40/50 - Hartford Marathon

OMG is right!

It's been a rough year as I struggle to get through my 30s - not my age, this decade is rad - my states. After years of feeling like I had the marathon on autopilot, this recent struggle with injuries and motivation is proving challenging, particularly with a schedule of 8-10 marathons per year in order to complete this goal by June 2019 in Alaska. I canceled the MT marathon and had a few misses this summer with WY & SD (again!) so this Hartford success was much needed but hard-fought. While the Hartford Marathon is my 34th sub-3-hour state marathon, it's my 40th state marathon - that leaves 6 to redo and 10 states yet to visit.

One of the more impressive state capitol buildings I've seen

I've been pondering the grandness of this 50-state goal, not only the physicality but also the expense. With hesitation, I booked the Hartford Marathon about 10 days out, and well, that's an expensive flight! To counter that, I did not rent a car and gave Airbnb a try. In addition to running sub-3-hours, I could do a sub-$1,000 weekend and STILL make it to all the breweries!

And make it to all the breweries I did.

I took the bus from the airport into downtown Hartford, arriving late Friday afternoon, and I found myself in City Steam Brewery Cafe 5 minutes later. They brew a beer called Ales for ALS - proceeds benefitting the ALS Institute. I love a good cause and good beer! I'll take it and dinner. Bonus: it's happy hour.

There was a lot of walking this weekend (because I still haven't succumbed to Uber), starting with my walk to the expo then my Airbnb place on the north side of Hartford. If you've been to Hartford and I tell you my room was $30/night, I think you'll know where I'm going with this. There is a fair amount of urban blight in Hartford and the good intentions of this building's owner to rehab the place are noble and, well, currently intentions. Each floor of this 3-flat was set up like a dorm room - one bathroom and 5 bedrooms. I had a room facing the busy street, the one with a twin bed so bouncy that I nearly fell out of it several times. I was in bed at 7pm for tomorrow's 8am race start, so, not very different than my typical Friday night.

The place

That stupid bed

The race start line is a mile walk from my place. That's also about how far coffee is! Other than coffee, I don't have race day rituals and coffee is really more of a daily ritual. There I stood, Dunkin Donuts in hand, amongst a few thousand runners stretching and going through their routines in the race corral 30 minutes before race time.

I picked this race for Connecticut because it has a high percentage of sub-3-hour finishers. You know what I've learned from running all over the country? The east coast has A LOT of post-collegiate runners and Utahans are insanely fit. Also, you know what you call someone from Connecticut? A Nutmegger. True story.

This is a great course and a well-organized event. Though the temps would reach 80F later in the day, the morning was cloudy. I fell into stride with a couple of guys, post-collegiate runners of course, from the east coast. We kept a decent clip until the half when I started fading a bit. My head just wasn't in this one; I was expecting to miss my goal from mile 10 on and that kind of thinking is self-defeating. There's an out-and-back portion of the course from mile 10 - 24 where I was getting passed frequently; I would struggle to hang on for a bit, then fall off until the next person. It wasn't until the last person at mile 25 that I felt like this 2:58:49 finish was secure. That person, Michael, did more for me than I think he realized.

My struggle face

I was elated this one was over. And then I wanted to collapse; that's not typical for me. I spent a few minutes regaining my composure before hitching a ride on a golf cart to get my checked bag then my free beer.

While at the afterparty, I struck up a conversation with Dan, a local runner and race volunteer. He charted out my afternoon of places to eat and drink. After a quick shower, I set out for a 9-mile walking tour of Hartford and my first stop was Bear's BBQ. From there, it's a few miles to Hanging Hills Brewing Company, then a few miles to Hog River Brewing Company, then a few more miles back to my place for the night. This was a slightly uncomfortable walking experience as the outskirts of this city are really not all that welcoming to a fluorescent-yellow-shirted tourist roaming around aimlessly.

A throwback carousel in a downtown park

Sunday morning was devoted to exploring the inner city by foot. My 5-mile walk yielded a few coffee shops (Sarah's Coffee House & Blue State Coffee - where I got to witness a high-speed police chase), the state capital, the Bushnell Park arch depicted on our race medal, and a great pizza place before my bus to the airport. In the end, I saw and visited almost all I needed (I realized after my visit that I could have toured Mark Twain's house) and am pretty thankful I don't need to return to Hartford.

Found it!