Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon Race Report

My main goals heading into the Greater Hartford Quarter Marathon was a) run an evenly paced race and b) to try and finish in 48 minutes. Race day weather was awesome - sunny, calm and temps in the high 60s and race start. After picking up bib, I did a nice warm up of about a mile and half at an nice easy pace. Last quarter mile of warm up I picked it up to waken the muscles a bit. Finished my warm up about 10 minutes before the start of the race.

I lined my myself up near the front of the 7:00 pace group which ended up being the perfect spot to be. When the race started I only passed a couple people and got passed by no one. Successful placement! Around a 1/2 mile in Michael W. from DailyMile passed by me. I looked at my Garmin for the first time then and saw I was going a touch under 7:00. A little fast for the start - but nothing that would hurt me. The course then got hilly for the next mile which didnt seem too bad at the time - but then I remembered this was a two loop course. I tried to forget about having to do the hills another time and just focus. As we got back towards the start I looked at my watch and saw that for loop 1 I was at 24 minute (and change).

As the second loop started I realized I had been running in a pocket alone for a good while. I caught up to some other runners (including Doc Leah who was struggling with a knee issue) - and then the hills hit again. These were definetly harder this time around. The course leveled out again and I was able to recover nicely from the hills. With a mile left I started to push the pace slightly. Then I pushed it again when I had the last .55 miles to go. Having a nice long straight stretch to finish was great - I just focused on the finish line, form, breathing until I was done. Stopped the watch and it read 47:56 - official time was 48 minute exactly!

And for keeping an evenly paced run - (minus the last .55 where I picked up the pace 6:35 per mile) my splits were between 7:06 and 7:38. The fastest being the start (darn adrenaline) and the slowest being the second time up the hills. After I finished - I got my medal, a bottle of water and some yummy post-run treats which included rice krispie treat, peanut butter cookie and an oatmeal raisin cookie.

All in all a great race - I paced myself wisely and finished right on where I had hoped.