Photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SWjmwbtFDZZcntoJ7
BEFORE MY START: My 27th live race of 2021 was the American Hero 5K held on July 31. The main event was the American Hero Relay 25K, which had 5 team members each running 5K distance. There was also a Kid’s Run before the 5K and 25K got started. Event location was Comanche Park in San Antonio, a very nice park that is part of San Antonio’s Greenways Trail System. The park has paved trails and connects to other parks in the system; you can get in a really long run, walk, or bike ride in this park if you so desire. Start time of 7:40 a.m., after the kids run was done. Weather…well, this is Texas in late July, so humid, warm – already 76 degrees with 82% humidity at the 7:30 a.m. start time – and no breeze at all. I arrived with about 45 minutes until the start time, chatted with friends, and got a few pre-start photos.
ON THE COURSE: Start was near the main pavilion in the park. Individual 5K participants and Relay 25K first-leg team members all started together. The course was primarily out-and-back, with a little bit of a ‘loop’ done just before the finish. Kind of mentally frustrating, lol, because when you did that last little bit on the course, you could see the finish line on your left – and just wanted to turn right then to get there – but had to go past it on the trail to make the turn farther down that would take you back to the finish line to finally get done. Lots of tree cover on this course, which is nice, but did not really help keep us cooler as, noted before, no breeze at all. Since everyone used this course, the speedier faster relay people were continuously coming-and-going – especially the runners doing the first two legs – continually passing by the slower 5K runners like me. I tried to keep aware of them and just get the heck out of their way, lol, when they came near me. I ended up 3rd in my 60 – 69 male age group with a chip time of 38:54, averaging a slow 12:31 per mile. Mile 3 for me was a negative split though, liked that. I felt a bit tired, but pretty good overall, in spite of this stupid prostate cancer I am currently dealing with. It is what it is though, so just have to keep a positive attitude, keep up the good fight, and do the best I can.
AFTER MY FINISH: Got some water and a banana and then went to the park pavilion and just sat at one of the picnic tables for a while, relaxing, rehydrating, and enjoying the nice cool breeze of the pavilion fans blowing on me as I monitored my pacemaker bringing my heartrate back down into my normal resting heart rate range. Ahhh, much better. Then off on a post-race walk-about, chatting with friends and getting some photos.
Epilogue: Put on by e-Dragon Productions, a really good local race management company that puts several events on over the year, this was a well-organized event with a pretty nice course. Personally, I like running at Comanche Park. Also, nice facilities, with a big covered pavilion and indoor restrooms. Post-race goodies included iced-down bottles of water, chicken fajitas, and more. No beer though; guess the park authorities would not allow that. Nice little age-group race medals that are also bottle openers; nice quality race shirt; and a music duo entertaining us post-race. I’d do this one again and would recommend it to others.
MUCHO THANKS TO: All the people that made this one happen for we participants, including e-Dragon Productions; all the volunteers who were there for us for both packet pickup on Friday and the race on Saturday; local running company iaap who did the timing and results; park police officers that were out there for us; the food preparers for providing a really good feed; and anyone else I may not have mentioned here that was involved. Thank you all!
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