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.

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. The course was flat with an our and back section. 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!

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.

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.