Registration is now open for The Well 5K which will be held in Bridgewater, Massachusetts on Saturday, June 1st. This is the inaugural year for the run which will be held on the campus of Bridgewater State University and will raise funds for the local non-profit The Well.

The Well offers holistic services that address the needs of the mind, body, and spirit while exploring the interconnectedness of all three. With services ranging from mental heath counseling to massage to youth yoga, The Well does remarkable work in the community and has made a difference to me both personally and to friends and family members who have leveraged their services. Running is a great way to help balance mental health and physical well-being and I love that The Well is bringing a 5K run to the community and will be happy to support the run.

I hope you’ll join me for this race and help raise funds for The Well. To register for the race, please click here.

With the dark winter mornings and late afternoons upon us, keeping safe on the road is even more important and thanks to Hokolite you can now lighten up your running path each step of the way!

I have been using the 300 Lumens 6-LED Running Light from Hokolite which is rechargeable and brightly shines the path ahead. There are three different light strength settings available and then three additional emergency red blinking lights that can be toggled, as well. The lights are lightweight and durable and have held up well in the colder temperatures without issue. The rechargeable nature of these lights is great and it is easy to charge them via a USB port.

Hokolite offers some great additional options for runners including a light-up running belt, a beanie hat with a wide light across the front, a waist light and a runner’s cap that lights up, as well. With a few different options available, runners should checkout Hokolite to see which options work best for them.

Remember to always keep safe while out running and be sure to add one of the Hokolite options to your running routine today!

Back-to back race weekend this weekend and after tackling the Middleborough Fire Department 5K on Saturday it was back out onto the pavement to run the Be Inspired Together Spooky 5K in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

The race started from a great neighborhood park and took runners on residential roads of Stoughton and the “spooky” element of this run had to refer to the hills mixed into the course. After Saturday’s surprise climbs mixed into the 5K, more hills certainly added a good challenge to the legs and post-run putting the legs up to watch some football was clearly in order.

There was a challenging uphill climb in the first mile before things leveled off a bit on a loop through a few neighborhood roads. There was a water stop around the halfway point which did come in handy for sure. Heading back toward the finish line in the final mile there was another uphill climb before runners could cruise back down the first hill that was crested on the way out onto the course. It was a flat sprint back toward the park and the finish line and I finished up the race with a better pace than Saturday’s run and finished at 26:18, good for 8:27/miles.

Funds from this race benefited the non-profit organization Be Inspired Together. Be Inspired Together is a nonprofit, created in 2022 in the post-pandemic aftermath, to provide desperately needed mental health services to individuals and families at no cost, reducing the financial barrier that is often prohibitive in accessing services. Be sure to “Like” the organization on Facebook to learn more about their work.

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!