It was another fabulous Grace Race today! The weather was glorious, the best we’ve ever had for this event (the astute blog reader will note that I said the same thing last year, but it really was near perfect running conditions today aside from a stiff breeze).

It was also a day where we saw both men’s and women’s course records broken. Caroline Bjune of Andover broke the women’s record by 2 seconds, finishing in a time of 29:32 – nice job Caroline! We were honored to have Nate Jenkins in the field today. Nate shattered the record set by Casey Moulton last year, crossing the line in an amazing 24:49. We on the Grace Race team certainly didn’t expect a sub 25:00 on this course; way to go Nate!

Results and photos of our winners posted at: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/ma/Oct9_7thAnn_set1.shtml

In a couple weeks, we’ll have more photos posted on this web site so stay tuned please.

Thanks to Richie Blake from True Timing for doing a great job with the timing. Thanks to the many Chelmsford-area vendors who pitched in donations of cash, refreshments, and raffle prizes. Thanks Marx Running for helping promote the race. We’re grateful for the Chelmsford police for keeping the route safe during the race.

Asante sana, awesome crew of volunteers – registration, parking, bag check-in, child care, course monitors and water stops, finish line, refreshments, t-shirts, Grace Race Cafe, marketing/publicity, awards, etc. – we couldn’t hold this without you. With apologies to Jackson Browne … ”when it comes to serving here, you know you guys are the champs.”   

Finally we thank all of you runners and walkers for participating today. We hope you enjoyed it and welcome your feedback on how to grow the race and improve it. Can you help us become a race with a field of 400-500 in the next two years? Feel free to contact me with your suggestions (I’ve already received a couple via email). None of us on the Grace Race team are experts but we learn a bit each year about the do’s and dont’s of road races.

A small team of us will travel to Kenya in November to check out progress they have made on the orphanage and talk about next steps. We will be pleased to tell our friends in Naivasha about the good work you all have done by participating in and supporting the Grace Race. We’ll post a report on what we’ve seen and discussed when we return home.

Barikiwa sana (May God bless you).

Have you ever tasted an authentic Kenyan Donut? Or rich Kenyan tea or coffee? At this year’s Grace Race you can experience a taste of Kenya along with a hearty barbeque of sirloin cheeseburgers and deli-style hotdogs – and a wide variety of desserts and drinks. The Grace Race Café opens at 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM Race Day – October 9th. Get ready to treat your taste buds to some great food! In case you haven’t decided if you will run, walk or just show up to the Grace Race, this is one more reason you need to consider coming by the event at Grace Community Church from 9AM – 12:00PM:

Really great food at the Grace Race Café!

Come by for a cup of freshly brewed Kenyan Coffee or Kenyan Iced Tea – and any drink is free as part of the combo meal option…there will be freshly grilled 1/4 pound sirloin burgers, beefy deli-style hot dogs, and many, many dessert options…all packaged in one great price of either $5 or $6 depending on your meal option. It’s a far better meal than going out somewhere – and at a great price. For the kid in everyone – or for the kids – you can treat yourself to a cone of freshly-spun cotton candy. You can feel good about every bite because every dollar raised at the Café goes towards the orphanage construction in Naivasha, Kenya.

Take a sneak peak at the Grace Race Café menu:

Drinks:

Water bottles
Soda: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Root Beer and Orange
Kenyan Beverages: Hot Coffee and Tea; Iced Tea

Meal Options:

Burgers and Cheeseburgers on Soft Buns
Hot Dogs on Soft Rolls
Chips – Plain and Barbeque
Dessert Items: Cakes and Cookies

Combination Meal Pricing:

Giraffe: Hamburger, chips, drink and dessert:   $6.00
Tiger: Cheeseburger, chips, drink and dessert:   $6.00
Snake in the Grass: Hotdog, chips, drink and dessert:   $5.00

Stand-Alone Options:

Kenyan Tea or Coffee – hot:   $1.00
Kenyan Iced Tea or Coffee:   $2.00
Soda or Water:   $1.00
Burger & bun:   $4.00
Any Dessert Item:   $2.00
Chips:   $1.00
Cheeseburger & bun:   $5.00
Hotdog & bun:   $4.00
Cotton Candy:   $2.00
Kenyan Donut:   Free with meal purchase

Asanté Sana and hope to see you at the Café!

