While my dad ended up injuring himself before the race, meaning we didn’t have three generations of runners represented, I was happy to have the chance to run with Grace again, in her second 5K. She did great, though the course was tougher than the previous race we ran together, and the hills took their […]

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A nice race in the woods in Litchfield County, with cider and cider doughnuts to cap it off. I felt pretty good, especially as I was able to pass and hold off some locals who seemed like they might be in my age group, where I managed to come in third. The race was pretty […]

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After hopping onto 395, it was only about ten minutes from Bozrah to Lisbon, where I pulled into the parking lot of the Lisbon Fall Festival with 15 minutes to spare before the start. I found the registration table, got a number, dashed back to my car to drop my wallet, and got in the […]

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Connecticut’s towns have some great names, and it seems to me Bozrah is right up there near the top. Bozrah is noted as an elusive town according to the club, so I was happy to be able to knock this one out. It was a nice little town run, starting and finishing at the fire […]

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This was a small race, a nice little town course around a park and a loop through a quiet neighborhood, finishing around a pond in the park. I felt pretty good, and as the race went on, I kept some fellow runners in my sights. I passed four guys I could tell were older than […]

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Before the race began, I was standing around with another group of 169 club runners, talking about previous races, and particular, about that race a few months back that was poorly marked enough for a bunch of us to end up running neither the short distance nor the long distance, but something in between, because […]

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Apparently Old Wethersfield isn'[t actually a town, according to the official list of Connecticut’s 169 towns, but this race, held in Wethersfield proper, is known as the Old Wethersfield 5K, so there you go. My mom accompanied the girls and me to the race, and the girls each got to run in their own fun […]

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With the kids off bowling, my mom accompanied me to my fifty-first race, not far from Hartford, about an hour from home. It was a benefit for the local high school track team, and the course was the team’s 5K course, around the baseball field and across fields and forests behind the school. It was […]

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This was a nice course, a big squarish loop around the town, with maybe 150 runners participating. It was a four miler, so I naturally lost a bit in the final mile and came in just barely over 30 minutes. It was a warm day (I am looking pretty beat in this photo) but Killingworth […]

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I’m whittling down the list of towns within a half hour or so where I haven’t yet run a race. I know it’s going to make finishing out the map tougher later on, but it’s hard to resist knocking them off now, when I need a quick race to do and not take all day […]

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Some town races are more memorable than others, and this one, the 52nd annual Firecracker 8K in Bethel on the Fourth of July, was one that will stick in my mind. First of all, it started right downtown, with no giant high school or empty field parking lot; as far as I can tell, people […]

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Part of the Hartford Marathon family of races, this early morning trail run seemed like a good idea at the time. I had the choice of a 3.3 or 5.5 mile race, and chose the shorter, as I thought I’d give myself a break and also perhaps try for a second race later in the […]

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This race in Norwalk was another example of one of those race series that has a strong local following, with most people there running this as part of a progressive distance six-race series over the course of the summer. It was a nice residential course, and I felt pretty good, but it’s always humbling how […]

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169 towns, 169 different styles and sizes… This race had the organizational footprint of a small marathon. Uniformed staff directing traffic in the parking area, paperless registration, with eight staffers and laptops for race day registration (credit cards accepted), separate tents for each fundraising team, a giant breakfast area, a person in a Vineyard Vines […]

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After Grace’s 5K last month, Lucy had really been looking forward to a fun run, and this race, which billed itself as a “Festival of Running,” fit the bill perfectly. I started off with the 5K, which was actually just three loops around the Durham fairgrounds, a little boring but pretty fast. Next up was […]

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