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.

 

There is nothing better than going for a nice evening run to help clear the brain and relieve some stress after a long day in the office. However, the last thing that you really want to deal with is having to worry about dodging cars while out for your nighttime run and thanks to Knuckle Lights my dark hour running has become much easier!

Knuckle Lights are quite lightweight and allow runners to have the safety and security of having double beams on each knuckle and are a great alternative to either having to wear cumbersome reflective vests or run with a flashlight. The Knuckle Lights fit perfectly right onto each knuckle and are no heavier than a standard running GPS watch.

For more information on Knuckle Lights or to find out how to order them, please visit their website by clicking here. Make sure you tell them that The Running Griffin sent you!

Traveled down south to Portsmouth, Rhode Island for the Common Fence Point 5 Miler. Race time was 10AM and the temperature was 85 degrees and the humidity was in pretty full effect. This race was part of the Grand Prix Series for the Thirsty Irish Runners and there was a great turnout of runners who braved the warm temperatures for this 5 mile race.

For the most part the course is a pretty flat course with two moderately steep hills mixed into the course. For a portion of the race you also run along a packed dirt road that brings you up to an area of beach houses and a yacht club. The course has some pretty nice views of Mt. Hope Bay and the Sakonnet River which certainly adds a good aesthetic charm to the race.

The heat coupled with the fact that my racing has been hindered a bit due to my wife’s hospitalization (thankfully she is now home and Baby Running Griffin is doing well in the NICU) sort of kept me off pace but I was glad to cross the finish line. Ended the race with a time of 44:52 or 8:59/miles.

As a runner, the need for proper hydration coupled with the need to ensure a fortified boost of energy and vitamins is essential to maintain top running performance. There are a lot of different beverages out on the market but I recently came across the brand HyDrive Energy Drinks and was impressed by both the taste of their products and the boost of energy that the brand provided.

My personal favorite is the Kiwi-Strawberry which is packed with caffeine, guarana, ginseng and Vitamin B. The flavor is smooth and non-acidic and poured over ice post-run was a great way to cool down. Though the majority of the energy drinks in the HyDrive line have a boost of caffeine within, they do have a HyDrive without caffeine should you not be able to have it for any reason.

The history of HyDrive Energy Drinks is an interesting one. For Mike Weinstein and Brian O’Byrne the answer was clear…start up your own brand. Mike had been the CEO of Snapple Beverages and the President of A&W Brands and Brian was the CEO of Yoo-hoo/Orangina. In January of 2005 they came together to form a beverage idea creation shop which they cleverly named the INOV8 Beverage Company. (Actually the guys who owned V-8 didn’t think it was so clever). Anyway, after developing a whole bunch of ideas they decided to actually produce some of them. That’s how HYDRIVE was born.

For more information about HyDrive Energy Drinks, make sure you check out their webpage by clicking here. You can also follow them on Twitter @hydrive or “Like” them on Facebook by clicking here.

Rain would be an understatement.

What forecasters had planned for was some early morning rain yet what smacked the city of Providence, Rhode Island this morning was more along the lines of a tropical monsoon at times. The buckets of rain made for some pretty soaked roads and the running clothes felt like they weighed an extra five pounds by the time of reaching the finish line. Can’t complain, because if it was 95 and sunny it would have been pretty unbearable but man was it wet out there today!

I have never done a Rock ‘n Roll series race before but the races tend to get pretty good hype surrounding them. Each race tends to have a headline performer at the finish line and this year Providence kicked it back to the 90’s with Sugar Ray performing. The line-up of bands along the course looked pretty good on paper but it was a bit disappointing that at a good majority of the band tents the bands were either just standing there or non-existent. I know it was raining, but kudos to those bands who toughed the weather out today. The rock part of this race was pretty lacking. Even if the rain did not allow you to play, strike up an acoustic set or sing Kumbaya rather than just no-show.

The course itself was a pretty challenging course with a good deal of some pretty decent sized hills mixed into the half-marathon course. The running through downtown and around the Brown University campus was some of the nicest running today. The finish line was a pretty good uphill sprint for the final .1 miles to the finish.

The expo yesterday was very nicely done with a good mix of vendors both local and national with both freebies and things for sale. The expo had the Rock ‘n Roll merchandise on sale, as well. The Rock ‘n Roll series is a pretty pricey half-marathon series, but all runners received technical running shirts which is always nice. The finishers medals for this inaugural race in Providence was pretty sweet, too.

In terms of time, certainly not my best half-marathon given both the pouring rain and the fact that I have not been able to log many long runs in of late. I finished in 2:08:26 or 9:48/miles and was glad to cross the finish line and finish another half-marathon today. Probably wouldn’t do next year’s Rock ‘n Roll in Providence, but might be willing to give a different series race a try in the future.