Hartford Half Marathon Race Report

I had a 14-mile long run planned for this weekend for my Philadelphia Half Marathon training plan. I signed up for the Hartford Half thinking it would just be part of my training run. But training has been going great and I thought I would run the race faster than my training pace and see what I could do. My previous half marathon time for the Iron Horse Half last May was 2:12:19 (10:06 pace). I’ve been using the 10:00 pace half marathon plan from Run Less, Run Faster since July.

I picked up my race packet Friday evening with my family. I like having everything set the night before a race. Though if I run this race again, I’ll just pick it up the morning of the race and skip the extra 2+ hours of driving down to Hartford and back. I got up a little after 4am Saturday morning to get my oatmeal and tea in me in plenty of time before the race start. I still hadn’t decided how I was going to deal with hydration/nutrition on the course and brought all of my options with me, way more stuff than I needed.

I got down to Hartford and parked by 6:15, plenty of time before the 8am start. I found an indoor bathroom and then walked around the park for a bit trying to figure out where everything was. Then back to the car to pack my checked bag and decided what to do about hydration/nutrition. I wore my Atalanta Commitment skirt with the awesome back pockets. So I ended up carrying an 8 oz bottle of water in one pocket, and my 4 oz gel flask in the other. I also wore my SpiBelt to carry my phone and other essentials, and attached my race number to the belt with the toggles I bought at the Expo the night before.

Since this was supposed to be a 14 mile run, I got in an easy mile warm up first. Then waited in a very slow-moving porta potty line and made it to the starting line with four minutes to spare. Weather was in the low 60s, cloudy, and kind of humid at the start. It could have been a little cooler, but mostly I was quite comfortable. I was back by the 4:45 marathon pacers and probably should have been up farther. The first mile was really crowded. I had never done a race with nearly this many people before. There was a lot of bumping and elbows, but fortunately no tripping. I did way more weaving in and around people than I wanted to.

Once we got to the bridge, the crowd spaced out a bit and I was able to get into a groove. After 2 miles, I noticed several runners turning right suddenly. I was a little confused until I passed them and realized it was just a bunch of men peeing in the bushes. Where was that pee patrol? Before the 4-mile mark, the marathoners split off from us and the crowd thinned out even more which was nice. At the 4-mile water stop, I filled up my water bottle again and sipped a little Gatorade. Going up the hill to the Founder’s Bridge I started feeling some cramping and slowed down. I was getting a little discouraged. Shortly after that I got a text from Bill saying “Run fast! Don’t fall over or get in a fight!” The laughing actually helped a bit. And after 5 miles when we turned onto Market St I saw a WNEC Law sign and noticed it was Erin holding it. She was supposed to be running the half but skipped since she’s recovering from an injury and is trying to get better for the Philly Marathon. It was great seeing a friendly face and getting a “Go Dena!”. From there everything went more smoothly.

I did a couple of things differently for this race than the last half. I did not bring my iPod. I enjoyed listening to the different conversations along the way. And I enjoyed the music along the course too, but there wasn’t as much as I thought there would be. There were a number of hills, but all of them were short and not too steep, at least that’s how I remember them. I increased my cadence, but not my stride going up the hills. And instead of going all out down the hills, I increased my speed, but was more conservative and in control. The other big change was that I had a negative split, a significant one. My 10K split was 1:07:06 (10:47 pace). I had a 9:42 pace for the whole race, a huge difference.

By the end of the race I had drank 16 oz water, 2 oz of gel, and several sips of Gatorade at the water stations. That felt about the right amount. Though I did notice my skin seemed very salty. Ella even said when she kissed me later that I tasted salty. I never missed my iPod. Didn’t once think to myself “Why the hell am I doing this. Never again. I could be in bed right now.” And by the end of the race I still felt good and could keep going. It was a great way to end.

After the race I picked up my checked bag and put on my extra shirt and started drinking the bottle of Heed I mixed. Found an empty porta potty, no line. Wandered to the food and was pleased to see something other than dry bagels and orange slices. I had mac & cheese, apple crisp, soup, wild rice salad, and a giant oatmeal cookie. Then I stood in a long line for a massage which I enjoyed. But by that point I was shivering and couldn’t stay warm so made my way back to the car. Next time I will pack more clothes to wear after. I never did get my free beer.

Garmin distance and time: 13.22 miles in 02:06:49. So there was some weaving, and I probably started my watch too late too. Garmin mile splits: 9:52, 9:04, 9:37, 9:39, 10:04, 9:45, 9:50, 9:42, 9:35, 9:36, 9:41, 9:31, 8:55, 8:20 (last 0.22). Official final time was 02:07:03. 1968 out of 4068 finishers. 128 out of 399 in my age group. I am so very happy with this race.

To get ready for the Philadelphia Half Marathon in 6 weeks, I’m going to bump up my training to a 9:40 pace plan. And then for the race itself, I’ll focus on having a stronger first half, and seed myself at the start to more similarly paced runners. Otherwise, I think everything else is working out pretty well. My family is coming with me to Philadelphia and I’m super excited that they’ll be there. They haven’t been to my last 4 races.

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