Warmest regards to you,

Barbara Sabran

This Saturday is the Grace Race.  We have been working for a whole year to get to this point and we are confident (but still praying) that it will be great!  We have the technical shirts in, teams are signing up, and the order to the “Big Man” for good weather has been placed – looks like we will have that, too.

There is a lot of excitement for this Saturday and to boot, we have a couple big names registered for the race.  Nate Jenkins, a local 2:14 marathoner and official running blogger will be running.  With a pretty good course record of 25:34 in the books by Casey Moulton (last year’s overall winner), we could see an even better performance.  Check out Nate’s blog for some tips (http://wpblogs.runningtimes.com/blogs/member/).  Also, to keep the suspense, we have a 2:42 female runner, but I won’t tell you who, yet.  Maybe you will get to meet her.

All of this means you need to come out and put on a good performance.  John already spoke about the taper week.  Hopefully, leading up to this week you have increased some mileage, did some speed runs and are now in shape and condition to race 5 miles.  Now, this week, you should rest, but not on the couch.  Check out the article John posted.

We will see toeing the line and finishing strong on Saturday.  And let me be the first to say, “Congratulations” and “Thank you”.

Grace Race friends,

We’re closing in on it – less than a week to go! The 7th Annual Grace Race starting gun fires at 10AM on Saturday Oct. 9th. Registration opens at 8:30 AM. Have you registered to run, walk, or volunteer yet? Please join us. Bring your whole family! Remember that we’ll have free child care, wicking shirts for the first 300 registrants, great refreshments including pizza from Brickhouse Pizza, cash prizes, trophies, and a big raffle. We’ll provide a safe place in the building to leave your personal belongings.

If you’ve been training for the Grace Race, perhaps you’re in taper mode and will find this article on tapering for shorter races interesting (or perhaps you have your own taper routine already … )  http://www.active.com/running/Articles/How_to_Taper_for_Your_Road_Race.htm?cmp=17-5730

Please note parking for all runners and walkers is at Kronos, 297 Billerica Rd.,. a block away from the start/finish at 275 Billerica Rd.

Finally, don’t forgot the pledge sheet – download from the web site or use  one attached to your application. You can ask your friends, neighbors, or co-workers to sponsor you in the run or walk.

Please spread the word about the race in this final week if you could.

Asante sana, and see you on Saturday the 9th!

Hello Grace Race friends. While Charles (aka “teambrunet”) is getting you runners in shape and getting some local running clubs on board, we’re also recruiting volunteers. Volunteers are the “engine” behind any successful event like this; last year we have 120 men, women, and kids helping at the Grace Race! Perhaps you can’t run or walk for whatever reason but want to be part of the Grace Race 2010 scene. Well, keep on reading  because we need more volunteers, especially to work on the course. No training or prior experience is required! You just need to sign up at http://www.gracerace.org/the-race/volunteers-2 and then attend (if you’re able) an informational meeting for all volunteers on Sunday Oct. 3rd 6:30-7:30 PM at Grace Community Church. If you’d prefer to lend a hand inside, we can find a job for you inside the building. Don’t forget we have free child care in the same building, too – so you can leave your babies or kids in a safe and fun environment staffed by adults and teens, while you hand out water, serve refreshments, sort T-shirts, etc.

Hopefully, everyone has been running.  For me, it has been very difficult to get out and run since it was a very busy summer.  As a result, I find that I am struggling with my conditioning – I can start off well enough, I just can’t keep my pace.  Looking forward to the Grace Race on October 9, I realize that I need to force the miles; I wonder if there is anyone else in the same position.

To aid in the training, we are going to host group runs starting on Sunday, September 12 and leading up to the Grace Race.  Everyone and anyone is invited to come out and start to feel the road.  We will run the course, or parts of the course, on each Sunday, so that on the morning of October 9, we all have gained a little strength and know what to expect from the race.  We will meet in the fellowship hall of Grace Community Church around 1130 (after the second service) and leave shortly after that.

Like I said, every one and anyone is invited.  Do not think that because you have not been running, you are not experienced or prepared for these group runs.  They are planned for you!  For those of you who have been running, come and join us, it is a great opportunity to open up the legs and get on the course – it just might help you to PR.  We hope to see all of you there.

