Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LJCCmdo27YGdZRG86

BEFORE MY START   My 7^th race of 2022 was the Street2Feet 5K held on February 19 in San Antonio, Texas.  This was the 13^th annual Street2Feet 5K and I have done every one of them since it first started, so this is one of my few ‘streak’ races.  Street2Feet 5K is a running and walking program designed to assist those experiencing homelessness and includes training programs, as well as other assistance for them.  Race location this year wa at Los Patios, a small business area that includes food places and various vendors and shoppes.  The area is adjacent to the offroad paved trails of Lady Bird Johnson Park and also near the trailhead of Tobin Park.  Race start time of 8 a.m., so a nice early start. I picked up my packet the day before the 5K so was good to go for race morning.  Mother Nature has lately been having a hissy fit with Texas weather, giving us fairly warm weather the weekdays and then dropping the bottom out during race weekends, which happened for the last 3 weekends I did races.  Today was no exception.  Pretty nice on Friday and then the bottom dropped out Friday night.  I awakened Saturday morning to temps in the upper 30s, but at least it was sunny and dry.  Dressed in some layers and brought a dry base layer and shirt to change into post-race and then was literally off to the races.  Arrived with about 40 minutes to go until start time and got a few pre-start photos.

ON THE COURSE – As previously noted, the weather was a bit chilly, but sunny and no wind, thank goodness. We started in the Los Patios area right by the off-road paved trail and made a right turn and headed down to the Loop 410 frontage road which we crossed.  We proceeded along under an overpass and then up a small incline, followed by a short downhill that took is in the direction of going towards Austin Highway.  We proceeded to a turn-round that was not quite to the back Tobin Park trailhead off of Austin Highway and then back the way we had come out.  This meant, of course, our downhill was now an uphill on the way back, but all good, it was not really that long of an uphill. The course was a really well-thought-out course.  This park is not too busy at this time of day – especially when the weather is chilly – and there was plenty of maneuvering room for all of us, even a slow old dog like me.  I met my two primary running goals – finish standing up, and no ambulance waiting specifically for me at the finish 😉 – with a chip time of 38:42, averaging 12:27 per mile and Mile 2 and 3 were negative splits for me, nice.   I ended up 10^th out of 16 in my 60- 69 males age group.  There are some speedy old guys in my age group, lol.  The first 8 of them all finished in the 20s.  I was also really proud of my young friend Ian and the progress he’s made.  We do a lot of the same races and usually I finish ahead of him.  Today he had a kick at the end and surged ahead of me, crossing the finish line before I did.  Way to go, buddy!

AFTER MY FINISH – I got a few photos of others coming into the finish. After that, I went to retrieve my dry-clothes bag, got out of my sweaty base layer shirts and put on dry base layer shirts.  Ahh, feels so much better and warmer. After that I enjoyed some of the post-race goodies provided by the race and the race vendors and also got some after-photos. Everyone seemed pretty happy, lots of smiles, laughter, friends enjoying each other’s company, etc. Nice turn-out for this one, with 254 finishers.  This is also a dog-friendly event and the doggies there were very happy to get treats from me. Friends now for life, lol.

Epilogue – This is a very good quality event and I am proud and privileged to call friend Race Director Lana Hernandez – who I think also started the San Antonio Street2Feet program. She is awesome and it shows in these races how much she cares for this cause, which is a good one.  If you have gently used running shoes, other running or walking gear, etc, that you are about to put aside please consider passing them onto her, her group can use them and will too.  As noted in my report, I have done every one of these since they started, will continue to do them, and certainly would recommend this event to others.  Always well done, very nice quality race shirt, and pretty good courses too.  My favorite course so far in the 13 years this event has been put on was the 10^th anniversary run in downtown San Antonio – and the group surprised me with a “personal” Street2Feet shirt – the one I wore at the 5K today.  I thought that was so nice of them…and yes, I was really touched and I did cry.  Anyway…if you ever get a chance to do this event, go for it!  I think you will not regret it.  MUCHO THANKS TO:  All the people involved that made this one happen for we participants. This includes the Street2Feet group who often volunteer for this one, and also our Race Director Extraordinaire Lana; iaap crew that did the course setup, timing, results; all the various sponsors and vendors whose support helped make this one happen; the Los Patios business residents for their patience in letting us invade their space for a few hours; and anyone else I inadvertently may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!