TTEndurance

Three of Connecticut's largest and most prostigious roadraces took center stage on Saturday, October 12, just off the sloping lawns of Bushnell Park at the State Capital. The Hartford Marathon, Half Marathon, and 5K drew 17,000 partcipants from all corners of New England and among this vast multitude was a small but elite contingent of TTEndurance athletes.

At 8am everyone began running at the same moment, but the first of the TTer's to finish was running coach Tim Milenkevich, who's choosen to race only 5Ks throughout the Autumn. Tim paced with the eventual winner (and now course record holder,) Will Sanders, through the early stages of the 5K. Race officials bungled the initial clock so that it was facing sideways at the mile marker. "All I saw was 4:30 something in a quick glance," Milenkevich later said, "from there the best I could do was let Will go and hold on for 2nd." Milenkevich rumbled home in a respectable 15:42, (5:03 pace,) 2 of 1900+ runners.

Tim grinding at Mile 2.Shortly after he finished Tim was presented with a plaque and bloom of sunflowers in a nicely staged podium ceremony afore the capital's gold dome backdrop.

Yet this was only the beginning to some of the day's amazing performances as the 6500+ runners in the half marathon, the day's largest race, began to pass under Hartford's iconic Soldier's & Sailor's Arch, 100 meters from the finishline.

As the clock ticked to 1:26:00 flat, Bill Donzeiser completed his race, he averaged 6:33 per mile. It was a breakthrough that garnered him a rarified accolade: 3rd place in the extremely competitive 40-44 age group at the largest and most hotly contested half marathon in New England!

Though rarified, one other member of the TTEndurance crew participating in the 13.1 mile journey is very familiar with receiving age group honors at the Hartford Half. Kim Driscoll took 3rd place in 2011, and returned this year to claim the always woebegone 4th, of 231 in her age group.

Additionally Kim is now automatically qualified to run in the 2014 New York City Marathon, should she choose. New York allows for handfull of automatic qualifiers if they post a marathon time 20 minutes faster than the Boston standard. The NYC Marathon also permits half marathoner qualifiers into its field, if equally stringent standards are met. Kim's time of 1:42:36 bested her age group standard by six and a half minutes. This is roughly equalivalent to qualifying for the Boston Marathon by 30+ minutes, Kim is one of the finest AG athletes in Connecticut, and she did it on about 15 miles of running per week, an amazing talent.

Missing the stringent NYC standard by 19 seconds, was Christine Vincent, finishing in 1:37:19 for 10 of 548 in her age group. It was a personal best by over 4 minutes.

Also setting a new personal best was Amadeo Rodriguez who ran 9:51 pace to decimate a 10-year-old P.R. by 6 minutes!

Christine, Tim, KimOutstanding running from everyone involved on an exhilarating day of October Endurance!