Hello again Grace Race friends and supporters. Thanks to your participation and generous donations, the construction of the administrative wing of the orphanage is nearly complete. This wing includes the staff offices, dining room and kitchen, bathrooms, medical clinic, and visitor lobby. We are excited to share these photos showing the completed exterior and nearly finished interior. The construction crew will begin work in a few weeks on the second part of Phase I, which comprises the dormitory buildings to house up to 50 girls and 50 boys. The money we raise at the 7th Annual Grace Race on Oct. 9th will pay for furnishings and – depending on how much we raise – the beginning of Phase 2 construction (the classrooms and vocational training rooms). Please join us – register to run, walk, or volunteer at the race to help us complete this great project. Asante sana!

Exterior view of administrative wing, recently completed.

The dining room inside the administrative wing showing curtains and finished cabinets.

The office for the Director of the orphanage

Another view of the exterior

Closeup view showing the doors and windows.

The sink in the kitchen area of the building.

Bathroom toilet

A bountiful crop of maize (corn) growing on the farmland adjacent to the building

As Charles mentioned in his last blog, it’s time to train. I actually prefer fall running over summer running (just not into the 90-degree high-humidity runs; I love the crisp temps and fall colors of October), but there is a plethora of weekly races and fun runs throughout the summer to keep us all motivated through the “dog days” of July and August. In fact you can probably find an organized running event each day of the week. They all welcome walkers too.

These races are low-key, inexpensive, and meant to be fun for the family – just show up, pay the $5 or $10 entry fee, get your bib, run, and meet some other runners in the community. A couple of my favorites are the Thursday night Westford Academy Series races to benefit the WA X-C team. There is also the Tuesday evening Good Times series in downtown Lowell, a 5K that winds along the Riverwalk of the Merrimack River, sponsored by Marx Running. The Gate City Striders club sponsors 5K and 5M trail runs every Monday evening in Nashua NH.  Then there is the weekly Wednesday night “Run the Q” race in Wakefield MA, sponsored by the Mystic Runners – a 5K run around Lake Quannapowitt.  If you’re closer to Boston, you can join in the weekly Thursday night Fresh Pond series in Cambridge, which is one of the longest-running races in New England.

Here are links to the races I mentioned above:

http://wasummerrace.blogspot.com/2009/03/welcome.html

http://www.goodtimesrun.com/old_court_old.htm

http://www.gatecity.org/gcs_Big_Med/bm/signaturegcsevents/trailseries/index.shtml

http://www.mysticrunners.com/moxie/5k_races/index.shtml

http://csurun.org/ (Cambridge Sport Union sponsors the weekly Fresh Pond runs)

Happy running, and don’t forget to register for the Grace Race and start gathering pledges to help us build the orphanage and school!

The Grace Race is scheduled for October 9, which is less than three months away.  That means it is time to start training and to train hard.  Recently, with family happenings, illnesses, a very busy work schedule and my own ankle injury, I have not been running consistently, much less training.  In fact, yesterday, I ran a two mile challenge and was 30 seconds slower than last year.

So, this week I will start to focus in on my training.  I will ramp up miles, grit through weekly speed workouts, and endure long runs.  The goal will be to set a personal record (PR) at the Grace Race in October.  As I go through my training, I make one request – I ask those who will participate in the Grace Race to also train with me.

This is how we will do it together.  I will write about my training by posting workouts, tips, and knowledge I pick up along the way.  Perhaps you can use the information.  Maybe you have your own information.  Let us know by posting comments.  Tell us how you are doing.

We have 12 weeks from this Saturday to meet our goals.  I am interested in what your goals are:  more speed?  more endurance?  better health?  Do you want to beat your spouse?  Whatever it is, we are in it together whether you like it or not.  So, lace up the running shoes and let’s pound the pavement.  It is time to start training.

Sunday was a great day! As a father of two wonderful boys, I had a special Father’s Day.

In fact, I enjoyed the day so much that I am thinking that we should rally for a Father’s Week! (However, I suspect that we will need to address Mother’s Day/Week if this is going to get traction!)

Returning work on Monday also meant the return to planning for the race in October. As I looked toward this week’s planning meeting, I was thinking beyond race day logistics to the bigger goal and ultimately to the recipients of these efforts which, of course, are the kids – all of them orphaned and obviously not celebrating Father’s Day.

Since we can’t fill that role, I hope that, at a minimum, our efforts will continue to make life better for the 100 children in this part of the world.

Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers and donors, much progress is being made on the on the facility – check out the pictures. And, as the race gets closer, let’s remember the ultimate goal. Thank you!