Above image: The Soldiers and Sailers Memorial Arch ushers runners to the finish line. Two images below: Race Director Beth Shluger and way below: women's course record holder RamiliaBurangulova arm wrestling with runnerup men's master Scott Brown in the Oktoberfest Beer Garden.

Hartford RD Beth Shluger in Bushnell Park.

A full 56% of participants in the United Technologies Greater 
Hartford Marathon are from outside the Connecticut area 
and Wynnewood, Pennsylvania's Harry Siefert, 46, 
was one of many strolling among the over 50 Expo vendors 
at the Hartford Civic Center who expressed a 
similar viewpoint: 
"It's a really good course and just well organized. There 
seems to be an aid station every mile. I've never seen one 
out of water and this will be my fifth time running here. 
You've got a lot of entertainment out on the course 
and the crowds in the West End are really supportive. I've 
been injured and I'm not in the best of shape, but I'm here 
for the experience. I've got three kids and they hang out in 
the park with my wife. There's always a lot going on for 
them. It's a real family friendly event."
Bushnell Park, dotted with 12,700 sq. ft. of race day 
tents, is the staging area for the 10th annual event, which 
now includes a marathon relay, half marathon and 
5K. 
Over 6,000 participants are entered, a far cry from 
the inaugural field of 350 marathon entrants in 
1994. In addition, 1700 children from the Greater 
Hartford area are involved in youth races in the park. "They'll 
go off in waves and there's plenty of room in the park so 
that's not a problem, but it's the additional buses, thirty of 
them, that have to be factored in," notes Race Director 
Beth Shluger, who's hurdled much greater race 
obstacles in the past. 
In the wake of 9-11, the event's original title sponsor, Aetna 
Health Life Insurance, withdrew before the 2002 race. "We 
had four other major companies pursuing us before 9-11, 
and afterwards they all just vanished," says Shluger, who 
cites the Hartford Courant as a guardian angel in the 
dilemma. An article depicting the event's situation ran one 
day in the Courant and the very next day, race 
headquarters received a call from United Technologies 
Corp., a company Fortune Magazine named 
the "Most Admired" aerospace company in 2001, 
2002, and 2003.
Caught in the wake of a hurricane, last year's event 
was a complete washout from a weather standpoint. Driving 
rains transformed Bushnell Park into a huge mosh 
pit, yet the organization was impeccable and many 
returned (including UTC) for this year's sun 
splashed extravaganza. 
Bands played along the course, 1500 enthusiastic 
volunteers manned the aid stations, 30,000 spectators were 
on hand and the International Conventions and Visitors 
Bureau Association placed the economic impact for the 
area at $2,500,000. The day after this year's event, 
UTC announced it was on board for another three years at 
$450K.
Several official charities benefit from the race in addition to 
the Hartford Marathon Foundation's unique "Jeff's 
Running Partners," a new program which benefits the 
area's elementary and middle schools. Educators run the 
entire marathon course while 26 school children each run a 
mile alongside their teacher. 
In the program's first year it raised $70K. The Foundation's 
"People in Training" programs, designed to help 
folks begin or build a running or walking regime, has seen 
over 3,000 people enroll since 1998. Quadruple that 
number and you'll get the number of patrons at the 
Oktoberfest Beer Garden, a stroke of genius 
situated in Bushnell Park directly across from the signature 
band that plays each year. There's also an annual post-race 
celebration for volunteers and runners, held this year at the 
Pig's Eye Pub from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.
This year's race offered $60K in prize and bonus money and 
it's Shluger's goal to further raise the stature of the event. "I 
truly believe if we didn't have so many races on the calendar 
in a tight time frame around us, that we'd be drawing 
10,000/12,000 runners right now. I'd like to draw 
increasingly faster runners to get to a world-class 
level for our sponsors and for media coverage, but we've got 
to be realistic in what we can do with New York just two 
weeks after us."

 
It's a tough row to hoe, given the glut of races crammed into 
a small autumnal window here in New England, 
but Shluger isn't one to shrink from the task. This past year 
she received the "Hartford Rising Star" award from 
U.S. Representative Christopher Shays and was recognized 
as "Sports Leader of the Year" by the Connecticut 
March of Dimes. 
Shluger will defer the attention to her hard core volunteers 
and the sentiment is warranted. When this award was given 
to the Utica Boilermaker 15K last year, we received 
a call from the Distance Running Hall of Fame in 
Utica asking for our criteria. We went down the list and 
realized Hartford was lacking in only one respect--beyond 
all the other categories of excellence, a race has to be at 
least 10 years old...

...So, on the 10th anniversary of the United 
Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon--for all you do, this 
award's for you.
--Bob Fitzgerald
COURSE RECORDS
Marathon
Joseph Nderitu - 2:16:52 (2002)
	
Ramilia Burangulova - 2:33:26 (2003)
Masters Marathon
Wieslaw Perszke - 2:23:52 (2003)
	
Ramilia Burangulova - 2:33:26 (2003)
Half Marathon
Benedict Ako - 1:03:36 (1999)

Jackline Torori	 - 1:15:11 (2002)
5K
Erik Nedeau - 15:03 (2001-2003)
	
Amy Nedeau (nee Lyman) - 16:47 (2003)