Race photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eA2wkQx7MQnTRKF88

BEFORE MY START:    My 16^th race of 2021 was the Cibolo Crossing Stampede 5K, held on May 29th at the Cibolo Crossing area of shoppes, stores, etc., anchored by the Santikos Entertainment center. Race start of 5 a.m.  Was not sure if this one would be postponed, as our area had some major thunderstorms the night before, with one heck of a lightning show. However, although it was drizzling a bit when I left for the race, the lightning was gone and hardly any wind at all, so we got lucky.  After I got to race site, someone told me the 5K in Bulverde this same morning had to be canceled because of road flooding; and in Cibolo the night before, a house got its roof struck by lightning and caught on fire.   So we were extremely lucky that for our 5K, things were pretty mild.  Cibiolo Crossing is a nice shopping venue that includes not only Santiko, but Dunkin Donuts – who provided post-race goodies for us – Magnolia Pancake Haus and Venetian Nails.  This is a growing shopping center, with others coming.  For post-race, there were several vendors setting up barbecue and food areas for a celebration of the opening of this center.   Santikos kindly allowed participants access to its entertainment center for the use of its very nice indoor restrooms.  There are also several covered patios in this center, so during the early drizzle, we were able to pretty much stay dry.  I had picked up my race packet the day before, so after arriving I chatted with friends and participants and got a few pre-start photos.

ON THE COURSE:  For what they had to work with, Athlete Guild – the company that did the course setup, timing, results, etc – did a pretty good job laying out the course. We started near Santikos and headed out to the shopping center’s access roads. We pretty much stayed on these roads the whole time. Turned right onto one road, down to a turn-round point, back the way we had come, this time on the other side of the road. Right turn and then out to a turn-round point, which included a fairly long hill to get up to the turnround. Back down the hill – which got us to Mile 1 along the way down – then up another hill to another turn-round point, passing in front of the walkway we had come out of to start. Then back the way we had come – toward that first turn-round hill, but did not have to climb the hill again.  Instead, just near the bottom of this hill was Mile 2, where we turned round again and went back the way we came. One more time up that hill again, back to the turn-round after that, and then, finally lol, a turn onto the pedestrian walkway that took us to the finish line.  Since we participants passed each other going so many ways, the slower runners like me were able to see the speedier runners doing their thing, and some of these folks were really speedy. Since we passed by each other at so many various times, we were also able to cheer each other on, and see friends on the course on occasion. I ended up with a time of 37:30, finishing the dreaded 4^th in my age group; which was 61 – 99, lol.  There were only 4 in my age group, loll, and the other 3 guys in my age group all did 8-minutes and-change miles. I met my personal finish goals: finish standing up and have no ambulance waiting for me.   😊

 AFTER MY FINISH:  Got a couple photos of some other finishing, Indulged in some of the Dunkin Donut goodies, drank a bit of Gatorade, and then got a few post-race photos .   There were 130 finishers, 64 male and 66 female. From what I saw at any given moment post-race, everyone seemed to have enjoyed being here. Pretty nice turnout for a small inaugural event. 

Epilogue:  Mother Nature cooperated with our race today so we did not have it too badly at all, other than being pretty humid with all these storms up and down the Austin-San Antonio Corridor. We were at one of the lucky events that did not get canceled/postponed.  As noted, for what Athlete Guild had to work with, the course was laid out fairly well.  Parts of the shopping center is under construction, as is a nearby neighborhood being built up. My friend Scott of Athlete Guild told me as the center gets more completed, the course will probably change somewhat to reduce all those out-and-backs and maybe include one of the nearby neighborhoods.  I only see this one growing, as word gets out.  I would do this one again and would recommend it to others.  Also, it is walker friendly and dog-friendly.     

MUCHO THANKS TO: The Athlete Guild Team for putting this on; the Law Enforcement officers who were out there out there on the course keeping us safe, as some of these access roads did intersect with public roads; all the volunteers out there for us; all the sponsors of this event – especially big thanks to Santikos for use of the facilities, sure beats porta-potties; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!