Hartford Half Marathon

I completed my first Half Marathon on Saturday. The marathoners and half marathons (over 6,000) gathered on the north side of the state Capitol grounds before the start, fast runners up front, slower runners to the rear. An opera singer sang the Star-Spangled Banner (I held my HEAT cap over my heart), and then we were released into the streets in steady stages. We had the antennae loop tags on our sneakers so our accurate starting mat to finish mat times could be recorded. My start time ended up being five and a half minutes after the gun time.



We ran around the south and east sides of the park,



and then headed into downtown.



I stuck to my plan to do a 4 minute to 1 minute run/walk ratio, although I felt a little silly stopping to walk so early in the race, particularly with so many people on the sidelines cheering. There were quite a number of people using versions of the run walk so I didn’t feel too alone.

We headed across the Founder’s Bridge into East Hartford. I was still on the bridge heading East when we saw two side by side runners heading back westward on the bridge. The eastbound runners all gave the leaders a shoutout, impressed with their speed. The winning time was 1:04:42 with a mile pace under five minutes.



I kept looking for the first mile marker, and was getting a little worried as I was already 15 minutes into my race and hadn’t seen it yet. It wasn’t until I reached mile 3 that I realized the mile markers weren’t painted on the road but were tall narrow Hartford Marathon Banners on the side of the road. They had an electronic timer at the 5K marker.



We ran along the river in East Hartford. I was running quite comfortably and saw that I was ahead of my modest goal, which was simply to finish with a better than 12:00 minute a mile pace.



I did have one moment of panic when I realized I was past mile three, but had thought the half marathoners were going to break off before then.

I looked around and all I could see was orange running numbers of marathoners and no blue numbers like mine, and then to my relief I saw a couple other blues. Not much farther down the road, the two courses did split and I made the left with the other half marathon runners and we headed back toward Hartford.



Coming back into Hartford, there was a huge crowd along the bridge and overpass, and then along the streets, people holding up signs and banging cowbells.



At this aid station (they had fluid stations every mile after mile 2), instead of just water and Gatorade, they were passing out other treats. I took a starburst and slowly sucked on it as we headed north on Weston Street toward the meadows, where along the road they had an excellent blues band and then later dummers.



I soon started to modify my 4-1 to match the terrain, running five or six minutes so I could walk a small hill. They had another electronic timer at the 10K mark and I hit it in 1:15:41, still ahead of pace.



We crossed the highway at Jennings Road and then ran into Riverside Park, and then along past the Boathouse and along the river trail.





It was then that I began to feel a little twinge in my right groin. Nothing that really affected me, but something to note with a small bit of concern. I continued to cheat a little on my 4-1, cutting my walk breaks to 45 seconds and running five and six minutes. There was a nice crowd by the river steps, and this spurred me on.

We continued to run south, and crossed under the highway. The crowds were sparser here. Someone had posted signs with inspirational quotes on them, but they were clumped to close together to read them all (and I was past them before I thought to take a picture). My favorite part of the race was a small group of signs of photos of people that appeared to be related to the Team in Training. I couldn’t read them, but it seemed like these perhaps were people that some of the runners were running on behalf, people who had either valiantly lost or were fighting battles against disease. It was a nice quiet spot on the race course for the shrine, and was in its own way, as inspiring as any shout, cheer or cow bell clang.



We ran past the historic Colt building and Dillon tadium where as a kid I used to watch the old Hartford Knights play.

(I had been very much looking forward to this whole event almost like a trip I was taking. In my pocket I carried a small camera that I used throughout the race to snap the displayed pictures of the route. I turned out to be a lousy photographer. Few of the 50 odd pictures I took on the run were in focus and on target and there were sections of the race where I was pushing the button, but no pictures were snapped).

At mile ten my brother, who had come up from New York joined me on the course to run a few miles. He was telling me what a great achievement this was for me, and I was telling him I wasn’t there yet.

We ran up Park Street now through the Frog Hollow Hispanic section of town where as a paramedic I have done many calls over the years). Pulsing Spanish music played on a sound system and there was a nice crowd from the neighborhood cheering.

Hitting the 11 mile mark I was now in new territory as my previous long run mark was 10.5 miles (3 loops of the Albany Avenue Reservoir). My right groin started calling my attention to it in a more pronounced way and I noticed my heart rate, which I had been keeping in the 150s was now at 162. The back of my right knee started aching as well.

In my previous races 5Ks and 10Ks I was slowed only by getting short of breath(oxygen demand), muscle fatigue was new to me, but I gather it is pretty much a staple of longer runs. I had in my pocket a package of Sharkies -- sort of gummi fruit juice electrolyte things-- and I was eating those steadily. My brother was keeping up a nice chat to distract me, I kept looking at my watch for my four minutes of running to stop so I could walk again.

Since my ten mile run I had only done a few short runs, not wanting to encourage a possible cold I felt coming on. I kept it at bay, but came into the race more undertrained than overtrained.

We turned right on Capitol Ave and the end was getting close, but there was no way I was going to breeze in. I had handed the camera over to my brother to take a few shots of me, and having viewed them after the race I will likely delete the worst of them because I look like an old man shuffling his way along.



In none of the pictures am I at all fleet foot and airborne.



We ran up behind the legislative office building and armory, and people started passing me now as sensing the finish they were putting on their final spurts.



My brother peeled off then and I reached down and put on a small spurt of my own, finally getting back to a full although somewhat painful stride up the hill and through the arches to the finish line.



I got a drink of water, received my finisher’s medal and then met up with my family.

My official time was: 2:34:19

I came in 3483 out of 4086

158/175 in my age group M5054

246 out of 358 in the Clydesdale/Athena category

My 10K split was 1:15:41

My mile pace was 11:46

It was a great event. I plan to run again next year.

Hartford Half Marathon