Stamford Boys & Girls Club Corporate 5K Race Recap

Last week my mom and I ran the Stamford Boys & Girls Club Corporate 5K. Whenever there is a 5K or 10K race in Stamford, I usually try to sign up for it since those races usually support charities. That is one of the main reasons why I like to run local races. But I will say that I haven’t enjoyed most of the local half-marathons I’ve run this year so I probably will not do too many long distance local races in the future.

We really weren’t running this race for time since we were both dealing with some aches and pains. My knee was still kind of weird from the Brooklyn Half a few days prior. We treated it as a fun run which was great!

My mom and I ran this race once before (I think 2 years ago) when it ran through part of downtown and it was a nightmare. It really wasn’t organized that well and the route sucked. I’m so happy they moved the route to the Harbor Point section of Stamford. It just makes more sense – less traffic and less crowded. One unique thing about this race is that it’s always held during the week in the evening. This year’s race was on Thursday evening @ 7. A little bit of a struggle after a work day but it’s only once a year.

We got caught in a lot of traffic on the way there. What usually would take 10 minutes ended up taking closer to 35 minutes. I dropped my mom off to pick up our bibs and race shirts and then went to find parking. Luckily the garage still had a few parking spots left (If not, I would have had to park at my job and walk 15 minutes back to the start line). The weather was a little weird. It was overcast, but no rain, and very windy and actually a little cold for May! I wore this really cute Oiselle long sleeve shirt that I purchased from RunningWarehouse.com (for $15 bucks!!) but decided to put the race shirt over it in order to get an extra layer of warmth! Before the race we ran into a friend of ours from the gym. Hi Carla! 🙂

Such weird weather for May!

After the race, free beer was provided and I think they had some snacks as well. The Harbor Point section of Stamford is awesome because it reminds me of a mini Manhattan. Tons of apartments and restaurants. It was a great location for runners to socialize after the race. Unfortunately I didn’t want to get caught in a lot of traffic trying to leave the area, so we just went straight to the car once we finished.

Near the finish line

There were over 1,600 runners for this race and I anticipate that it will continue to grow every year. I’ll probably sign up for the race again next year but I’d like to try to get some people from my job to form a team.

My next race is another local race, the Hope-in-Motion 10K on Sunday, June 7th. I believe this is my fourth time running this race, but only the second time I’ll be running the 10K (the race was previously just a 5K but they added the 10K option in 2014). This is the biggest local race in Stamford with thousands of runners and walkers and it’s ALWAYS a really fun time. The 5K and 10K races start early in the morning and then the Hope-in-Motion Walk takes place around 10am (I usually do the run and walk). I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good weather and NO humidity.

Do you like to run local races? Why or why not? Do you have any exciting races coming up? Let me know in the comments section!