Photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HWHxCgbBTtFj66nh7
BEFORE MY START: My 8th race of 2022 was the In The Loop Run Crew 5K. held on February 26 at Lady Bird Johnson Park in San Antonio, Texas. This event is put on by the In The Loop Run Crew, a local running group of friendly runners and walkers of all types of paces. The start time was 9 a.m. so I got to sleep in a little as I only live around 3 miles from the park. I think I slept in a bit too much, lol. By the time I got to the park, it was already 8:40, so just had time to get a few pre-start photos and then get lined up for the start.
ON THE COURSE – The 5K started exactly on time. The course was an out-and-back, with us going around a loop road near the park’s pavilion, and then down a small incline that took us to the park’s off-road paved trails. From there, we went to our turn-round point, passing by the Lost Patios vendor/shopping area and then doing a turn around just before the frontage road of the local area Loop 410 highway. After that, back the way we had come out. Predicted weather had been for cold – it was chilly, with a 37-degree temp at the start – and some drizzling rain had been predicted also, but that never died occur, thank goodness, while we were out on the course. The wind was pretty mild too, hardly any at all. These trails go between trees on either side, so that gave us some nice windbreak shelter too. I am not a fan of the cold – I seem to feel it more the older I get, lol, and my current cancer treatment seems to add to that – so had dressed in a few layers – probably more layers than most runners use, lol – and I felt pretty comfortable the whole way. I ended up 6th out of 7 in my 60 – 69 males age group, finishing chip time of 38:29, and I did negative splits too, nice, with Mile 3 being 12:19. Slowly but surely starting to get a bit faster now, after pacemaker implant in 2019 and doing well with my current prostate cancer treatments. One of these days I might even get back to being under 12-minute miles – used to be able to do 9-and-10-minute miles way back when, but I was a lot younger then. Anyway, just happy to be able to run at all and will take what I can get. I was happy with my results and met my primary two race goals: finish standing up and no ambulance waiting specifically for me at the finish.
AFTER MY FINISH – First thing, get into some dry clothes. I had brought a dry base layer shirt and a dry hat so I would not be wandering around in wet stuff post-race. Changed into those and then went around post-race chatting with friends and getting post-race photos. I call them ‘Happy Finisher Photos” because more people seem to be smiling after they are done than before the start and on the course, lol.
Epilogue – Nice turnout on a chilly day with 198 finishers. I think someone told me 200+ had registered, maybe staying home due to the weather predictions. If so, they missed out since the weather was actually better than the forecasters had predicted, with no rain on us at all. A nicely thought-out course and a really nice bunch of runners and walkers to be with at this event. Nice quality race shirt of an interesting color, lol, and a really nice finisher medal too. I would do this one again and would recommend it to others. If someone asked me about the In The Loop Crew, I would recommend them too, very nice group of people. BTW, runners and walkers are not the only crazy people to get out in weather like this. As I was driving home, I saw that the park ballfield had a team out there on it doing what looked like a practice session. It’s nice to be all nuts together, isn’t it? 😊 MUCHO THANKS TO: All the people that made this one happen for us; all the sponsors, the many volunteers out there for us, local race management company iaap for course set up, timing, results, etc; our great MC, Anthony, who did his usual superb announcing job, which has become a norm for him; our sound and music guy; the Park Police officer that was out there for us; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!
Scottydog Reports 