Finish at the 50 10K Recap

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On Wednesday,  the whole family once again ventured out to Gillette Stadium to take part in the Harvard Pilgrim Finish at the 50. This was our second year doing this event – my oldest participated in the kids’ races and I ran the 10K. J and my youngest son played chief cheerleaders – which quiet honestly may have been the smarter choice!

OK so how to write this recap without it being a complete whine-fest about the heat?! Let me start by saying it was 88 degrees with a dewpoint of 70 – translation the heat and humidity combination was downright oppressive! Combined with the late day start time (6:30 p.m.), this morning runner was way out of my comfort zone!

The Good Stuff

  • The kids races were a lot of fun and my oldest son did great!

    getting a "Congrats!" from Pat the Patriot

    getting a “Congrats!” from Pat the Patriot

  • They changed the location of the 10K starting line so we started in the shade this year
  • The 5K race started an hour before the 10K to help elevate the crowded start
  • Several wonderful residents of Foxborough took pity on us runners and broke out their hoses for some impromptu misting stations – bless them!
  • Enthusiastic volunteers did a great job at the water stops and generally just being really encouraging
  • Challenging course with the first 4.5 miles on a rolling out and back through residential neighborhoods before coming back into the stadium for 1.5 miles of ramps before the final tunnel run to finish at the 50-yard line

The Ugly Stuff

  • It was HOT people – just ugly, soul-sucking hot!
  • ramps-smallRunning those ramps — surprisingly, going up the ramps wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was running down them that proved a lot more challenging, especially when you threw in the hairpin turns at each level. By this point my quads were just screaming to be done!

IMG_2160Post race was like one big tailgate party as runners and their families hang out and wait for the fireworks. We enjoyed a great picnic dinner and the fireworks display did not disappoint!

Overall this is a really well-run family event and a fun way to kick-off our 4th of July celebration! I did say to J shortly after finishing that I just don’t see myself running this again next year – at least not the 10K. J said he may try it and I think I’ll be happy to swap roles as chief cheerleader 🙂

Do you run a 4th of July race?

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. Ugh, heat like that is horrible, Way to push through and get er done though. Sounds like a fun event otherwise.

  2. Jessica vanlandingham says

    My BFF and I did the 5k and we whined about it for a solid hour after! Great experience and glad we did it but it was a slow tough run. My hat is off to you for doing the 10k!

    • Brandy Stiverson says

      My BFF (Jessica V, posted above) and I ran this race. We ran the 5k. And, yes, we whined about it afterward for much longer than it took us to actually run it 🙂 I have to admit that when I read your previous posts about how HOT is was going to be at this race I thought “Meh, whatever…”, because, I am used to running in heat and humidity in Georgia summers. I thought this was going to be a cake walk. But boy, was I humbled and proven terribly wrong! I am glad that I ran this race for the experience. It was a great challenge and a great location. However, that is certainly not something I would do again!!!

      • Brandy – I’m glad you and Jessica survived the 5K! Like you said a great challenge but I don’t know that I’ll be out there again 😉

  3. Oh, wow, those ramps look brutal. How are your legs today? I’m not sure I could handle a summer evening run, but it sounds like you made the best of it. Love how your whole family is involved!

    • I was really surprised that the ramps didn’t seem so bad going up – but down was a whole different story! My calves were in knots the next day! Ouch!

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