I didn’t end up hitting any more races in March, or most of April, with the family vacation and FIAF in Mexico. My first weekend at home in many weeks, I headed to Windsor, with constant rain on the drive up. Races in towns I’ve yet to run in within an hour or so of home are few and far between, so it’s good to take the opportunity while I have it. I’m not getting any faster, that’s for sure, or even keeping pace with my old times. Oh well!

Race to the Weekend Wheels | 5K | 4/29/23 | 25:09 | 108/169

Another busy end to the year meant that it’s been four months since I’ve had a chance to run a race. Niantic is not technically a town, so the race was officially in East Lyme, and it was the biggest I’ve run in many years, with more than 800 entrants on this chilly, breezy day on the water. I’m a big fan of the “register online until minutes before and we’ll assign you a random bib when you’re actually there” approach, which this race took. I was feeling pretty out of shape, and am hoping that this race will kickstart the spring/summer running season. I parked across from the downtown location of the Book Barn, and walked past the sad Niantic Cinema, with Chaplin looking dolefully down at us.

With more than 800 runners, there was a constant stream of people, so it wasn’t one of those races where you mark someone and try to pass them, or run with a group—it was more a constant flow of people the entire time. The course was mostly flat, pretty windy, but I felt like I pushed it about as well as I could the whole race, and came in in under 25:00, which I was happy to take.

O’Niantic | 5K | 3/18/23 | 24:49 | 107/169

We all got out of the house early this morning and stopped at a coffee shop for breakfast for the girls before arriving in East Windsor. I’d been getting used to finishing in the top 20 or 30 of these small races, but this one was comparatively huge, with more than 200 runners. The town’s “elusive” status surely had something to do with that. A big group took off and I never saw them again.

East Windsor Veterans Day Road Race | 5K | 11/5/22 | 24:52 | 106/169

Another last minute decision: I registered for the race at 6:55 a.m., and then drove up to Thomaston. Somehow, they already had a labeled manila envelope with my shirt, bib, and everything in it. It was a beautiful fall day, crisp and cold, and the small size of the race (44 runners) made my third place finish overall (second male) plausible.

Dental Dash | 5K | 10/16/22 | 24:27 | 105/169

Grace and I headed out early on a Sunday, for an 8 a.m. 5K in Montville (or was it Oakdale?). This was a real rarity: a free race, especially ambitious with a 5K, a 10K an hour later, and then a color run. It was a fine course, with a few hills, and race day was nice and cool. Grace wasn’t feeling 100%, with a leg injury holding her back, but she kept at it and finished strong. We met up with Aimee, Lucy, and Max in Chester afterward, which made the difficulty of the race worth it.

Montville Race Day 5K | 5K | 9/11/22 | 33:36 | 104/169

A three-day weekend at the beginning of the school year made the perfect opportunity for Lucy’s first 5K. We all went to Winchester to support her, and though it was a tough slog, with lots of walking, up and down the many hills on the course, she finished, and in under 45:00. I managed a neat trick, coming in dead last but first in my age group. I’m proud of Lucy for finishing, and we’ll see if she wants to try again down the road.

Lauren Bardino Memorial 5K | 5K | 9/4/22 | 44:16 | 103/169

It had been a few months since I’d run a race, with trips to Bologna and the family road trip in Canada, and as I’ve been running almost every day lately, I wanted to try another race. I headed to Avon, where I’d not been before, and gave it my best shot in this small race. I held off one person at the finish, while chasing the three guys older than me who were tantalizingly just out of reach, and managed to come in fourth overall, an unfamiliar position. I was one spot out from pie territory, but I did win a medal for coming in first in my age group.

Raymond Zacchera Memorial Scholarship Run | 5K | 8/28/22 | 26:02 | 102/169

Grace and I started the day with a nice 5K run through the trails of A.W. Stanley Park in New Britain, along with cadets from the New Britain Police Academy (most of whom we beat, actually). Grace was a little tired—we’re getting to the point where she’s going to bed later, yet these races are still starting early in the morning—but did well and had a good time.

