Have I mentioned that I love early race starts?

This morning it was off to Carver, Massachusetts for the Carver Old Home Day 5 Miler which kicks off at 8AM. Bib pickup started at 7AM so for early birds like me this race was a good one to check out!

Mrs. Running Griffin had run this race with a friend once before but I have never done it so when the calendar showed a nice opening this morning it definitely was well worth signing up for the five mile race.

Carver Old Home Day has been a tradition since 1901 providing a day for the community to come together and celebrate the history of Carver, Massachusetts. The mission of the Carver Old Home Day Association is to continue to provide a relaxing day for families to come out and meet their neighbors and enjoy their families. The day features a full schedule of events including food, a car show, music and fireworks and the five mile road race kicks off and finishes in a small, local park where many of the activities for the day take place.

The morning temperatures were perfect for a road race and you couldn’t really ask for a better day out there. In terms of the course, I really enjoyed the route which took runners along rural roads with almost no traffic out on them. The roads were long stretches which made the miles go by easier and being in the heart of cranberry country, running past cranberry bogs added to the quintessential New England feel to this race. Kudos to the race organizers for having plenty of water out on the route at all the right locations and a special thanks to some of the neighbors along the route who sat out for the morning cheering runners on or perhaps even having a sprinkler set up for those who may have wanted a quick cool down.

Felt pretty good out on the course and given we arrived at the race with plenty of time before the start we were able to do a 10 minute stretch before heading to the starting line. (I know, I know. Stretch more; you won’t regret it.) Even heading up the sneaky uphill climb in the final .3 miles the legs were feeling pretty good; a good morning of running!

I finished the Carver Old Home 5 Miler with a time of 44:08, good for 8:51/miles.