Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hj7nJpeeqRyBtxKr9
Before The Start: My 29th race of 2023 was the American Hero 5K, held on May 28th, part of a series of events held at Comanche Park in San Antonio. The main event was the American Hero 25K Relay. The 25K Challenge was for those who wanted to do the whole 25K individually. There was also a 25K Hero Ruck, for which you carried a certain weight of equipment while doing this event, and a 5K Wheelchair event. Prior to the start of all these events, there was a 400-meter dash, done primarily by the kids there. This was my second race of the weekend, after having done on Saturday The Dino Dash 5K at The Witte Museum. I arrived at race-site with just under an hour go to the 7:30 start time and got a few pre-start photos.
On The Course: The 5K course was an out-and-back, as was the relay course. The people who did the 25K and the Ruck individually had to do the out-and-back course 5 times. The relay team members each did one out-and-back. Thankfully, Mother Nature as pretty kind to us, with lots of cloud cover – virtually no sunshine at all – and fairly nice humidity; it was still humid, but it could have been a lot worse. The course was done on the park’s paved off-road trails, and we crossed two bridges along the way, one a very short one, the other one a bit longer and a tad bouncy with runners and walkers going back-and-forth on it. It was well-thought-out course, with ample room for everyone. This course also had virtually no hills – just a couple of inclines, which was nice. If we’d taken the trail on the other side of the park we would have had several hills, so thanks to the course planner for sending us the other way. For my 5K the day before this one I had pushed myself a bit, especially in the last mile which I pretty much ran non-stop (shhh, don’t tell my doc; I’m not supposed to do that, lol); so for this one I just planned to take it a bit easy and intentionally took a few more walk breaks than I normally do, to get a few extra photos. Overall, I felt pretty good and went pretty well, albeit slowly. I ended up with a chip time of 42:45, finishing 7th out of 9 in my 60-69 males age group. I actually was only 10 seconds slower for this 5K from the one I did the day before in 42:35, go figure. I stay pretty consistent in my times, lol.
After My Finish: After a short cool-down walk and getting some water and just sitting and being lazy for about 5 to 10 minutes, I then wandered around chatting with friends and getting some post-race photos. Also enjoyed some post-race goodies that included sausage wraps, courtesy of Kiolbassa and some Shiner Beer – a small cup; still on some post-cancer meds, so have to be cautious; did not want a full one, so split one with a friend. There was also a variety of fresh fruits available, nutrition bars, and much more. Enjoyed chatting post-race with friends and participant and handing out treats to the doggies that were there – this is a dog-friendly event, and some of the dogs even recognized me, lol, from previous events. Small world too; talked to a lady whose uncle was in Somalia at the same time I was, and we were both on-site during the Black Hawk Down battle. He was probably more involved in that than I was, since he was an Army Ranger, and I was Air Force, serving as support personnel for the troops there. Still some “hairy” moments at times, though.
Epilogue: This race was a very enjoyable experience with unique race bibs; nice quality tech-tee shirt; a nice course; lots of nice post-race goodies; wheel-chair friendly and dog-friendly, finishers medals for all; and unique Dragon’s Den discount count coins for the age group awardees, giving you a discount towards future Dragon’s Den events; as well as some other prizes, and more
MUCHO thanks to all that made this one happen for we participants: iaap for the course set up, timing, results, etc; all the many race-day volunteers; Anthony Zamora doing his usual first-rate job as our MC; e-Dragon Productions for being the presenting sponsor; the park police officers out there for us; our music-and-sound-man Paul; Shiner beer and Lisa Haby Soler and her folks for the post-race adult beverages; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here; thank you all so much. See you next year, lord willing, and the creek don’t rise.