The Hartford Marathon is a great race.

I ran the Hartford Half Marathon in 2009 and 2010. This year it was time to step up to the marathon (my second marathon overall). The Hartford Marathon Foundation (HMF) puts on a fantastic race. I’ve run a number of their 5ks and the Amica Half Marathon.

Usually when I arrive at a Race Expo there is a long line where volunteers search for bibs. When I arrived at the XL center, I showed race staff my license, and they grabbed the next available bib, scanned it, and it was mine. This made check in faster than any other race that I’ve run. This is a small example of HMF’s commitment to detail.

The Expo was nice. It wasn’t too large nor was it too small. Vendors had plenty of running gear. My only criticism is that there wasn’t a whole lot of options for men’s Hartford Marathon gear. I like to buy race specific merchandise and found the choices to be rather limited. I grabbed a Marathon T Shirt and a poster. I wanted to spend more on a jacket or sweatshirt but my options were limited. There appeared to be more selections for women.

The race shirt was a nice long sleeve technical shirt. Runners of all distances received the same shirt this year. This made the lines move very quickly.

Parking was easy on the morning of the race. I had no problem obtaining a free spot. If you are driving in, plan to arrive a little early. It appeared that traffic backed up. I arrived about 6:45 in the morning and only ran into a little traffic and had no problem obtaining a parking space.

I did not check a bag but it appeared easy to do so. This year HMF moved the bag check to the Bushnell.

If you’ve ever run a larger race you know there’s going to be lines for porta potties. HMF had a large number of porta potties on Lafayette Street. However, the lines were still long – manageable but long. I waited approximately 15 minutes in line and had no problem getting to the start.

If you are planning to meet people before the race, you should select a  meeting site not in Bushnell Park. Bushnell Park is full of people wondering around prior to the race. Finding anyone there is a crapshoot. My advice is to set a meeting spot outside of the Bushnell where things are less crowded.  Further, if your friends are stuck in traffic, the Bushnell is closer to race start.

After going through a number of course changes, HMF has perfected the marathon course. The Course starts between the State Capitol and Supreme Court. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the city. The course begins with a slight downhill and there is plenty of room for spectators.

The marathon and the half marathon start together. The course split about a mile in. I never felt like I had to fight for running space but after the split I had plenty of room.  The first part of the course takes you through downtown and into north Hartford where you encounter what feels like the largest hill on the course at Rev. Moody overpass. It’s not much of a hill at all. The course is very flat.

You’ll then run through Riverfront Park in Hartford and enjoy great views of the CT River in the fall. The river front stretch is one of the highlights of the course. After running along the river, you’ll briefly find yourself in an industrial zone. HMF wisely modified this part of the course to cut out a portion and extend the course in South Windsor.  From here you’ll make your way into south downtown Hartford, back to downtown, and over the bridge into East Hartford.

Once in East Hartford, you’ll be treated to some of the flattest stretches of the course as you make your way through a commercial park onto a beautiful riverfront trail. The views of the river and Hartford from East Hartford are also fantastic. This part of the course has plenty of tree cover.

You’ll then wind your way through a school driveway. This is the only part of the course where it feels like you are being detoured to add miles. It is brief and necessary.

Once you come out of that, you are basically making a straight shot out to the farthest point on the course in East Hartford. You’ll travel down route 5 and onto Prospect Street before reconnecting with route 5. This part of the course largely runs you through some residential neighborhoods. The terrain is rolling hills which felt nice on my legs.

If you are slower, like me, this is where you are likely to encounter the elite marathoners coming back and making a beeline to the finish. This moment gave me chills. The elite runners are so good. Every runner around me kept running, applauding and encouraging them.

You’ll then make your way onto King Street in East Hartford as you push onto Main Street in South Windsor. This is a very fun part of the course. This residents from here through South Windsor really embrace this race. All sorts of parties line the course. Here you’ll encounter what I felt was the second largest hill on the course – again it is very small.

When you turn onto Main Street, you are heading out to mile 17. Main Street in South Windsor is beautiful. Main Street in South Windsor in mid-October is very beautiful. Lots of green farm land, old trees, and older homes – all embracing the fall. As an added plus it is flat. The way out to mile 17 presented a slight incline. Nothing major but this is the point of the run where you may start feeling it. Fortunately between miles 17 and 20 is a slight decline.

Once you hit the turnaround you are 9 miles from the finish. The course will no longer loop you around. Mentally, this helps me. I hate winding courses, esp. at the end. You’ll largely retrace your steps (though you’ll stay on Main Street and skip the hills on King Street) and take a right onto Pitkin Street.

When you turn onto Pitken Street you are slightly under 2 miles to the finish. Pitkin Street is very flat. Here you’ll encounter the mile marker for mile 25 before turning onto the ramp for the bridge and heading back into Hartford.

