Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ap57akCWKNZ238sV9

BEFORE MY START:  This was my 30^th race of 2020, which I think is a pretty good count so far for the year, considering the situation we all have been dealing with this year. This was the 9^th annual Boerne YMCA Turkey Trot 5K and 10K and I have done every 5K of this one since it started, so this is one of my streak events.  Boerne Officials allowed this one to take place, thankfully.  However, when I arrived at 6:45 a.m. to get my packet, host and friend Erik Burciaga had told me the city officials had changed the rules for this one a bit.  So instead of having an “organized” start with everyone starting at the same time – being released in small groups to maintain social distancing – the rule now was after you got your packet, you could just go ahead and get started on the course.  There were plenty of course volunteers along the way to make sure you followed the right route.  Several participants – especially the 10K folks that had to do 2 loops of the course – took advantage of this, which allowed them to have a much earlier finish.  With this change, I thought about my friend, Woody, who could have signed up for the virtual since the in-person registration had already reached allowed capacity, and then he could have come up and just done the actual course anyway. I found out later several ‘virtual’ participants had actually done this – come up early and then ran or walked the actual course.  I waited a while so I could get some pre-start photos, and then after the presenting of the colors, the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, and a short prayer, I started pretty close to the posted 8 a.m. original start time. Several other people did too, but not all at once.  The race volunteers made sure everyone did a ‘social distancing” start, with groups of only about 5 – 6 runners starting at a time, so it was well-handled and nicely done.

ON THE COURSE:   Start and finish right beside the Town Center/Square.  One loop for the 5K folks and 2 loops for the 10K participants. The majority of the course was pretty flat, with just one incline around the halfway point; you could not really call it a ‘hill’, although my old man legs felt like it was a hill, lol. The only other ‘up’ part was another short but steeper incline just before we got to the flat part of the road that took us to the finish line.  It is a pretty nice loop course, well-thought out, with wide streets going through a couple of really nice neighborhoods, and very little traffic.  We only had one small portion on a main road, with not a lot of time on that at all, and the drivers encountered there were pretty patient and polite about it all.   I did my usual run/walk/take-photos-during-my-walk-breaks – and stopped occasionally during my running time to get a few more photos – and ended up with a finish time of 38:22, averaging a slow 12:25 per mile. I did do negative splits though:  Mile 1, 12:49; Mile 2, 12:29. Mile 3, 12:08.  All good and I accomplished my usual race-time goals:  have fun out there, finish before sunset; and have no ambulance waiting specifically for me at the finish.  :p 

AFTER MY FINISH:  Got a few photos of others coming into the finish, then wandered around getting more “happy finisher” photos and some of a few of the vendors out there, and partaking of some of the post-race goodies that included some really good beer from the Dodging Duck Brewhaus, and sausage wraps – as well as other foods – from Boerne Knights of Columbus and “Kiss The Cook”, if I remember correctly.  Found a quiet spot near the Town Center Gazebo to enjoy my beer and sausage and then continued to get a few more “Happy Finisher” photos.  This is also a dog-friendly event, so the doggies were happy to see me with treats, lol.

Epilogue:  One of the best events of the year for me.  Always a class act; very nice course; finisher medal for all finishers, and a very nice quality long-sleeved tee  for race participants and for the volunteers too. This year’s tee was bright orange, – my favorite color to match my “orange personality”, lol, according to a psych test I once took.   No award ceremony this year and also did not have the guy in the Turkey suit running around everywhere, ‘gobbbling’ up all the atmosphere and giving photo opportunities for people, but I get it, we live in a different world this year and have to act accordingly.  Just happy this event still took place at all, and for what the organizers had to deal with, it was very well done.  This will definitely be an event I continue to do and I assuredly would recommend it to others.

 Mucho thanks to all the people that made this event happen for we participants: all the sponsors, vendors, volunteers, cheer teams, and police officers out there on the course for us, and the EMT  guys located at the start/finish line;  the Boerne YMCA staff, the Boerne City officials for allowing this event to take place; and our music man Paul, and Erik Burciaga of E-Dragon Productions for his usual great job as MC for this event; and to anyone else I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!