The Abington, Massachusetts Tricentennial will be taking place in 2012 and today was the first of three races that will help to raise money for the town’s celebration. The towns of Abington, Whitman and Rockland all used to fall under the singular town of Abington but today they are three distinct towns and each of the three towns will be hosting  a road race and then a half-marathon to celebrate the 300th birthday.

Today’s race was in Rockland and started at the Memorial Park Elementary School. With Hurricane Irene approaching the area, it was good to get a race in today since tomorrow is likely going to be a wash, pun intended. The race started off at 9AM and the temperature was in the mid 70’s but as the New England saying goes, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” Pretty nice turnout for the race and the Colonial Road Runners handled some of the racing logistics.

The course itself ran through both downtown Rockland and then through some residential neighborhoods. It was a rather fair course with some pretty good uphills mixed into some down hills and some rolling flat terrain. Felt really good going out this morning and the humidity didn’t bug me too much today.

Finished with a time of 23:52 for 7:42/miles. Always love kicking an 8-minute mile booty.