This is my favorite view of the city. You’ll pass over the river and head into downtown. Here you’ll encounter your last “hill” of the course before the Old State House. It’s not much of a hill at all and I was so excited to be close to the finish I’m not sure my legs noticed. Soon you’ll pass the mile 26 marker.

From here to the finish, you’ll likely encounter people lining the streets. You’ll quickly see the “Arch” and run under it. The finish line is about 200 feet beyond the arch and has a very slight incline (just be prepared for it). It’s easy to see the arch and think you are done.

The finish line was well organized. They have this cool water fountain system which makes it easy to get water after your run. Plenty of volunteers greeted me to hand out medals and those tin foil “blankets”.

Along the course, I found water stations to be extremely well staffed, plentiful and organized. Each station featured gatorade and water and were well marked. A few stations had ample amounts of gu. There was one junk food station at mile 22 or 2 that featured soda and candy. You can carry your own water if you’d like but I was fine using the water stations. Volunteers on cyclists were all over the course, checking on runners, and handing out gu.

There were several bands and DJs along the course that were well appreciated.

The food tent at the end of the race is outstanding. Plenty of healthy options and well organized.

I loved this race. I’ve run the Vermont City Marathon (a course noted for being scenic) and found this course to be more scenic. This of course is a matter of preference.

Every year this race HMF pushes to improve this race and every year they succeed in doing so.  I love living so close to such a great race.  If you are looking for a mid sized, well organized, fairly flat, beautiful, fall marathon – strongly consider Hartford. I think you’ll love it, too. I recommend this race without hesitation.

I’m signing up for next years race the first day registration opens. One day soon, this marathon is going to start selling out quickly.

Two weeks ago, I realized that I wasn’t where I’d wanted to be with my training. It had nothing to do with how much I was running. I was running plenty. I used to think that if I ran 40+ miles per week, I could eat whatever I wanted.

Then a friend recommended the Paleo for Athletes diet. In a nutshell, the diet is a whole foods diet. I eat lean meats, plenty of vegetables, nuts, and fruits. No more pasta. No more pizza. No more dairy.  No grains.

Two weeks in and I feel better than ever. I have more energy. I’ve lost fat.

What’s profound is that for years I’ve been unable to smell. I’ve also had a very poor sense of taste.  Two weeks into this and my sense of smell has returned and my sense of taste has improved to the point I can now taste subtle flavors in coffee.

How does any of this relate to law?

How I feel impacts how I practice. I’ve learned that nothing impacts my running as much as my diet.  Good days at work and good days on the run start the same way – with a good breakfast.

For the next 18 weeks, my Friday blog posts will be on training for the Hartford Marathon. Link.

I wrote about running the following Friday and I have yet to revisit the topic.

Here’s the good news. I feel great. The marathon is just 6 weeks away and if my legs feel as good as they do now on October 14th – I will be happy. The next 3 weeks peak weeks in my training. Tomorrow, I’ll complete my first 20 mile run of the training schedule.

I’m training with the Hartford Marathon Foundation in Glastonbury. Deciding to train with a group was a great choice for me. Long runs go by much faster when I run with other people. It also forces me to be diligent. I run through spots that I’d be tempted to walk if I were running solo.

Training for the second time is much easier both physically and mentally. I’m stronger. When I run 20 tomorrow, I’ll do so having been there and beyond. There’s no fear and a lot less doubt.

Balancing life as the father of a one year old has been difficult.  Frankly, this blog has suffered as a result. Finding the time and/or energy to write has been hard.  Learning to balance all of my obligations has been challenging to say the least.

Having a supportive family and firm helps.

I’ve also exceeded my fundraising goal for the Jimmy Fund. I’ve raised approximately $750 as of today.  The group that I’m leading has raised close to $10,000 for the Jimmy Fund.

I will take great pride in getting to the starting line wearing an ugly Jimmy Fund singlet on October 15th.

In the meantime, gotta run….

To tie this into Connecticut law, if you are at an HMF event, the voice you hear announcing is often that of Judge Shluger.

This week I took the first of many steps that will end with a 26 mile 385 yard victory lap through Hartford, East Hartford, and South Windsor. With any luck, I’ll be running under the Arch in Bushnell Park at about  12:15 on October 15th. That’s the destination.

The journey is about 500 miles of running and another 300 miles cross training on a bike.

Hartford will be my second marathon. I completed the 2010 Vermont City Marathon in 4 hours and 49 minutes. At the time, I had been running for a year.

My recent race times suggest that I should be able to best my Vermont City time by about a half hour.

This year, I’m training with the Hartford Marathon Foundation in Glastonbury. Starting next week, I’ll be running with a group early on Saturday mornings. I’m doing this in part because solo long runs of 14, 15, 16, 18, and 20 miles get really boring.  I’m really looking forward to starting this group.

