Another race of opportunity, chosen on the morning of because we had no plans and the town was close. I found a spot behind the YMCA, got registered, and headed outside just in time to see the mayor open the event with a tune on his bugle, and head the local high school band play […]

[Read more →]

Well, that was a first. After taking the end of the summer off, and running two races in Alaska and the annual New Haven Road Race, it was time to get back on the 169 train. I arrived in East Haven to register for the 5K around 9:10, for a 10:00 am start. After registering, […]

[Read more →]

Most of the races I’ve run have been fairly official affairs, with bibs, the now requisite chip-timing, sponsor tents, the $99 DJ, and so on. Roxbury, only about 40 minutes away in Litchfield, is home to the Roxbury Road Race series, a long-standing season of 40 or so road races a year, put on by […]

[Read more →]

It’s only going to get more difficult to knock off races as I check off nearby towns, but for the time being, it’s nice to be able to find a race within a half hour of home. For #25, I thought I might try a 10K instead of the normal 5K, so I headed to […]

[Read more →]

This was a great little race, a fundraiser for the high school running team and a big draw for teachers and students, as the name implies. It was a quick half hour drive to Cromwell, and I found a small group of Run 169ers there (you never know; many races will gather 30 or more […]

[Read more →]

It had been almost a month since I’d done a Connecticut race, with most of that time spent recovering from the Leatherman’s Loop and a very busy April of travel. As our weekends get busier, I’ve been picking off nearby town, so my time away from home is minimized. Prospect was only 20 minutes away, […]

[Read more →]

I’m quickly running out of nearby towns to run a quick race in, one that doesn’t eat up a whole morning with driving, but then again, you’ve got to run them all eventually, so near or far, you may as well get them done when you can. This was a small, nicely run race, run […]

[Read more →]

I decided to hook my first race in Fairfield County into a trip to do some research at the library in Greenwich. It was a three mile race, a tenth of a mile shorter than a 5K, but similar enough that I felt pretty impressed by my time, until I realized it wasn’t the full […]

[Read more →]

This was my first non-5K in a long time, and of course, I ran it like it was a 5K with a few more miles attached to the end. Running the race was my neighbor Ryan’s idea, and I was happy to have someone to run with (or chase, as it turned out). It was […]

[Read more →]

I took the opportunity afforded by a home weekend and the return of races – I’d been busy, but there also really weren’t very many to choose from over the past few weeks – to knock off a nearby town, Stratford. It was just 25 or so minutes away, in a part of town I’d […]

[Read more →]

Most of the races I’ve run so far have been fairly interchangeable, small-town 5Ks in a loop around the center of town. This one was different: a point-to-point, all uphill race leading from Hubbard park to the summit of West Peak in Meriden. You can read about the tradition behind the Tradition Run; this was […]

[Read more →]

I’d heard about this race for a few months now, and knew I wanted to do it; it was just a matter of what the weather would be like on January 10th. The race had been organized by members of the club, and existed almost solely to serve the purpose of allowing two runners to […]

[Read more →]

I’ve never been one for blow-out New Year’s Eve celebrations, but deciding to run a 5K on New Year’s Day confirmed the fact that the days of staying up all night were long gone. It was a surprisingly mild morning, and I ran in shorts and t-shirt, which was a little depressing, but made for […]

[Read more →]

As the weather continues to be disturbingly balmy, I thought I’d find one more nearby race to squeeze in before the holidays, a 5K a half an hour away in Trumbull. At some point it’s going to get a lot harder to knock off these towns, but for now, with less than 10% completed, almost […]

[Read more →]

An excuse to visit every corner of the state is one of the reasons joining this group seemed like a good idea, and I’m definitely getting the chance to see some nice little towns, especially along the Route 8 corridor, like Bethlehem. Eventually I may spend more time in these towns than 45 minutes before […]

[Read more →]