Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yDFjgvgyyjbyDrXs6

BEFORE MY START – My 4th race of 2022 was the Stock Show and Rodeo Stampede 5K held on February 5^th in Downtown San Antonio.  Start and finish was at Milam Park on the corner of Santa Rosa and Houston Street, just down the street from the San Antonio Children’s Hospital.  The event had a 9:30 a.m. start, allowing me to sleep in a bit.  This was nice because Mother Nature threw another cold front at San Antonio on race day. The temperature at start time was 37 degrees with a “feels like” of 35.  I dressed in about 4 layers, lol. I really do not like cold weather. Give me 70s and 80s anytime instead of temps in the 30s.  Thankfully, Mother Nature also gave us plenty of sunshine and no wind.  I’d forgotten about the downtown construction in that area, so it took me a while to wind around the streets and get parked. Thankfully, I had picked up my packet before race day so was ready to go. I took a few pre-start photos and then got the MC announced time to line up. I shed my top layers and lined up in my planned running attire – which still consisted of two layers and my hat. Did I mention I hate cold weather? The gun went off right on time, exactly 9:30 a.m. and we were off and running.

ON THE COURSE –   We crossed over Santa Rosa Street, did a little stretch on Travis Street that had us avoiding some construction on Houston Street, then turned on Main and then to Houston Street, where we turned left, heading up Houston toward Alamo Street. Houston Street is just about all cobblestones, and a gradual uphill incline; very low incline, but still rising a tad. I tried to find the most level parts of the road to run on, which was mainly in the very center of the street.  First walk break here and got some photos. We turned left on Broadway, went around a curve, took a right turn, then left on Alamo Street.  Went all the way down Alamo, then left on Brooklyn, then left on Camden, which got us to Mile 2. After that we did a kind of winding path on a few streets that took us past the very brightly colored Downtown Library, then onto Main Street, back onto Travis Street, where we hit Mile 3, and then back to the finish at Milam Park.  Pretty nicely laid out course avoiding the majority of ongoing downtown construction. I surprised myself by doing 37:57 chip time – usually I do 38 – 40 minutes and change – and also had negative splits, with my last mile actually being under my usual 12-minute miles.  Felt pretty good out there the whole way.

AFTER MY FINISH: Got a few photos of some others finishing, and then went and retrieved my dry clothes from a very nice volunteer lady who had let me cache them under her display table while I did the race.  Went into one of the porta-potties and got my wet layers off, dried myself off with a small towel I had brought and got into my dry stuff.  Ahh, much better and much warmer, so now could walk around taking some after-photos without getting all chilly.   Got to enjoy the Stampede “roundup’ and parade, watching some cowboys herd Longhorns down the street.  There were also some military folks, a small herd of sheep, rodeo clowns, and more. Lots of post-race goodies, including beer. 

Epilogue – Really nicely done event, with a well-planned route and a really nice turn out on a chilly day; 389 finishers. Nice post-race goodies, great location, and lots of spectator activity afterwards, with the ‘cattle drive’ and the parade. This event, by the way, if I remember correctly, helps raise funds for the scholarships given out by the San Antonio Livestock Exposition (SALE) to deserving students.  This event is definitely a keeper event to do. I certainly would recommend this one to others.MUCHO THANKS TO:  All the sponsors who supported this even – I put a list of them in my photo report – and to all the many volunteers who made this one happen for us.  Thanks also to the many police officers out there on the course keeping us all safe; local race management company iaap for course set up, timing and results; and thanks to any drivers who were along the course for their patience as the police officers stopped them for we participants to cross intersections, go down various roads, etc. If I missed anyone, my apologies, thanks to everyone else involved.