Frozen Foot 2016 final report

Three Sundays ago, more than 300 runners lined up for the third and final race in the 2016 Frozen Foot 5K Race Series, and finally it was, or at least felt a little, freezing. With temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s, the race in March had runners more bundled up than the races in January and February when temperatures were unseasonally warm. For a brief moment before the third race, some people even reported seeing some snow flurries, and it looked like the Frozen Foot would finally live up to its name.

This year’s weather provided excellent conditions for running, and roads were clear of snow and ice for all three races. The last race on the men’s side was a doozy on the men’s side, with Shawn Lake, 24, of Elizabethtown edging out Fred Joslyn, 31, of Hummelstown by 0.8 seconds at the finish.

This meant that for the first time in several years, no one person dominated all three men’s races. In the second race, Joslyn crossed the finish line in 15:09, 24 seconds ahead of Lake. However, in the first race Joslyn finished in 15:10 and second place, 8 seconds behind Steven Schelander of Shippensburg, who didn’t enter the other races in the series.

Joslyn’s first- and second-place finishes, with a combined time of 45:23, gave him the win in the overall series for the men. For his efforts, Lake won the 20 to 24 age group with a combined time of 46:51. Kurt Degoede, 46, of Mount Joy won the master’s division with a combined time of 54:10.

As close as the men’s race was for the series, Emily Giannotti, 23, of Ephrata dominated all three women’s races, finishing in 17:16, 16:59 and 16:50, respectively. No other woman finished closer than 2 minutes to Giannotti, and her combined time of 51:07 gave her the series win in convincing style.

Jodi Olympia, 43, of Hummelstown took home the master’s honors for women with a total time of 1:06:06 in the series.

The complete results for the entire series is available here.