POPULAR HARVARD PILGRIM ROAD RACE AT PATRIOT PLACE INTRODUCES 5K

Online registration now open at www.harvardpilgrimfinishatthe50.com

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts — The popular Harvard Pilgrim road race at Patriot Place will now be called the Harvard Pilgrim Finish at the 50 - 5K & 10K at Patriot Place and take place at 6 p.m. on the evening of July 3, race organizers announced today. 

In addition to changing the date and time, a new 5K race has been added to the event, featuring a 3.1-mile course within Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place with a thrilling finish at the 50-yard line. A fireworks display is also planned for July 3. 

“We’re excited about these changes and are confident they will open the event to even more people while enhancing the upbeat nature of this road race,” said Mike St. Laurent of PRE, who organizes the Harvard Pilgrim Finish at the 50 - 5K & 10K at Patriot Place with B.A.A Boston Marathon Race Director Dave McGillivray of DMSE Sports.

A Kid’s Fun Run on the same field as many of the children’s sports heroes will also take place on Tuesday July 3. Parents and families will have the opportunity to cheer on the children from the stands in Gillette Stadium. 

Online registration for all three races – the 5K, the 10K and the Kid’s Fun Run -- is now open at www.harvardpilgrimfinishatthe50.com. This year marks the third year for the event.

Families are again encouraged to run as teams, St. Laurent said. Last year, several hundred families participated and prizes were given to families with the most participants and those from Foxborough. 

Festivities are planned for the event as in years past with a health and fitness expo scheduled at Patriot Place on July 3. Parking for the event at Patriot Place is plentiful. 

Both the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care 5K and 10K events begin together inside Patriot Place. The 10K travels a loop through historic Foxborough and ends inside Gillette Stadium. The new 5K route will take a unique approach within the Patriot Place grounds and Gillette Stadium with runners and walkers experiencing a course that includes the stadium ramps. 

Runners from both races can watch themselves on the stadium’s two giant HD video screens as they pass under a large inflatable football helmet and run to the finish at the 50-yard line. In 2011, more than 3,000 walkers and runners crossed the finish line, while thousands of family and friends cheered them on from the stands. The first two years the race was held on the Fourth of July in the morning.

Registration and additional information is available by visiting www.harvardpilgrimfinishatthe50.com. Find race updates and information on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HarvardPilgrim10k. 

The race is owned and managed by Professional Race Events, LLC, a collaboration between Mike St. Laurent of Loco Running (www.locorunning.com), and Dave McGillivray of DMSE Sports (www.dmsesports.com), who also directs the B.A.A. Boston Marathon, the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine, the New Balance Falmouth Road Race and the Run Gloucester! 7-Mile Road Race in Mass. 

About Harvard Pilgrim
Harvard Pilgrim is a not-for-profit health plan that provides a variety of insurance plan options and self-funding arrangements to more than one million members in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine., For the eighth consecutive year*, Harvard Pilgrim was named the #1 private health plan in America, according to an annual ranking of the nation’s best health plans by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)**. For more information, please visit www.harvardpilgrim.org. 

* NCQA’s Health Insurance Plan Rankings 2011-12 – Private ** U.S. News/NCQA America’s Best Health Insurance Plans 2005-2009 (annual). America’s Best Health Insurance Plans is a trademark of U.S. News & World Report. NCQA The State of Health Care Quality 2004.

About Patriot Place
Adjacent to Gillette Stadium, Patriot Place features more than 1.3 million square feet of shopping, dining, and entertainment. Visitors have access to major fashion retailers, live and interactive entertainment, eateries, a four-star hotel, state-of-the-art theater and much more. For more information, visit www.patriot-place.com. 

About DMSE Sports, Inc.
Founded by McGillivray in 1981, DMSE, Inc. is a leader in sports event management, specializing in creating, marketing and producing mass participatory athletic events throughout the U.S. and abroad. McGillivray and his team at DMSE Sports have produced or consulted on more than 900 mass-participatory athletic events, including the Boston Marathon, the TD Beach to Beacon10K in Maine, Run for the Dream in Williamsburg, Va., the Women’s Half Marathon and was recently named race director of the famed New Balance Falmouth Road Race in Cape Cod. For more information, visit www.dmsesports.com.