Thanksgiving, and time for the annual E Streeters tradition of freezing our collective asses off on the frozen tundra that surrounds the Lowell Elks for the Thanks4Giving 5K race to help benefit Alternative House, a non-profit that raises money to assist battered women. A great cause, and one of the things that makes it slightly easier to brave the frigid temperatures along the wind tunnel of Pawtucket Boulevard for the annual outing.
And of course, there's always the post-race pie.
Heather made the trek out there today, and bumped into her bud Virginia. One of these two girls is about to spend the next half hour running. The other one is about to spend the next half hour shivering.
A field of Heather amidst the cold
The family Hatem, symmetrical and photogenic as always
You can't miss Clan Cassidy in this crowd
Frozen Turkeys
Scott Spence up front, telling the crowd of hundreds to get ready to be schooled. He wasn't wrong.
Focused
Heather was able to get her fingers moving and snap some finish line shots. Apparently Scott was the only one running on this course today. Get this - he finished SEVENTH OUT OF 1,200 RUNNERS!
Andrew felt merciful today, and ran the whole course with his old man. We landed spots in the top 100 at 90 and 91! Not a bad outing.
Here comes Heather!
Tommy, the only E Streeter foolish courageous enough to do the 10K loop. Next time Tommy mocks me for telling him I saw Santa out on the Boston Marathon course, I'll remind him of this pic.
Barry and John are all excited because they're not doing the second loop with Tommy
These two are going to fight it out to the finish
Fire it up, Mike!
With his daughter, DJ, hot on his trail
Rebecca with sis, pumped about pie
Afterwards, with pies in hand, and the race behind them, the Heathers are beaming even brighter!
Andrew and Nicole, Pie Heads
The Hustling Hatems, hoisting them high. Except for Elias, whose pie is apparently heavier than the others
In case you haven't figured it out by now, we get excited easily when it comes to pie.
But not just pie, it's the fact that with another Thanksgiving, we're all still here to celebrate the holiday together.
Every year, I take this opportunity to give thanks for the fact that we all still have our health, our families, and our friends with us. This blog runs all year long, and for the most part, is done with a light-hearted tone to help keep things fun.
But seriously, grateful as all hell to have an incredible family around me, some fab co-workers who make it easy to show up for work Monday through Friday, and a group of friends that goes back decades. For many of us, we've been hanging together since high school, and in the case of Mike and I, all the way back to 1973!
May not say it all year long, but really thankful to have all of you around.
Thankful, also this year, that Jackie's sister Annie is on the mend after a tough summer kicking leukemia's ass, and she'll be joining us for a plate of turkey later today.
So seriously, thanks to all.
The snark will resume with the next post. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Go enjoy your well-earned pie, all!
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