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Ryan and I waiting for the runners to arrive.

September of 2015 was probably the most difficult month I ever lived through.  Sitting here on the other side in October, it is still difficult to write and share and not be overwhelmed by emotion.  The funny thing is no matter what happens in your life, everything around you keeps moving.  Life stops for no one.  As much as I would have loved to have spent the last week of September curled up under the covers, we there was a half marathon that needed some race direction.

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Adam of 169 fame leading the 2:10 pace group

Usually I have a lot to say about what went wrong, what went right and what I’d like to improve.  This year the entire week is a bit of a blur.  All I really know is that race day was beautiful, we had a lot of really happy runners and I received a ton of fantastic feedback.

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A happy bird #flystyle

As always the race was the product of lots of hard work.  We couldn’t pet the races on without volunteers and especially Hartford Track Club President Peter Hawley, Rachel Tambling, Ryan Heisler, Emily Gianquinto, my mother, our truly fantastic pacers and all of our volunteers.

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More pacing perfection

As in years past all of the proceeds from the race benefit Running for Rescues.  This year we raised just under $9,000 for animals in need.  You should like their page on Facebook — they are truly a fantastic organization.

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Hedgehog medals!

As always there are things I would like to improve — figuring out how to set up a start mat with the cars / parking situation, having addition pace groups (I’m thinking we need to add 1:30, 1:45 and 1:55 for 2016), figuring out pacing needs for the early start, making transfers and deferrals seamless and trying to figure out if we can add some additional runners to the course so we don’t have to cap at 500.

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Breaking the tape

I don’t think there’s any way September of 2016 can be as trying and heart breaking as September of 2015.  Here’s hoping that in 2016 both the race and the month of September are great.

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Our Connecticut RRCA State Champions

 

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Kelly Burns Gallagher

mccarter english employment litigator / oiselle team runner / coeur sports triathlete / sonic endurance coach & race director / witsup.com writer / dartmouth '02 / emorylaw '05

1 Comment

bonnev659 · October 21, 2015 at 6:28 am

very nice! love how you donate net proceeds to running for rescues again!

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