![\"UConn](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Road-Dogs-2-300x200.jpg\")
Even before Miller \u201995 (CAHNR) came to UConn in 1991, the team used that run as a benchmark, he says. Difficult enough with an up and down rollercoaster of hills and different surfaces of asphalt, stone, and path, Bonemill has become a unifier for \u2013 if not a way to compare – members from long ago and today.<\/p>\n
For Kyle Milliken \u201902 (CLAS), Bonemill was a defining challenge, Miller says. He ran it as a member of the men\u2019s track team and as training before entering the military to become a Navy SEAL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard stories from his teammates on the SEAL team that he would talk about how Bonemill was very special to him,\u201d Miller says of Milliken, who walked onto the track team in 1998. \u201cNobody worked harder than Kyle. No obstacle would stop him from trying to be the best he could be or achieve a goal he had set in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a 400- and 800-meter runner – a quarter and a half-mile – Milliken trained to be a long sprinter, yet he, like everyone on the team, still faced the 5-mile Bonemill.<\/p>\n
When Milliken was killed in action in Somalia in 2017, UConn Athletics<\/a>, Veterans Affairs<\/a>, and Recreation<\/a> began yet another tradition centered on Bonemill. The Kyle Milliken Memorial Run, held annually around Veterans Day, brought runners through the loop to honor its namesake.<\/p>\n This year, that run has expanded as part of the Husky Run & Ruck: Salute to Service<\/a>, with the organizational might of the Hartford Marathon Foundation<\/a> (HMF) to bolster the event to include 10K, 5K, and one-mile runs, along with a host of fellowship activities.<\/p>\n Through the Road Dogs, a race is born<\/strong><\/p>\n This year marks the 10th anniversary of UConn\u2019s Road Dogs<\/a> running group, formed in 2013 through Recreation to challenge students to do something new by training for a long-distance race, says UConn Recreation Associate Director of Programming Michael Dalfonso \u201900 (CAHNR), \u201902 MA.<\/p>\n Every Saturday morning, Road Dogs – students, faculty, staff, alums, and community members, some who were athletes in high school or college, others who picked up running in adulthood, many who never laced up a pair of sneakers \u2013 meet on campus to run in a pack, teammates at heart.<\/p>\n They push each other, cheer for each other, and commiserate with each other.<\/p>\n In week 1, the running route is short, a mile or two, Dalfonso explains, and each week, it gets a little longer, incrementally increasing by a half mile to a mile. By week 10, the full group can run a healthy distance.<\/p>\n For many years, he says, the culminating event was the HMF Middletown Half Marathon, which is held in the spring and has now become a 10K\/5K event. Many Road Dogs would run the race, and those who opted out often volunteered to run water stations, staff the finish line, hold a mile marker sign, or cheer from the crowd, knowing the importance of support. Some 100 people from UConn would participate on race day.<\/p>\n This year, though, the group flipped its schedule, starting off in the fall during WOW weekend and trading the 13.1-mile training schedule for one that accomplishes 6.2 miles \u2013 the 10K distance in the Husky Run & Ruck and the Bonemill Loop.<\/p>\n \u201cBonemill is difficult,\u201d Dalfonso, himself a seasoned runner, says. \u201cIt\u2019s a fitting way to honor our military veterans and lends itself well to the spirit of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Recreation has always played a part in the Kyle Milliken run and continues to do so with the Husky Run & Ruck, he notes, partnering with Veterans Affairs and Athletics on organization and execution. But growing it to attract runners from around the state and beyond would require the know-how of an organization like HMF.<\/p>\n With a relationship developed through the Road Dogs at the Middletown race, asking and getting a yes wasn\u2019t hard.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a great opportunity to make this a premiere Veterans Day event, something special that honors Kyle Milliken and highlights the Bonemill course,\u201d Dalfonso says. \u201cWe also wanted to add a little spin and challenge folks to take their run to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n Rucking: \u2018A basic combat load\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Dalfonso and Recreation Director Jay Frain ran the HMF Eversource Hartford Half Marathon last month wearing 10-pound vests to weigh them down, something the military calls rucking. Their goal was two-fold: first, to actually do it, and second to advertise the ruck part of Husky Run & Ruck.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in the military, especially in the Army and Marine Corps, have ruck marches incorporated into a lot of their training,\u201d says Alyssa Kelleher, director of UConn\u2019s Veterans Affairs and Military Programs. \u201cMilitary rucks are definitely a bit heavier than athletic rucks. In the Army, it\u2019s usually a percentage of your body weight or a minimum of 30 to 35 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Husky](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cm_husky_run_10k-300x204.jpg\")