Registration is now open for the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race and if you have never made your way to the Paper City for this iconic 10K, this is the year to do so!

Having grown up in Holyoke, I could be called a bit biased, but the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race is one of the finest St. Patrick’s Day road races you can find. A tough, challenging 10K course through a city with a rich Irish history, the city comes out in throngs to support runners as they tackle the course.

You’ll find house parties and stretches of crows several rows deep along the way and Irish music, bagpipers and crowds cheering help to keep you motivate each step of the run. Elite runners even make their way to this race given the prize money the race offers to top finishers but with thousands of runners crossing the starting line, this 10K race is one that runners of all skills and abilities should tackle at some point in their running career.

To register for the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race, please click here.

If you’d like to check out a recap from a previous year when I ran the race, please click here.

Slainte, runners!

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.