For now, I’m just trying to maintain a base. I’m coming off training for and running the Amica Iron Horse half marathon on June 5th.  This week my runs are easy. I did 3 miles on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tomorrow, I’ll run 7 miles. These distances are very short compared to what I’ll be running in the peak of my training which will be 5,10,5, 20.

I’m going to cut myself some slack in this training. Last time, I hit every run on the schedule. This time, I understand that is probably an unrealistic goal. Namely because last August, I became a father for the first time. Hence, I’m constantly struggling to balance a law practice, family, and working out. My first priority is to my family, my second to my clients, and third to my workouts.

For example, tomorrow morning, I’ll run after taking my daughter to get bagels so that my wife can catch some extra sleep and before I have to do work as a foreclosure committee in Hartford at 10:00 am. Following the committee work, it’s off to have family pictures taken by the fabulous Chion Wolf.

I’ll try and keep this entertaining and include as many pictures as I can. Each run is an adventure and a small step toward a larger goal.

When I cross the finish line, I’ll be wearing a really ugly Dana Farber singlet. As part of my journey, I have a goal of raising $500 to fight cancer. Any donation you could make would be greatly appreciated. A dollar a mile would be a donation of $26.20 and that would be awesome. If you’re interested click here.

Joan's House. Save it.

Sometimes, I see Joan. She may be sitting on her porch or gardening. We usually wave and say “hi” to each other.  I continue up the hill. She goes on with her life.

Throughout most of human history, we knew our neighbors well. In today’s walled and disconnected world it’s possible never to meet the people living close to us – let alone get to know them.  People could and did help their neighbors.

On the flipside we have tools like Facebook. Where we can keep in touch with lots of people who we either rarely or ever see.

These worlds collided late last week. Bill Childs, Associate Dean at Western New England School of Law and a fellow alumni board member – posted a link urging his friends to “save Joan’s house. Bill’s a good guy so I clicked on the link. The person who needed help, was Joan, my neighbor.

A few hours later, the Dean of the Hartford Blogosphere, Helder Mira posted the same link on Facebook. Joan has good friends.

It turns out that Joan was out of work for more than a year and fell behind on her mortgage. She has a job now, however, needs help in making up the $6,000 deficit.

Click here to read more about Joan and her situation. If you enjoy this site, and Joan’s cause worthy (which I trust you will), please give something to help her out. Any amount would be greatly appreciated. I’ve got miles to run. I hope to be waving to Joan for year’s to come. I ask you to help my neighbor.

The brain has two hemispheres that are separate and don’t interconnect. The logical left brain does our business activities, trying to steer us into pleasure and away from discomfort. The creative and intuitive right side is an unlimited source of solutions to problems and connects us to hidden strengths.

As we accumulate stress, the left brains sends us a stream of messages telling us to “slow down” and “this isn’t your day” and even philosophical messages like “why are you doing this.” – Jeff Galloway

Your left brain doesn’t want you to run 26.2 miles. It doesn’t want you to run 13.1. It doesn’t want you to run a 10k.  It doesn’t even want to do a 5k.  Your left brain is perfectly content watching football.

If you can’t overcome the negative messages generated by the left side of your brain than you can’t run. It’s that simple.

Distance runners will often say that it’s all mental.  Many marathon runners will say that the hardest part of a marathon is overcoming the mental challenges.

The practice of law is the same way. Preparing for a trial is a lot like distance running. It’s hard and time consuming. And sometimes my left brain would rather be watching football.

The key is to first identify the noise being generated by the left side of the brain and then destroy it.

How?

Think positive thoughts.  When I run and I’m starting to feel it I think the word “fly” or “glide”.  Doing so activates the right side of my brain. And my creativity overcomes the pain.

The point is that while practicing law you’ve got to figure out how you’re trying to defeat yourself and how to overcome it. I use different go to motivational phrases that I use while running in my everyday practice.

If you see me in court and hear me mumble “I got this”. You’ll know why.

“Stress + Rest = Improvement.” -@jeffgalloway

The pattern is constant. Run. Walk. Long run one day. Rest the next.

Rest is half the equation. Hard work is the other half.

My best runs have come when I’ve built up mileage. Rested for a short period and then run again.

Stress plus rest equals improvement. It’s a law. One of the few laws that the Connecticut General Assembly has yet to codify.

Before I started training I looked at rest as weakness.  I would think to myself that I should be running everyday.

This caused a few bad things to happen:

1. I’d get injured;

2. I’d burn out; and

3. I’d feel guilty about not running.

Bad, bad, and worse.

Jeff Galloway’s training programs have built in rest days.  In fact most marathon training programs build in rest days.

I’ve learned through running that rest isn’t a luxury. It’s necessary for improvement.  Looking at rest that way, there’s no need to feel guilty.