Feel the Love 5K Brings Back Couples Race

Hundreds ran toward each other, many dressed festively in red, pink and heart-adorned attire, high-fiving their partners as they passed one another en route to the finish line at the Feel the Love 5K on Feb. 12.

Participants registered as couples and then traveled the length of the 5-kilometer course in opposite loops to complete the race.

Bryn Mawr Running Company, which hosts the race as well as several other events throughout the year, decided to recycle the idea for its first race of the year.

“Back in the early ’80s, couples races were huge, and then they disappeared,” said Bob Schwelm, who owns Bryn Mawr Running Company. “We thought we should bring it back.”

Indeed, couples races might be a relic of the early ’80s, but people have nothing but love for the Feel the Love 5K, Schwelm said. 

“I knew it would take a different kind of race to bring people out in the heart of winter,”said Michael Rothermel, who manages the shop and came up with the idea five years ago. “[It] looks like it turned out according to plan.”

Despite the wind chill, close to 500 runners as well as some self-proclaimed walkers and joggers turned out for Saturday’s race, marking a nearly 200-person increase from that of last year.

“It’s low-key, it’s in February, it’s no pressure and you’re running with a partner,” Schwelm said. “People love it, they tell their friends about it, and it’s grown that way exponentially.”

To register, couples select one of four couple categories: love couple, which is intended for significant others; mixed couple, intended for a friendly pair; blood couple for relatives; and same sex couple, which is intended for a pair of same-sex friends.

“We push the love couple idea, though,” said Schwelm, though runners turn out for all categories and can also register individually and request to be paired with someone.

“We feel the love,” said Chester resident Kevin Patterson, who ran with his wife Antoinette, both of whom wore red T-shirts for the occasion. The two met in college through a mutual friend on the tennis team for which Antoinette was a manager. “We love the high-fiving and support going in opposite directions.”

Even those who claim to hate running showed support for their significant other by coming out for the race.

 “She signed me up,” said Temple University student Jonathan Lee said with loving begrudgery, pointing to his girlfriend Krystal Eng, also a Temple student who used to run cross-country in high school.

But while most couples fall under the love couple category, participants can make the race their own.

“I mostly walked and came to get out and enjoy the day, but sometimes you get lucky and meet nice people,” participant Bryan Glenn said, gesturing to a couple he had struck up a conversation with over soft pretzels donated by a vendor after the race.

A runner as young as 6 years old turned out for the race, according to Schwelm.

Scores were compiled afterward by combining the couple’s final times.

Ryan Fennelly and his partner Lena Edelstein finished first in the love couple category, while Rothermel and his girlfriend Sheila Klick, who met through the grapevine of runners in the area, finished second in this category.

An award ceremony followed the last person to cross the finish line. There is no overall winner, but rather the couples with the top three combined final times in each love division win awards. This year, the top three pairs of runners won awards provided by the event’s sponsors, which included sneakers, a $50 gift card or a $30 gift card.

Participants registered for $20 per person in advance of the race and $30 on the day of. Proceeds went to fund research for Parkinson’s disease.

Drinks and snacks such as soft pretzels were served to runners after the race.

“Every year we’ve done it, it’s gotten a little bigger—and a little colder,” said Liz Shockley, one of the owners of Sage Catering, the Berwyn caterers that donated warm beverages for the fourth year in a row.

Runners filled J.D. McGillicuddy’s for a post-race party Saturday night. Although there was no marriage proposal this year—one couple got engaged at the afterparty last year—there’s always the sixth annual Feel the Love 5K, which will be held on the Saturday before Valentine’s Day again next year.