Photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NPQqGHGWhg3rPU6K9
BEFORE MY START: My 32nd race of 2021 was the Gruene 5K on Sep 11 by Athlete Guild in Gruene, Texas, the home of Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas and a performance venue of many famous musicians. There was also a 10K and a Kids Run. Pretty nice turnout for this one, with 148 finishers for the 10K and 291 finishers for the 5K. Weather was really nice with clear skies, sunshine, a temp of around 68 degrees at the 8 a.m. start time and low humidity. Felt very pleasant and comfortable. I arrived about 45 minutes before start time, got my packet and got a few pre-start photos. Dog friendly event so, as I wandered around, a couple of the dogs actually recognized me, lol, and headed toward me for treats, to the surprise of some of their humans.
ON THE COURSE: The 10K folks started first, with the 5K folks going about 10 or so minutes after them. We all started out on pretty much the same route. The 10K folks had just a slight diversion from the 5K course where they made a turn, while the 5K entrants continued on. The 10K folks then went back toward the finish line area, bypassing that and then doing an out-and-back on the road that took them past the Rockin’ R tubing company. This meant that for their finish the had to get back to the finish line by coming up that big darn hill that is right past the Rockin’ R. area. The 5K course was pretty much all flat with just one very miniscule incline just past the Mile 1 mark. Having got my 2nd injection on Friday morning for my prostate cancer, was not sure if this would affect my in any way for the event. Luckily, I had just about no side-effects from my treatment and was feeling pretty good. I ended up doing negative splits and finished with a chip time of 37:57, 7th out of 8 in my 65-69 age group. The first three in my age group all finished under 30 minutes, zowie.
AFTER MY FINISH: Cooled down a bit, drank some water, ate my protein bar I had brought with me and just relaxed for a while. After that, wandered around chatting with friends and other participants, making new friends, and getting some post-race photos. Everyone I chatted with seemed very relaxed and pleased with the event – it really is a well-done event – and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Epilogue: As noted, very well organized event. Also, some very nice post-race goodies that included beer; 4 kinds of tacos; various nutrition bars and other goodies; and, of course, bottled water. Nice quality race shirt and finisher medals for all finishers.
MUCHO THANKS TO: Athlete Guild for this nice event; all the sponsors of this event and all the race volunteers out there for us; our MC David; the residents and business people of Gruene as we invaded their space for a while; the police officers on the course for our safety; the providers of all the post-race goodies; and anyone else I may not have mentioned. Thank you all!
Scottydog Reports 