The Running Griffin encourages runners to sign up for City Strides today. CityStrides keeps track of which streets you run, and can help you reach the goal of running every street in your city.

I have been running with City Strides for a while now and have been thoroughly impressed with the functionality. The program links to my RunKeeper therefore the integration allows me to run normally but track the streets that I have run in a variety of cities and towns where I have either raced or run leisurely. City Strides also allows you to track the mileage you have run in each pair of sneakers ensuring that your sneakers are accurately tracked relative to when they need to be replaced. Another great benefit of the application is that each run has a detailed weather forecast automatically linked to it leaving no question as to why your pace may have been slightly off on a hot/humid summer day.

City Strides also operates with the MapMyRun or Strava applications therefore runners have a variety of integrated running apps to use in coordination with City Strides.

For more information about City Strides, please click here to visit their website. You can also check them out on Facebook by clicking here and follow them on Twitter @citystrides.

Located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Blessed Sacrament School has served as an amazing kindergarten, elementary school and middle school for generations. My family alone has had three generations attend the school and today the school continues to serve as a tremendous educational facility.

Registration is now open for the Blessed Sacrament Back to School Run/Walk which will take place on Saturday, August 23 at 11AM. The race will kick off from the Holyoke Elks and will offer runners a different style of race with a 2 mile course serving as the race route. This race distance will allow racers to kick themselves a little bit more and will also ensure that for those looking to get back into running have a distance that they can be proud of completing.

The Blessed Sacrament Back to School Run/Walk will seek to bring alumni, students and others from the community to the race in support of the education that Blessed Sacrament School provides.

To register for the race, please click here. Please also be sure to RSVP on the Facebook event page by clicking here.

Monday night this week was a pretty muggy night but the heat wasn’t overly oppressive. The summer always has the joy of variation mixed into the running equation and the humidity for this Monday’s Dewpie Dash was perhaps most noticeable post-race as the race shirt was all but pasted to my skin.

The race directors from the Colonial Road Runners set up water at the midway point of the course this week which was a nice addition to the evening. We packed the SUV full of the children and a babysitter to watch them as we ran therefore we had some built in fans clapping away and cheering as we made our way into the finish line.

I finished this week’s Dewpie Dash 3.25 mile road race with a time of 24:20, good for 7:29/miles. The next two weeks I won’t be able to attend the Monday night series but look forward to getting back to Raynham shortly for some more good racing.

Coming off of yesterday’s big victory at the Huss Dog Jog 5k, this morning it was off to Stonehill College for the Narragansett Summer Running Festival 10k. Stonehill College is an absolutely beautiful college located in Easton, Massachusetts and served as host for the second annual Narragansett Summer Running Festival. The festival features a race for all abilities including a 5k, 10k and a half-marathon. Last year, I ran the 5k race but this year instead opted for the 10k race.

The 10k was the final race to kick off and the course was a scenic double loop through the Stonehill College campus. The run took runners past some remarkable buildings, through and onto the track surrounding the football field, across a foot bridge next to a pond and past other sections across the campus. The nice thing about double loops is that you can certainly anticipate what is ahead on the second loop but the down side to them is that for any section that might be in the sun the first time around you can all but guarantee you will be in the sun the second time, as well.

The race time temperature this year was much more manageable than last year but even still the sun was beating down on the course pretty nicely even with an early start time to the 10k at 8:40 AM. Water was available on the course and the shaded parts of the course offered runners a temporary reprieve from the heat. The race takes place on both asphalt, composite track material as well as a section that is a dirt road covered with smaller stones. Though the 10k was fully contained within the grounds of the campus, Stonehill College Police manned sections where vehicles could still pass and did a great job keeping the runners safe.

Post race, runners were invited to enjoy two free Narragansett beers including their summer favorites (Summer Ale and Del’s Shandy) and the traditional Gansett lager. A variety of businesses handed out samples and a band played some tunes to add to the atmosphere.

For a back-to-back race weekend coupled with some lower body pains I was suffering from, I ran the Narragansett Summer Running Festival 10k well and finished with a time of 49:33 or 7:59/miles.