On Saturday morning before the late morning/afternoon rush of soccer craziness took place it was off to Middleborough, Massachusetts for the Middleborough Fire Department 5K. This race took place through the streets of an over-55 community so traffic wasn’t much to contend with and the morning turned out to be a nice one for running after what has seemed to be weekend after weekend of rain for the past several months.

The race had a nice contingent of runners at the starting line and some walkers also lined up making it a nice group of participants heading out on the course. The first mile went by relatively easily and there was a water stop just shy of the halfway mark of the run. However, the second half of the race was a much different story with a whole lot of climbing mixed into the course. One local resident walking his dog noted a hill to be the “Heartbreak Hill” of the course but after cresting that one and leveling off for a bit there was more climbing to be done. The downhill stretches of the course didn’t seem to match the uphill climbs even closely so the race definitely had a challenge to it that was palpable.

After the climbing in the second half of the 5K, things leveled off quickly as you made your way into the finish line complete with a Middleborough fire truck hoisting a large American flag over runners as they made their way into the finishing chute.

With all that climbing, my legs felt junky toward the end of the run but still was able to pull off a decent pace of 8:29/miles for the 5K. If they do this race again next year, definitely recommend it for runners who like a little climbing in their races and supporting a local fire department with a 5K is not a bad cause, either!