Eversource Hartford Marathon - Run

A beautiful fall day in New England. 48 degrees, sunny, breezy, and peak foliage. This was marathon #7 for me, and my third time doing Hartford, my "hometown" race. My times have gone 4:16, 3:58, 3:45, 3:38, 3:23, 3:16. This race was a bit of a disappointment. Coming off a 3:16 marathon at New Jersey in April, I thought I was well prepared to run sub-3:15 and get my first BQ. Today just wasn't my day. I knew pretty early on that I just didn't have it, and by the 10K split I was already working harder than I should. I listened to my body and just took what my legs gave me. There was too much race left to force the effort, and didn't want to death march the second half of the race.

I was already getting tired at the 13.1 split. By mile 20, I was just wishing for the race to end, counting down the miles and estimating how many minutes. I managed to keep my pace in the 8:15-8:30 range, which shows fatigue but I was not completely falling apart. I had decided that I'd be ok with running under 3:30, since my goal was out the window anyway, so I just tried to focus on finding an effort that was sustainable. I am pretty happy that I ran a 3:26 on a day that I wasn't at my best. A guy could do worse. Any day I cross the finish line of a race is a good day.

To run my best marathon, I need 18 weeks of focused training. I did a lot of multisport races in July, spent most of August trying to recover, and didn't find my marathon legs until September. By that time it was too late. No regrets though...I had a blast in July. The next time I train for a marathon, I'll focus more.

Chatted with two friends and fellow finishers in the finish chute, grabbed my medal, found my wife (who ran the HM in 2:11), and headed home.


Distracted training.


The Hartford Marathon Foundation runs a well oiled machine. They are well organized and their events are damn near flawless. This marathon is mid-sized, not too crowded, and has plenty of aid stations and volunteers. More crowd support than you'd expect too. I would recommend this race to anyone. I have done both the full marathon and the half marathon (same start, different routes).