In March my son and I participated in the Hartford Marathon Foundation Lucky Challenge. We ran four 5K races in four different towns in the state; and I feel like we ran through four seasons as well!

My son enjoys running with me and this year we had fun with our running adventures as we traveled all over the state of Connecticut. We even had a separate adventure getting to the O’Hartford race! More on that later…

O’Shenanigans 5K in Southington

The first race of the challenge series was on a beautiful morning in Southington. The temps were in the 40s and the skies were blue. We trained for the races during the week and the temperatures were quite bitter, but it was pleasant running weather that morning.

We had trouble finding a parking spot, so I lost some time picking up our bib because we had to turn around several times to find a spot. When we finally found one, we had to jog/sprint to the bib pick-up area prior to the start. This becomes a theme for us throughout the Lucky Challenge.

I had to pace my son because at one point my son was starting to speed ahead, but I know his running style, so I encouraged him to keep some gas in his tank. I was right because he was losing speed towards the last half mile of the race.

When we approached the last street heading to the finish line I knew he was going to take off. He likes to race me to the finish line. So I told him to go for it. He shot off like a rocket and sped into the finish.

We met up with my friends Anne, Kat, and Kimberly at the finish and enjoyed the post-race celebration with pizza from Sauced and beer from Kinsmen Brewing. We had a good time at the race and headed home to enjoy the nice afternoon.

O’Putnam 5K in Putnam, CT

The following day my son and I took the 90-minute drive up to Putnam, CT. The race start was pushed to an hour later due to the weather. Despite the beautiful day on Saturday, Sunday was a completely different day! The weather was in the low 30s with a cold drizzle. Earlier in the morning it snowed, that is the reason why the Hartford Marathon Foundation changed the start time ahead of time to allow for public works to clear the roads.

When we arrived we had about 15 minutes to spare prior to the race start. We picked up our bibs, I ran up to Main Street to pick up our buffs, and then had a few minutes to use the restroom prior to the start.

When we went to the start line, Kevin spotted Anne and Kat. We chose to run with Anne for this race and use the same 30/30 intervals as her. She was preparing for the New York City Half Marathon the following weekend, and this course is hilly. We stayed with Anne for the entire race and it felt like the time went by so fast!

After the race, we all huddled under a tent to stay out of the cold rain while we enjoyed a corn beef sandwich on a pretzel roll. My son said this is the favorite part of this race! He remembered it from when we ran the race four years ago with my entire family.

After we ate we ran back to the car to strip off our wet outter layers and put on warm socks and sweatshirts for the long ride home. We blasted the heat and tried to thaw out as fast as we could! Despite the cold, we really had a great time!

O’Niantic 5K in Niantic, CT

The following weekend, the last two races of the Lucky Challenge Series took place. On Saturday morning we had to arrive in Niantic by 9:30 for their 5K. It was another nice clear sunny day for the race and the temperature was also perfect for a race.

We arrived with time to get our bib and walk, not run, to the start line. I didn’t see anyone we knew at this race start so we ran by ourselves. We were keeping a great pace for this race. It runs along the neighborhoods not far from the shoreline and past the National Guard barracks. There is a section of the course where we can see the first place finishers returning back to the finish line. That can sometimes be disheartening, but we were enjoying the race and weren’t in a hurry to break any records.

As we were in the last mile of the race Kevin was having a stitch in his side. I tried to encourage him to push ahead and do some breathing exercises to get rid of it, but he was slowing down and wanted to continue walking. I didn’t push him because I could see he was very uncomfortable. We were on track to getting our best time for these 5K races; but I didn’t want him to suffer. As we got closer to the finish line he was still mostly walking. Then as we had about 100 feet left, he took off again and smoked me at the finish.

I remembered in the past that this race served some amazing chowder for the post race party. I wanted to get some this year so we took the walk to the post-race food tents. Sadly, they didn’t have the chowder; but they did have amazing chili so I picked up one for me and one for my son and we walked back to our car.

A Detour Down Memory Lane

On the way home, we took a detour. I had been wanting to see my grandparent’s old house in Guilford for a long time, so I asked Kevin if he wanted to go check it out. It was a lot of fun to drive to the church my dad used to go to, and then to drive on the roads that we used to travel on every weekend when visiting my grandparents. I told him several stories of what we did on the weekends there. It was so much fun telling him the stories of my childhood and visits to their house.

I had such a wonderful time with him that morning. By the time we finished our race and our little side trip, we got home around 1:30 after Adrienne got home from her softball practice.

O’Hartford 5K in Hartford CT

The last race of the challenge was the race in Hartford. Since I ran this race four years ago, I assumed that it was going to start at the same location. It was such a busy weekend, I didn’t take the time to research into the race start, parking, or anything related to this race.

When we drove into Hartford, Bushnell Park was empty and I didn’t see any Hartford Marathon Foundation tents anywhere. We parked at a lot and started to walk towards the Bushnell Theater because I saw several other people walking there. Then I noticed that these people were not dressed like runners.

I had a moment of panic so we ran back to the car and I pulled up the race information on my phone and had to re-route us to the correct area. That is where the adventure begins.

The roads were closed because the race was about to start, so the police directed us to the Convention Center parking area. We quickly parked there and had to run almost a mile to the race area. We didn’t really know where it was, but kept running towards the noise of the race announcer, and asked the police when we saw them.

As we approached the race area they were already playing the National Anthem! So we rushed over to the registration tent, got our bibs, and were one of the last people to cross the start line. I think our legs were nice and warmed up from the run across town because we had a decent finish time for this race! I haven’t checked the official results yet, but I think we set a PR for ourselves our of the four races!

I Can’t Wait For Next Year!

After all the adventures and quality time together driving to and from the races, we are now proud owners of the Lucky Challenge medal. I think we may do this again next year. He really enjoys running with me and I love having this experience with him.