. Sandra, Myself, Kim, Anne and Kathy. I loved everything about this race and highly recommend it to anyone for next year ORRRRR for the Solstice Sprint 5k coming up in June! If you're interested in signing up contact me for a discount code. It will be the same course but only one loop instead of 2.


I felt like such a bad ass when I was done. I couldn't wait to get home and tell my father, I knew he'd be going to the gym and working out.


15 comments:

  1. Congrats girl! Looks like you had a great bunch with you! What was with the burpees at every mile? Was that just something you wanted to do on your own? If I stopped to do that during a race I would fear I wouldn't be able to get back up! You rock! -M

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    1. Thank you! I did!

      The burpees are to get me ready for the Spartan Races I'm doing. I'm practicing the distance and stopping every so often to simulate the obstacles or muscle confusion I'll need to get used to haha.

      Thank you :)

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  2. Congrats on an awesome race, and way to go with the burpees!

    Side note - the color of the medal for the ribbon is super gorgeous!

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    1. Thank you!

      Isn't it beautiful! I'm so in love with the medal, the shirt is fabulous too, I'm wearing it right now! Same color scheme.

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  3. That looked like a super fun day! You had beautiful weather and some great company for the run. The race organizers really did a nice job on the medals and especially the food!

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    1. It was a blast! The weather held together nicely with a great breeze that sure helped once the body temperatures picked up.

      The RD is fantastic! She's an Ironman/runner/triathlete so she gets it from our perspective :)

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  4. Awesome job - love the medal! The course looks gorgeous. I bet it's even more so during the summertime when everything is bright green!

    I love your idea of doing burpees at each mile marker. You are gonna rock that Spartan race!

    And is that Nutella I see in the post-race spread? I do love me some Nutella lol :0)

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    1. I'll have to tell you about how beautiful it is in June when we run it again I'm very excited.

      Thank you! I hope to kick some ass on those obstacles haha

      Yes there was Nutella hahaha

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  5. That's gotta be gorgeous once spring and summer set in. That looks like a good food selection too. Congrats on the race!

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  6. Looks like a great time! I almost signed up for this one, but then decided I'd do the Middletown half and didn't want to do both. But then I missed the price increase deadline for the half... and well, I didn't do any of them :(

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    1. Aw! I wish you had! Next time! Did you sign up for the Solstice Sprint? It's in the same place as this race, June 18th 6.30pm.

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  7. You ARE a badass!!! I wish I lived closer to all of you fantastic ladies!!!

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  8. Looks like a really great race! And what a nice spread of food at the end. :) Glad you enjoyed and got to see friends too - always a fun thing. When is your Spartan race?

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  9. I think I'll be home in time for the Solstice Sprint, I'll have to sign up...looks like a great course :)

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