This blog post is a reminder to Diana and I that if we are considering doing this race again, we must be trained for it.  We should have learned this lesson from the last time we did it two years ago.  But, Diana won a free race entry with a Facebook contest from the Hartford Marathon Foundation and I had already shared with her that I thought the medal was pretty nice looking!  So guess what we did on Sunday, April 9th.

That morning when we met up I told her that we will just use this race as an opportunity to catch up since we hadn’t seen each other since January.  And on the plus side, we’d bet getting in some exercise and the weather was spectacular!  Just before the start, I found all my familiar faces – Bob and Mary Perrotti, KO from work, and Diana’s friend Jeremy from running Disney races.

The weather was beautiful.  It was the first warm day we had in a long time.  It was a sparkling 65 degrees out with nice warm sunshine. Not always the most ideal for running a half marathon that starts at 11:00 a.m. but I didn’t mind.  We are used to running in hotter temperatures with humidity for our races in Florida so this was fine.  We just had to make sure to hydrate throughout the race.  Plus we weren’t actually racing this race.

I was running for Lyla and someone came up to me and asked me what her story was.  That was the first time someone asked.  I hope to share more knowledge with others about rhabdomyosarcoma.

As you can see from our splits, we started off pretty strong and consistent; but then the hills started and they were kicking our butt.  Diana was starting to feel the unpleasantness that happens to her stomach during these hilly races so we slowed down.  We also spent the first 5-6 miles talking a lot and exerting some more energy.  We walked the last three miles.

On the course, I saw a sign from Lyla.  I just happened to look towards the curb and on a lawn was a dime.  Ironically it was her 10th birthday the weekend before and I keep finding dimes now.

After the race, we went to the green and I got food and was happy to see that the Hartford Marathon Foundation had COLD chocolate milk on ice for the finishers!  This is the first race where I had seen chocolate milk offered.  I hope this is something they continue to offer to the finishers in the future.

Diana and I walked to my car so I could drop her off at her car in the lot down the street.  Unfortunately, she needed to empty her stomach at a telephone pole before going to my car.  Poor thing.  I put all her race items in a bag for her and gave her a tissue and she said she felt 100% better after that!  Unfortunately, she told me later that she got sick two more times after that.  Something about these first races of the season always does her in.

But I was glad to have spent the time with her, earned a cool-looking medal, and got 13.1 miles under my feet!  Will we do it again??? Probably not!  Even with the course having been changed there were still some significant hills.  Unless we train for it.