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.
