It’s been a bit since I have raced but last night it felt good to be back out there racing at the Abington Founders Day 5K. The race kicked off at 6PM and was held as part of the celebration commemorating the 310th anniversary of the founding of Abington, Massachusetts.

Earlier in the day I ran a 10K training run but then had adequate time to relax around the house until it was time to make our way to Abington. The race kicked off at a school where a festival was taking place and where fireworks would take place later in the evening.

The course was familiar as it had parts of the Sgt. Daniel Vasselian Memorial Road Race and the Abington Police Community Partners 5K courses mixed it into but was unique in and of itself. The race headed into the grounds of a cemetery first before making your way out onto the road past the Abington Police Department. As you made your way up a slight hill about halfway into the run, a right hand turn took us down a road I have not run previously. We then crossed a bridge over a pond and ran up stairs into a park where as part of the celebration a Civil War re-enactment was taking place. This part of the course was on dirt and running up the stairs was an interesting challenge mixed in before making our way back out on the road to head back in to the grounds of the cemetery. There was about a half-mile through the cemetery before heading on a quick path back out to the grounds of the school and into the finish line.

Even having run a 10K earlier in the day, I felt pretty good out there running and finished in 9th place overall with a time of 25:52, good for 8:19/miles.

Bottles of water and watermelon were available post-run and hit the spot. All in all, a nice night of running and felt good to be back out there racing once again!