Race photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uoRZwQzGNhRqjEkaA
BEFORE MY START: My 12th race of 2020 was the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Diploma Dash, an event put on annually by the UTSA Alumni Association to raise funds for student scholarships. I am an employee of UTSA – 23 years now – so do this one just about every year whenever I can. Race date of Feb 29th, with the location on the university campus. This is a very popular event and always gets a really good turn-out. Race start time of 8 a.m. Also, a dog friendly event, and runners with dogs even have their own awards category. It’s normal from Dec – Feb to not know daily what the weather in Texas is going to be – it can be 70 one day and the next day be in the 30s, good grief – but Mother Nature was kind to us for this event, sunshine and blue skies, temp in the low 50s for start time, and no wind. Sweet. I arrived about an hour before start time and wandered around getting a few pre-start photos.
ON THE COURSE: Start-and-finish in front of The Convocation Center – which also used to be the old-time gym when I first got to UTSA before the Campus Rec Center was built. We then did a loop route around the campus, – a route I am quite familiar with as I do several training runs on the campus before/after work – with a couple of small hills, but nothing you could call a major hill. The finish tooks us back in font of the Convo Center from the opposite direction of the way we had gone out. Lots of ongoing construction on the campus right now, so well-thought out course with wide roads roomy enough for everyone to maneuver around each other. I ended up finishing in 35 minutes and change, placing 6th in my 65 – 69 age group.
After My Finish: Got a few photos around the finish line area and then went and found some water and sat quietly for a few, just rehydrating and relaxing. Then went and saw the EMTS to get my BP taken. I had a pacemaker implant done in August 2019 and my cardiologist is having me monitor my BP for a while. The EMTS were like….dang…. 118/77, heart rate already down to around 79, and blood oxygen of 97%. They asked if I run a lot. Ummm, yeah, a little bit, and I have another race to do on Sunday, March 1. :p After getting that done, I then went and enjoyed a cold beer, courtesy of Freetail Brewery – good beer too! – and some post-race goodies, and wandered around happily munching and getting some photos of some of the happy finishers, supporters, etc.
EPILOGUE: Really nice event on a well-laid out course, and lots of activity both pre-and-post race. There are all kinds of vendors here; Kiolbassa – in San Antonio – provided sausage wraps; H-E-B, a Fortune 500 grocery company also HQ in San Antonio provided a ton of various types of foods and snacks; and there were several vendors giving away lots of free foodstuffs to the student participants and volunteers there – because of course, those young hard-working studying students are ALWAYS hungry at that age, right? So that is a very nice touch for this event. There was also a company giving post-race massages and there were also so many other sponsors at this event, I can’t remember them all. However, I do remember the Major Sponsor for this event was Credit Human (formerly San Antonio Credit Union) so a huge thanks to them. Nice quality race shirt for all entrants and volunteers. I really enjoy this event; will continue to do it in the future; and would certainly recommend it to others. Also, you don’t have to be a runner; walkers are quite welcome too; and the course is also stroller friendly, for those with kids.
MUCHO GRACIAS to all the people who made this one happen for we participants: UTSA Alumni Association that does the work to get this event ready for everyone; all the sponsors and vendors, volunteers, law enforcement officers, EMT folks out there for us; and anyone else I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all for what you do so we participants can have this event.
Scottydog Reports 