This was a really massive race. Only the first…850 registered runners got the tech tee, while the rest got a cotton shirt, if that’s an indication of the scale. Inside the middle school where registration took place, sponsors had their tables set up, and hundreds of runners were stretching and socializing, to avoid the deep […]
169 Towns #84: Branford
November 24th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #84: Branford
169 Towns #83: Union
November 12th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #83: Union
Right up at the northern edge of the state, not far from Massachusetts, this race took place on a lovely, if slightly chilly day. We parked in a state park parking lot, about a quarter mile from the start, so I was glad to arrive in time to get registered. We started along the entrance […]
169 Towns #82: Brookfield
October 29th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #82: Brookfield
It’s been a few weeks since my last race, with travel and sickness getting in the way. I was hoping to do the magical four races in one weekend and get to the halfway point in the list, but the nor’easter yesterday meant that it was a really unpleasant day to run, so I didn’t. […]
169 Towns #81: Salem
October 1st, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #81: Salem
This was a bit of a last-minute decision, and I arrived at the site with just a few minutes to spare. The race took place on a farm, with horses around, and a bit of a hike between parking and the start. It as mostly meadow-running, with one mile of the race a pure trail […]
169 Towns #80: Enfield
September 23rd, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #80: Enfield
> The LEGO 5K at the company’s US headquarters in Enfield is notorious for selling out very quickly, because it’s also known for having some of the best race swag around, if you’re into toys featuring DC Comics and Ninjago characters. I knew I wanted to do it once, and it finally worked out this […]
169 Towns #79: Colchester
September 21st, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #79: Colchester
A nice little race in Colchester, up the coast and inland. It featured a flat course that quickly got out into farm country, past what looked like tobacco barns, perhaps? I pressed the whole time, and came in 8th, finally managing to win my age group. I was pretty beat at the end, and the […]
169 Towns #78: Suffield
September 10th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #78: Suffield
This race took me up north of Hartford, past the Bradley airport terminal, past the airport runways, and the air museum. All of the sudden, things got quiet, and I came into Suffield, a nice little town, and to its high school. Farm country. Hilly. The 10K runners left a half hour before on a […]
169 Towns #77: Stamford
September 5th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #77: Stamford
At this point, I’ve take taken care of nearly everything between New Haven in the New York line, but Stamford and Greenwich, my old stomping grounds, remain. Today’s Labor Day race, at the JCC of Stamford, was very well attended and obviously a big community event. It was a warm day; I’d have preferred it […]
169 Towns #76 Newtown
August 21st, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #76 Newtown
This was an interesting one: as I drove up to park, I came across a car in a ditch, with a police car directing drivers around it. By the time the race started, it became clear that the removal of the car, which had been driven off the road early in the morning by a […]
169 Towns #75: Shelton
August 19th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #75: Shelton
This race was a little different in a few ways—first, it was part of a nationally-organized event, and the registration table took credit cards, which almost never happens. And second, it was an evening run, the first one of those I’ve done in a long time. My body didn’t quite feel up for it, but […]
169 Towns #74: Clinton
August 18th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #74: Clinton
This race wins the award, so far, for most complicated and well-organized offsite parking scheme. I parked my car in a school parking lot and was driven to the race start, in another school parking lot, by school bus. I was the only passenger on the bus when I rode over, so I got the […]
169 Towns #72: Andover
August 5th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #72: Andover
I don’t think I’d heard of Andover before deciding (last night) to run here—yet another town I associated with Massachusetts, rather than Connecticut. It’s been raining off and on for the past week, a little every day, and it rained on the way to the race. Things cleared up once I got into Andover, and […]
169 Towns #71: West Haven
July 16th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #71: West Haven
The whole family came out for this one, and Grace joined me on the course for the 5K. We had a good time, and she did a great job, taking just a few short walk breaks along the course, and really giving it her all. We used every technique in the book—”run to that fence, […]
169 Towns #69: Glastonbury
June 25th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #69: Glastonbury
I’d always wanted to visit Glastonbury, but was more interested in the festival in Somerset, rather than a town south of Hartford. Nevertheless, I head here, parked along a narrow country road, and found the race start in a little park. The course took us along small town streets, in a sort of loop, with […]
169 Towns #68: Mansfield
June 9th, 2018 · Comments Off on 169 Towns #68: Mansfield
I’m never quite sure how these town designations work; I showed up for this race in Mansfield, but as I pulled into the high school parking lot, right next to the University of Connecticut, Storrs, it seemed to me that I was in Storrs. I figured if it was listed on the club site, it […]