On Friday night we made our way to Plymouth, Massachusetts for the Winter Lights 5K. This has been a race we have wanted to do for a number of years but 6:30 on a Friday night can sometimes prove to be a challenge between work, kids activities and other holiday events. But this year, an open night on the calendar coupled with an invite from our friends Karl and Katherine was all we needed to tie up the sneakers and partake in some wintertime running fun!

The Winter Lights 5K takes place right in the middle of America’s hometown and is a relatively familiar course for those who have run a race in Plymouth in the past. The race starts on Court Street and makes its way uphill in the half mile before making a right hand turn down toward Nelson Park, which hugs the Atlantic Ocean. For a nice stretch of about a mile you run right along the coast on Main Street and there were plenty of people out for a night out in Plymouth cheering you along the way. Runners lit up with Christmas lights, headlamps and flashlights passed by Plymouth Rock and then into the Swenson Field area of downtown before turning back up Court Street for a relatively uphill finish.

The road race was held in conjunction with the Plymouth Christmas tree lighting so a brief parade featuring Santa , a snowman and a marching band went by just prior to the race kicking off and a healthy amount of fans enjoying the holiday cheer in downtown Plymouth that evening lined the finish line and cheered runners in. Several of the local restaurants, pubs and shops were open and nicely filled post-run. We stopped into Blue Blinds Bakery to warm up post run and were greeted with free pastries, cookies and hot coffee. After the run, eight of us made our way to Cafe Strega to warm up some more and enjoy a drink and a great post-run meal.

The Winter Lights 5K was a really nice way to help ring in the holiday season and running at night is always a nice change of pace. The blinking lights, the holiday vibes and the chilly temps all helped to get you into the holiday mood! I finished the Winter Lights 5K with a time of 26:03, good for 8:23/miles.

Back at it this morning for another race in West Roxbury with Walter’s Run. Hope to see some of you there!

On New Year’s Day, shake off the cob webs from ringing in the New Year at the 2019 New Year’s Classic in Norfolk, Massachusetts.

The Wrentham Lions Club hosts the annual New Year’s Classic 5K and this year will be the 19th running of the race. All proceeds from the race benefits the Wrentham Lions Club cwhich along with contributing to many local charities also has a focus on helping the visually impaired after being challenged by Helen Keller to become the “Knights of the Blind.”

The Eagle Brook Saloon has been the host of the race for last several years and the Wrentham Lions Club is just one of many local charities supported by the Eagle Brook.

The race itself is a fun, low-key 5K that includes a hearty and delicious breakfast from The Eagle Brook Saloon after the race and a pair of running gloves or a buff. Runners can register online by clicking here and will join Mrs. Running Griffin and me at the starting line to tackle the 2019 year with a road race hours after the ball has dropped!

Look forward to having many of The Running Griffin readers join me in Norfolk on New Year’s Day for the New Year’s Classic 5K. Let’s start off the new year on the right foot and help support the great work done by the Wrentham Lions Club!

Looking for a great way to kick off 2019? Look no further than the Commitment Day 5K in Burlington, Massachusetts! After all, there is no better way to ring in the New Year than tackling a 5K race on the first day of the year!

Commitment Day is hosted by Life Time Athletic and aims to drive individuals toward committing to a healthier, happier life. Whether it’s yoga, cycle, studio, group training or a 5K, Life Time Athletic seeks to make your passion a priority — on New Year’s Day and all year long. The race is held at 38 Life Time Athletic locations across the country and locally in the Greater Boston area the Burlington, Massachusetts location will be hosting the Commitment Day 5K perfect for those runners in the region looking to start off the New Year on the right foot!

The Commitment Day 5K is being held on New Year’s Day 5K and runners will enjoy a great run, a finisher shirt, finisher medal and post-race brunch inside of the Life Time Athletic gym!

