Lupus Loop

Great day and 5k race for the 20th annual Lupus Loop. After yesterday's Snowtober mess, today was a pleasing bright sunshiny day. Still very cold and breezy but sun sure makes a huge difference.
My friend Kristie and her family organize a team - Linda's Loopers - for this race and I was pleased to make it this year. (Last year I woke up not feeling well). I crashed early and hard last night after supporting Phillyfit's 13-21-30 milers yesterday so by 7:30 am I was ready to go. Due to traffic issues every where else I was one of the first of our group to arrive. This proved to be an issue for my feet which were frozen by the time the race started and so I clumped along for 2/3 of the race.

There were several phillyfitters on Kristie's team in addtion to her friends and family. John C (who ran 30 yesterday) and Sherry (who ran 10 and hung around freezing to support her teamates) were there. Maureen was also there and she and I ran together. That was especially nice for me. I haven't run with her in over two years. She kept me moving and smiling.

It seemed to take forever for the race to start and I'm guessing it started late but I can't say for sure. Finally we were off. This was the same course from the Please Touch Museum that I ran in May with the Dean Karnazes group. It's a nice run. A little up and down but nothing severe at all. The hardest part is coming back toward the Please Touch Museum and turning left away from it because there is still about a mile to go in the route. Fortunately, I remembered this from my May run. I felt good for most of the run although I did have to overcome the urge to walk once. In that last mile when my feet thawed I felt the pain in my foot just slightly.
Jamie was there today with her son Ben. Ben is 4 and ran is his first 5k ever. He looked awesome crossing the finish line. I was happy to be there to see it. I think we overwhelmed him with our support though. He was a bit shy. Jamie and Ben and Ben's brother Elijah left their home early early this morning to make the race. They had 11 inces of snow at home!

I just saw in a Facebook message from Kristie that John C won his age group today. This, AFTER running 30 miles yesterday. He is amazing and I won't be surprised if he is running a 50k or 50 mile race soon.

Me? I was just happy get out and run a race. 5k this week; 10k next week and half marathon in three weeks.