Dog gone fun 5K

I'm still running in bone chilling temps for these January 5Ks, but this week's Run With the Dogs 5K added a little more fun -- dodging the ice.
The metro Atlanta area had snow earlier this week, which once again shut the city down for a few days. Worse, the temps never got above freezing for a couple of those days, so the sunshine melted some of the snow, which promptly refroze into black ice.
My driveway, which is shaded, was still icy yesterday morning, the day of the race. My friend Donna came to pick  me up and I wouldn't let her come down the driveway for fear she wouldn't be able to get out.
We got to the race and all around Decatur High School, where the race is held, was icy. Volunteers were out scraping and putting down ice melt to try to keep everyone safe. It was then I started to wonder what the course might look like, particularly if some of the roads were shady. My concerns were well founded. There were a couple of stretches of straight up ice on the road. I managed to avoid it and I hope my fellow runners did the same.

Me and Donna, braving the snow and ice

Me and Donna

 I was a bit slow on this 5K, too. Still getting back in my groove after a lot of time off. After the race, I managed a selfie with the Decatur High mascot bulldog.

mascot and me

A nice little surprise was one of the sponsors was handing out free running socks, so I got a nice take away. I wore them this morning on my Sunday run out at Stone Mountain. Because right now, it is 69 degrees in Atlanta! Crazy. Yesterday I had ice on my driveway and this afternoon I've got windows open in the house and am enjoying the warmer temps.
They won't last. We're due for a few more cold spells. But I think the worst of the winter running weather is over. At least I dog gone hope so.

Running with friends, and dogs

I'm a week behind posting about my Jan. 9 race, the Frostbite 5K: Run With the Dogs.
It was a little too warm again this year for it to be frosty, but there were plenty of dogs (and humans) at the race.
I like this race. It's close to my house and it starts at 9 a.m., so I'm not up super early on a dark winter morning.
One of the nicest surprises this year was my friend Julie and her dog Brewer ran with me! I should have guessed Julie might be there, but I neglected to email or text her before the race, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see her just as we were lining up for the start.

Julie at the start

Brewer is here too!

I ran the Atlanta 10 Miler with Julie last fall and she's doing a run 3, walk 1 minute program, so we followed that (mostly) during the race. We came out really fast and that hampered me later on the course, but overall we did really well. We'd get to our walk portion of the program and Brewer wanted to keep running! I think he helped us be a little more speedy for this race.

Finishers!

I need to remind Julie that we've done this race together three or four times (except for the year when lightning forced the cancellation, but Julie and Brewer were there!)
In fact, I met Brewer almost right after Julie and her husband Chris got him. I think I met Chris, who was then her boyfriend, at this race.
I even found 27 cents this morning, so the found money pig got fed!

The found money pig

So 2016 running is off to a great start, running with the dogs (and friends).