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 I found street parking on a little switchback in front of the town senior center, where the race started.

Of course, it started raining again about a half hour before race time. As we lined up to start, it really started coming down. At that point, you just have to embrace it. Once you’re completely and utterly wet, it doesn’t really matter, and you no longer bother avoiding puddles or getting splashed. It ended up being pretty pleasant, with temperatures in the mid-70s, with a nice, cool rain. While about probably wasn’t the fastest race, I give it a good effort and finished in seventh, in a somewhat limited field.

Hop River 5K | 5K | 8/4/18 | 23:43 | 72/169