To register for the Commitment Day 5K in Burlington, Massachusetts please click here to register online. If you register today and use the code ICOMMIT you will receive 30% off your registration fee so don’t delay and register today! This code is only good until the end of the day on Monday, November 26th so head over to the site and register today!

If you are in the Burlington, Massachusetts area and are interested in gaining more information about the Life Time Athletic running group, please click here to join their Facebook group, as well.

On Wednesday afternoon we packed up The Running Griffin race wagon and made our way out to Western Massachusetts for a few days of relaxation, Thanksgiving fun and family time with my family in Holyoke.

Always looking for a solid reason to have that extra scoop of stuffing or squash at Thanksgiving dinner, we looked for a road race prior to making our trip and came across the Give ‘Em The Bird 5K in neighboring Easthampton, Massachusetts. An added nuance to the race not outlined on the website was the one thing no race director can plan for: the weather. Temperatures were slated to be in the low single digits without the wind chill Thanksgiving morning and with the crisp Pioneer Valley winds always kicking up, this was going to be one chilly run!

The night before the race, runners could pick up their bib numbers and tee-shirt at Abandoned Building Brewery. This also allowed runners to not have to get to the race too early and stand around in the cold, harsh chilly airs while also giving runners a good excuse to either have a pint or take a couple cans of Abandoned Building’s delicious craft beers home with them.

The race was limited to 500 runners and the field was completely filled with pre-registrations so the race did a nice job attracting runners in advance of the race. Because of the weather, a good amount of runners did not toe the starting line but for us hearty running folk, the starting line was on a bike trail.

As the running horn sounded, runners made their way on the Manhan Rail Trail for about the first 3/4 miles which rolled ever so gently uphill. There was a little bridge runners ran across and immediately before exiting the bike path a turkey dancing with a butcher knife showed you the way to turn. The next stretch of the race took runners through a residential neighborhood and along some farm land and winding water before heading uphill on what was toughest, hilly section of the course featuring a rather sharp incline around the 1.6 mile mark. Runners then made a right hand turn back onto the bike trail an finished the rest of the race on the bike trail heading into the finish line area where some fans, who had to have been cold, cheered runners into the finish.

The course for the Give ‘Em The Bird 5K was a really nicely laid out course and would be a great 5K course any time of year but for a cold Thanksgiving morning run seemed to work even better. It was cold out there but the course moved along nicely and was a scenic run with a good Western Mass feel to it complete with being surrounded by the Mt. Tom range and all.

Despite the cold, I ran pretty well and finished the race with a time of 25:17, good for 8:07/mile. Whether scientifically valid or not, that’s good enough for me and I grabbed that extra scoop of stuffing later in the day!

Following up from last week’s Monson Half-Marathon it was off to Norwood, Massachusetts for the  32nd Annual Norwood Turkey Trot. The Monson Half was a good prep race for a hilly four mile course in Norwood but the calves were still feeling the monstrously hilly Monson course on the much shorter Norwood route.

The Norwood Turkey Trot was the November Grand Prix race for my running club, the Thirsty Irish Runners. The race is a big fan favorite of the club and 60+ TIRs toed the starting line yesterday at 11AM to make their way out onto the route.

The race kicks off in front of Norwood High School and quickly takes runners down a steep hill into the first mile marker for the most part before runners begin the climbing back toward the finish line. Runners climb pretty well toward the second mile marker but heading back up the hill toward the finish line that graced runners with the downhill descent in the first mile is the real challenge.

This year, there seemed to be a few more fans on the hill than in prior years cheering runners along as they made their way up the steep ascent back toward the high school. Running in front of the high school, runners make a final sharp left tun up a quick little hill before sprinting into the finish line.

I finished the Norwood Turkey Trot with a time of 35:01, good for 8:45/miles. Not a terrible result coming off a half-marathon last weekend but hoping to build back a bit more speed sometime soon. With cooler temps now greeting us all in New England it might be time to focus on logging some more miles and then working on speed more in the spring but we shall see!

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Anyone running a Turkey Trot on Thursday?