HMF O’Niantic 5K

April 2, 2015

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The second race in the Hartford Marathon Foundation Trinity Series was the O’Niantic 5K.  While the O’Putnam race was a chilly day, the O’Niantic race was a Snowy day!  We had a late winter/first day of Spring snow storm hit Friday afternoon and continued through the night and into most of the morning.  In fact, the snow stopped just as the race finished and then the sun came out.  Go figure.  The race started at 10:45. The Hartford Marathon Foundation already made a determination to start the race an hour later due to forecasts of weather earlier in the week.  But the forecasts weren’t saying that the snow was going to continue through the night AND into the following morning.  It was supposed to stop by the morning.

My family and I piled into the car and drove to Niantic which was about 45 minutes away but took us about an hour.  We arrived into town, parked at a church and rushed to put on the rest of our costumes and pin on our bibs.  Then we literally had to shuffle/run through town to the start line and had about 1 minute to spare!  It was a nice warm up prior to the race; but we got there in the nick of time.

As the race started, my kids and husband and I were going to try to run/walk a bit and see how they do.  Yea that lasted about three tenths of a mile!  They weren’t happy campers.  Their feet were wet, the roads were slushy and slippery and it was still snowing!  This race was a “challenge” in itself because they kids were just so miserable.  Adrienne especially was suffering because her feet were wet, which then made them itchy.  I kept trying to give them a pep talk to keep one foot in front of the other; but it was hard.  Then we approached the 1.25 mile area where there was an out and back area and the kids were seeing people on their way back towards the finish line.  I think that made it hard for them because they saw how much more they had to do.  Some of my friends were running that race and they yelled out to me as they were passing us and heading back to the finish.  I was a little jealous that they were getting closer to the chili at the end than we were!  But we kept pushing on.  I vowed that we would never do another 5K like that again with the kids; but I’m sure next year we are all going to want to do the challenge again.  Just like all races, you swear you won’t do it again but then you sign up once registration opens!

Every time my daughter would step, her foot would slap the slush and it went splashing into my shoes so I kept trying to tell her to walk ahead of me; but she just kept zigging and zagging to the side of us and splashing.  Ugh..  it was cold.  My son went through the typical emotions of running a race.  He hated the first mile, then he pushed through the second mile with still some complaining, then he got quiet in the last mile and was determined to get it done.  Poor Adrienne was whimpering the whole last mile.  Then at the finish when she got her medal and heard me tell her how proud I was that she did it despite how hard it was, she gave me a huge smile.

We still had the O’Hartford 5K to do the following day and I was concerned that the kids were going to be miserable.  But the forecast was calling for a dry day at least, but it was going to be cold.  After the race I told my husband to take the kids back to the car to have their lunch and warm up and I was going to go get my chili and beer with my parents.  I went to Smarty’s for the chili and it was so delicious!  The best chili I ever had.  It was more like a vegetable broth with beans and onions.  It was fantastic!  I went inside with my parents to get my beer and then used the bathroom and saw Anne and Katherine and got a picture with them before I left.

Two races down and one left to go with the race challenge and even though it was hard, when I got back to the car the kids were smiling and were looking forward to the last race of the series and getting their Pot O’ Gold medal at the end.  Despite the race conditions my mom’s finish time was just a minute slower than the O’Putnam race!