I was back at it this past weekend with my annual 4:30 am alarm on the day of the Hartford Marathon 5K. It is completely unnecessary to be up before the sun is, but it’s important to get to the city early to get a parking spot. At least this year I slept fairly well the night before—even with Cannoli being confused about why I was in bed before 9:00 pm.

This is my third year running the charity 5K at the Hartford Marathon, and this is my second year running to support one of the charities: the dog rescue that I started volunteering with last summer on the IT team. I always specify that I was running the 5K, although Josh kept telling people at his work that he was bringing me to the marathon on Saturday.

We got into Hartford just after 6:00 am and hung out in the car for about an hour. We passed the time by judging other runners in the parking lot based on what they were wearing and which race we thought they were doing. Around 6:50 am, we started walking toward where the race setup was, which was by the Capitol Building and Bushnell Park.

The dog rescue had its own tent, and I checked in before we took a team picture at 7:15 am. I think there were just over 100 runners participating between the three races (5K, half marathon, and full marathon). One absolutely great bonus of being part of the team and having access to the tent? There were 3 private port-a-potties for us to use. And there was a great snack spread, which we hit up after I was done with the race.

This year, they were sending the 5K runners out at 8:10 am (a bit later than last year), so we headed over to my starting line. The half and full marathoners start at a different area from us peasants. There are self-seeding time signs, so I was between the 10 and 12 minute mile, but I feel like people don’t actually take it too seriously. Josh waited on the sidewalk near me until we started; he was going to bring some stuff back to the car and then try to catch me at the 2 mile mark to get some pictures.

Back in early September, as I was training for this race, I started using consistent run/walk intervals during my runs. Prior, I guess you could say I was still using a run/walk method, but it was more, “Oh god can I make it to a half mile before walking? Okay walk a tenth of a mile and see if we can make it to a mile.”

I found an app where I can set the intervals and it will tell me when to run and walk while I’m listening to a podcast. I’ve been doing two minutes of running, 45 seconds of walking, and it’s been going pretty well. I ran a 5K race in the middle of September (so that Hartford wasn’t my first one), and used the run/walk method, so I felt good going into Hartford.

I stuck with the 2 minutes/45 seconds during this entire race, and when I got to the last half mile, I ran the entire thing because I knew from previously running this course that it’s a big downhill and then flat as you turn into the park to the finish line. My running app told me my 3 mile time was around 33 minutes, which was good, and I didn’t know my final time until I checked after finishing.

Josh did find me around the 2 mile mark, and it was a nice surprise to see him there. He took a bunch of pictures, and it kept me going—mostly because I knew I was almost done.

I did have one pet peeve about the end: as you turn into Bushnell Park, you’re basically stuck between a fence on one side and a row of mums on the other, and I was behind a group of people who were running but I wanted to run faster. My plan was to basically book it to the finish line, so I had to bob and weave and run around a couple of older guys to break free.

My official time was 35:08, which I was so happy with! My goal was to finish around 35 minutes, and my time was a minute faster than last year. My place was 988 out of 2,189 and 434 out of 1,285 for females.

I met up with Josh, and we hung around the finish line to watch the rest of the 5K finishers as well as the first handful of half marathon finishers—I think the first guy was just around one hour (which is insane).

Then we headed over to the beer tent around 9:30 am (hey, it technically opens at 9:00 am, so we weren’t there that early). I ended up getting an Athletic Brewing beer (it’s non-alcoholic) with my free beer tag from my bib, and Josh had to pay for his beer ticket and got an IPA. (He kept trying to tell me that his way was still more cost-effective because I still had to pay for the race registration to get my “free” beer while he just paid $10.)

We left around 10:30 am after doing a final loop through Bushnell Park to see all of the vendors and tents. And, like in years past, I was home, showered, had eaten lunch, and couch napping by noon. I didn’t quite think I needed it since I had slept well the night before, but then I passed out for an hour and a half.

I have another 5K race in a few weeks, but it’ll be much more low-key than running with over 11,000 other folks in downtown Hartford. I also want to do a separate post with more of my thoughts about running recently. But overall, I’m very happy with how this race turned out and I’m already looking forward to next year!