This weekend it was back home to celebrate the High Holy Days in the Paper City and to take part in the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Road Race. This race is the pinnacle of good racing in the area and is complete with a challenging course, elite runners, casual runners seeking to gain their personal best and those runners who are tackling their first 10k ever. (Disclaimer: If this is your first 10k, they are not all this hilly; but they are also not all as awesome!)

Race morning left some lingering snow falling upon the Pioneer Valley and the streets of Holyoke and the temperature was quite chilly. Picking up the race bibs that morning, a quick stop at Holyoke Sporting Goods needed to take place to pick up an extra pair of gloves and a hat for the run as it was much cooler than anticipated. However, the luck of the Irish prevailed at race time and the sun came out about an hour before the run just as the famed mummers were striking up their music on Maple Street before the run.

This year was the 40th anniversary of the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Road Race and Boston marathon icon and past winner of the Holyoke race Bill Rodgers was a featured runner at the race. In addition, Team Hoyt inspirations Dick and Rick Hoyt took to the course and joined the runners for another Holyoke race.

This year the course seemed to be noticeably more crowded with fans out cheering runners on particularly around Mile 2 and Mile 3 with a normal thick crowd just shy of the Mile 5 marker outside The Yankee Pedlar. Coming into downtown, the usual crowd outside of Griffin’s cheered runners into the finish line on what turned out to be a great running day. Extra kudos go out to all the families and supporters along the course who set up water tables, Gatorade tables and even an Irish beverage table for those wishing to partake! The course support was absolutely perfect and helped runners of all caliber along the way.

The hilly Holyoke St. Patrick’s Road Race course is always a course that is going to test you and I was pleased to finish with a time of 51:35, good for 8:18/miles. Though I finished just a smidgen behind the Ethiopian runners who took home the grand prize, it was a great day not just for the Irish but for all of those who headed to Holyoke to partake in the 40th running of the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Road Race. Needless to say, I’ll be back for future years!

I headed to the nation’s capital this weekend to take part in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon. Having run previously in the Marine Corps Marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and there is truly something awesome about running in Washington, DC. While running past the Washington Monument, the White House and the other historical sites, each mile maintains an interesting running appeal that makes running in DC all the better.

It’s interesting to note that my other Rock ‘n’ Roll half-marathon experience was running when Providence hosted the series and the weather for that race was absolutely awful. Yesterday was cold and rainy and the rain presented an interesting challenge for runners forcing them to find dry shelter before the race and then dodge puddles during the course of the race. That said, the enthusiasm out on the race course was top notch and the Washington, DC spectators deserve a lot of credit for braving the elements and cheering the runners on.

The best challenge of the race came around the 5.5 mile mark where runners made their way up hum-dinger of a hill. What helped each of us get up the hill was the amazing display of support with people holding American flags and then signs showing fallen soldiers that passed while fighting in the most recent wars. This emotional display really tugged on the heartstrings but made each step up the hill more and more meaningful.

The race finished outside of RFK Stadium but where the headline act of the main music set was Better Than Ezra. Unfortunately, due to the fact we were completely soaked and frozen to the core we opted to instead take the Metro back to our hotel rather than stick around for the free concert. Similar to my experience with the Rock ‘n’ Roll race in Providence, I was surprised at the lack of musical acts out on the course as there are non Rock ‘n’ Roll race series races that do a better job attracting musical acts to their races than it seems the Rock ‘n’ Roll series is able to do.

Upon finishing, runners were provided with some pretty significant running bling in the form of a medal that will go nicely with my racing collection.

I finished the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Half-Marathon with a time of 1:56:20, good for 8:53/miles.