A. W. Stanley Park 5K | 5K | 6/11/22 | 31:18 | 101/169

Seizing the momentum from last weekend, Grace and I headed out again, this time to Middletown for the Grad Dash at the community college. Grace did great, persisting despite a cramp, and came in under 30 minutes for the first time in awhile. Though she insisted on noting that it was because she was the only one in her age group in the race, she won the first place trophy, which was very exciting. I was happy to have knocked off my 100th race. It only took eight years after my first Connecticut race, and six years after officially joining the group.

MXCC Grad Dash | 5K | 5/21/22 | 29:15 | 100/169

I had hoped to get to number 100 by the end of the year, but it wasn’t to be, between travel, holidays, fewer towns to choose from, and so on. Nearly six months had gone by, but I was glad to get back out on the road with Grace today. We headed to Washington Depot for the Rossiter Run, a lovely course through a park in the woods along a fishing stream. Grace was a little tired, having lost the fitness we’d built up in the fall. We came in around 30:20, good enough for third place in her F1-16 age group.

Rossiter Run | 5K | 5/15/22 | 30:23| 99/169

It’s been good to get back into the swing of running this fall, and I wanted to keep it up with my sixth race since the summer. This was a bit of an outlier, with no online registration, or maybe you had to get an account with the town’s parks and rec department? An atypical setup, for sure. I drove to the local high school, and found a big crowd, more than 200 runners, and came in 7th in my age group, pretty typical.

New Fairfield Run for the Turkeys | 5K | 11/21/21 | 25:07 | 98/169

Grace has been enthusiastic about running this fall, so when a somewhat elusive town I hadn’t run in yet came up, I invited her to come on the 90 minute drive, about as far away as you could get from Woodbridge without leaving Connecticut.

I’m not sure I knew it was a full trail race when I suggested we do it, but it turned out that it was indeed all-trail, though some of the flat sections in the woods were a little more developed. We parked on the edge of a road, walked across a muddy section, got our feet wet and our places registered (where I picked up the statistically inevitable bib number 169 to boot). The race started on the same path we’d come in, so we ran over the same water obstacle we’d negotiated before.

We headed out and into the woods, and Grace not only kept up, but, when she was ahead of me, pulled me along. I had a vivid image of her being faster than me inside of two years. The course was twisty, up and down, over roots and rocks and downed logs. The last half mile felt longer as we tried to get in in under thirty minutes, which we barely missed. Grace did great—and ended up coming in second in her age group. After a cider donut and some cider, we awaited the awards, and Grace got her medal.

Centreville Bank Thompson Turkey Trot | 5K | 11/14/21 | 31:21 | 97/169

I’d been wanting to do the Kent Pumpkin Run ever since we visited Kent our first or second fall in Connecticut, when we happened to be there and saw the runners come by. Grace and I signed up for it, and only afterward did I find out that it was actually a 5 mile race, not a 5K. I didn’t play it up, and Grace went along with it.

The whole family went up for a beautiful fall day, lots of runners with costumes, and some tasty treats. We did a good job, I think, of pacing ourselves—we didn’t run flat out, but ran slow and steady, walked a bit, and didn’t try to make time. It felt good and the longer we went on, it still felt like we had energy and endurance. Grace did a great job and she had a really strong finish. She even said she’d be ready to move up to a 10k, just another mile or so…

Kent Pumpkin Run | 5M | 10/31/21 | 52:19 | 96/169

Grace and I drove to Canton early this morning, and had fun running the 5K in the village of Collinsville, and looking at the variety of costumes worn by fellow runners. She kept up a good pace and has hit her tenth CT town.

Collinsville Trick or Trot | 5K | 10/23/21 | 30:22 | 95/169

I left just past six this morning for Ridgefield, home of the Ridgefield Playhouse (long heard of, never visited), and a trail race, which I hadn’t run in some time. The race, Where the Pavement Ends, is part of the Trail Mix series along with the Leatherman’s Loop, which I ran a few times before it started conflicting with the annual FIAF Congress every April.

This being a trail race, I inevitably twisted my ankle, unfortunately at mile 1, and had no choice but to run on it over the course of the next three miles. It ballooned as soon as I finished, and I drove home in a good deal of pain. Spent the rest of the day with my ankle propped up, and think twice about the next trail race.

Where the Pavement Ends | 5K | 9/12/21 | 23:56 | 84/169