Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aWoDox7D9yZc3h6DA

BEFORE MY START: My 44th race of 2021 was the Trails Fur Tails 5K held on Nov 6 at McAllister Park in San Antonio, with a 9 a.m. start. This event supports AAPAW (Alamo Area Partners for Animal Welfare), an organization to bring animal welfare organizations, veterinarians and the community together in partnership to improve the lives of animals in the San Antonio area. This was a fairly small event, 50 finishers, 21 male and 29 female. I arrived at the park with about 15 minutes to go until start time – fell asleep in my chair at home, lol, and snoozed a bit too long. Got my race bib and then got just a few pre-start photos before we all headed down to the start area.

ON THE COURSE: This was a kind of loop course, starting near the youth baseball field at the park and then proceeding down a paved park road in front of us. We then made circuit on off-road paved trails in the park, passing by the police substation near the park. Crossed the road we had initially come out on, and then did another trail that took us back to the finish. Nicely thought-out course with one water station on it. I ended up third in my 60-99 male age group, finishing in 41:48 and also doing positive splits, mainly because I kept stopping to treat doggies that I met along the way. Also, this being a smaller event, I pretty much ran/walked the back half of the course all alone. Okay with me, I enjoyed myself.

AFTER MY FINISH: Got some water and also enjoyed a post-race breakfast taco from Taco Cabana and a Shipley’s donut. Age group awards to top 3 in each age group so, with a small event, I got a nice little 3rd place medal for my 65-99 age group. My running community acquaintance, Ben, was first with a time of 29:48.

Epilogue: There were several events on this day all over the San Antonino region and a popular half marathon, 10K and 5K being done in Corpus Christi. So this event had a lot of registration competition. If there had been less event competition, I think this one would have been quite popular and gotten a better turn-out. Hint here for the race director: Sunday morning race. Hardly anyone does a Sunday morning race anymore, so probably would have gotten a bigger turnout, like the event I did on Sunday the week before this one. Even so, very nicely put-on event with a good course, quality race tee, and some nice post-race goodies. Also, an event for a good cause. Dog-friendly too. Lots of people had their doggies on the course. I’d do this one again and would recommend it to others.

MUCHO THANKS TO: AAPAW for putting on the event, along with all the volunteers and staff that did the work to make it happen; all the sponsors supporting it; the Park Police officer that was out there for our safety; our music and sound man; and anyone else I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!