Higashi Community 5K

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Registration is now open for the Higashi Community 5K Road Race which will be held on Sunday, November 5th at the Boston Higashi School in Randolph, Massachusetts. This is the First Annual Boston Higashi 5K and the race is open to the community with a nice 3.1 mile loop, beginning and ending on the front lawn of the school.

The race is sponsored by Liberty Bay Credit Union, UNIQLO, Racewire, Wegman’s, Brooks and Anheuser Busch. Special participation in the race will take place by Team Hoyt.

The Boston Higashi School’s mission is to help children and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder learn to reach their full potential through the methodology of Daily Life Therapy. Proceeds from the race will go to help support the mission of the school

The race entry fee is $30.00 and includes post race refreshments and party complete with food, beer and music from the Boston Higashi School Jazz Band. Tee shirts will be provided to the first 300 entrants.

To register for the Higashi Community 5K, please click here.

Wild Turkey 5 Mile Road Race

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Admit it. You are going to eat a lot of cranberry sauce, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, pie and more on Thanksgiving Day. And you have been known to overindulge in the goodness of a gravy boat. But have no fear! Thanks to the Wild Turkey 5 Mile Road Race you will now have a reason to put those feet up on the couch when the turkey day football games come on!

The Wild Turkey 5 Mile Road Race is held Thanksgiving morning in Salem, Massachusetts and is a great way to kick off your holiday merriment. Proceeds from the 14th Annual Wild Turkey 5 Mile Run on Thanksgiving morning benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Salem. This is the largest race on the North Shore with 2,000 anticipated participants toeing the starting line and making their way out onto the five mile course.

The first 1600 entries will receive a long sleeve Brooks tech shirt and the race starts bright and early at 8:00 AM so once done running you can head off to your Thanksgiving feast in plenty of time. The course runs along the Atlantic Ocean down Derby Street in historic Salem and then runs through Winter Island around historic Salem Willows and then back toward the Common.

To register for the Wild Turkey 5 Mile Road Race, please click here. Be sure to also “Like” the race on Facebook by clicking here.

Circle of Flags Veteran’s Day 5 Mile Run

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Registration is now open for the Circle of Flags Veteran’s Day 5 Mile Run which will be held in Norton, Massachusetts on Sunday, November 12th. I have run several races on this five mile course and the race director does a remarkable job putting on a great race and this is one five miler you won’t want to miss.

Celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday, Veteran’s Day and our Nation and Military Service Flags with this five mile run or two mile walk at the Fillmore-Nason VFW #8049 in Norton. The five miler has one of the most attractive entry fees around with registration running only $20.00 for the run and $15.00 for the two mile walk. All proceeds help local Norton veterans and surrounding veteran organizations.

Run begins promptly at 9AM with doors opening at 7:30 AM for day of registration. Plenty of onsite parking with indoor facilities and changing area. Course is a loop, timed and well marked. One (1) water stop. Awards ceremony immediately following final finisher of run and tee- shirts for all participants who pre-regsiter before October 29, 2017.

To register for the race, please click here.

 

St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry 5K

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Last weekend in Middleborough, Massachusetts the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry 5K took place on another pristine fall weekend. The weather was clear and was a touch warm for the latter part of September but given the fact the shovels will be out before we know it, no complaints here!

The Food Pantry 5K is a very well-organized race that does a great job raising funds and food for the local food pantry in Middleborough. In addition to the registration fee, runners are encouraged to bring cans of food to the race to help stock the shelves of the food pantry and it was nice to see the boxes at registration filling up quickly!

The race course is a loop 5k course and there were two water stops on the course which came in handy given the warmer temperatures. After a downhill start, runners head into a rolling residential route as they make their way back to the school grounds where the race started. The race finishes on a Heartbreak Hill-esque uphill into the finish line and the calves were working double duty as they headed up the hill and battled against the heat. A young lad tossing his cookies on the hill made for a quick mental hurdle to get past but I finished the race one foot in front of the other and did alright battling up the hill.

I finished the Food Pantry 5K with a time of 25:23 or 8:10/miles.

New Personal Course Record

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Gotta love when there is a 5K right in the town you call home! With the hectic season of school, soccer, yoga classes and more now consuming the weekdays and weekends thanks to the kids, it can sometimes be a challenge to find time to get to a race. However, when there is a race just down the road that fits into your calendar it is a beautiful thing!

This year was the 10th Anniversary of the Frances F. Morast 5K Walk and Run to Beat Ovarian Cancer. I have participated in this 5K twice previously and each time have been impressed with the passion put into organizing a race in memory of an educator who lived within the local community and passed away from ovarian cancer. The race is organized by Morast’s family and they do a nice job raising funds for Ovations, which is working to find a cure for ovarian cancer.

The course for the race is rather pancake flat which makes for some nice running. Saturday was a bit of an off, September morning with temperatures somewhat mild but the humidity off the charts. Thankfully there was a bit of a cloud cover at the start of the race which helped as if the sun was out with the humidity as bad as it was it would have been a real rough morning of running.

About half-way into the race in front of St. Thomas Aquinas Church there were bottles of water runners could help themselves to and police patrolled the one major road crossing of the run. The course takes place on an open course that loops runners around the general downtown area of Bridgewater and finishes back in front of the Williams School where the race kicks off from.

This year, I knew I ran the course pretty well and only had one fast runner ahead of me on the route. We stuck together for the first mile or so but then his speed was just too much to keep up with. I still maintained a strong pace and finished the race with a time of 22:10, good for 7:08/miles. This is the fastest I have run this race and is one of my better paces for the year! It certainly pays to know the course and to have no real pressure when you are running in second place for the duration of the race!