No Bananas Love

You'd think it was Valentine's Day, with all the love in abundance at today's No Bananas 5K race on the Freeman Trail in Chelmsford. As far as the eye could see, husbands and wives abounded, in the first No Bananas of the New Year. Apparently the race has become the latest rage in bringing husbands and wives closer together! And while Top Banana Ruth Whalen, seen here at left, couldn't run today, she was able to convince her husband Jonathan Crockett to stick to his New Year's resolution to stop making excuses for missing the No Bananas series and drag his butt out to run the event!Huge numbers, the highest yet, turned out for today's outing!Pre-race, some of the E Streeters prepare for a race for the agesBananas are scarce in the winter, and not allowed at this race, so series frontman Michael Gilmore proudly scraped together another victory todayExchanging knowing glances, Barry and I know our rolling roadblock tactic will immediately handicap the competitionAlong the way and in keeping the with the romance of the day, some of the E Streeters stop to share a hug with their sweetiesWith the love of their wives buoying their spirits, three of the E Streeters are ready to head to the finishJohn even took a detour to go visit the scene of the historic Pomeranian attack. (Google the reference if you've never heard of it, it's legendary.) Luckily, there were none to be found today.Post-race, the E Streeter men are all smiles as they await their better halves finishingRapid-fire, here's a flurry of finish-line shots:But wait! As the final times were entered into the log, what's this? Tommy fell a second off-pace from his fellow E Streeters! Apparently, without Carlos there to challenge him, the days of 21:07 are a thing of the past.His fellow runners are just aghast at the finish. Sean just looks disgusted with him.Could it have been the sneakers, purchased just yesterday?Maybe it was the running app on his iphoneLuckily, since this was the love-is-in-the-air version of No Bananas, he had a symphathetic ear to plead his case to. The rest of us? We don't want to hear it.Weather permitting, we'll see everyone in February for some frozen bananas!