Photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/vfdaQK4wEJicMfjy9
Before The Start: My 26th race of 2022 was the Race 1 of the eDragon San Antonio 5K Summer Series. This is a series of 4 races put on at various local San Antonio Parks. The series profits provide scholarship for deserving local athlete. Start time of 7 a.m. This was my second race of the weekend, after doing a very hilly 5K on Saturday, May 21st. Race 1 was held at McAllister Park. After 100-degree temps for most of the past week, Mother Nature was kind to us for this one, dropping the temp into the 60s on race day. There was also a pretty stiff wind blowing making it feel a bit cooler. Nice turn-out on an early Sunday morning with 123 finishers. Packet pickup on Race Day only, so I arrived at the park with about 20 minutes until start time, got my bib and race shirt and then got a few pre-start photos.
On The Course: McAllister Park is a very popular park for runners, walkers, and cyclists. The majority of the trails are paved and flat. There are some park trails that are off-road and do have a few hills, but the 5K stayed on the paved flat trails and one of the park roads. I did my usual walk/run thing and took photos during my walk break. After I got to near the 1.5 mile mark, I suddenly found myself all alone on the trail and was like, what the heck, did I miss a turn or something? When I looked to my right, I could see some people running on the road we had started on and thought, oh shoot, maybe I missed a turn. Well, too late now, so I just kept going with nobody around me until I came to the end of this paved trail and there was a directional arrow pointing me to the right, so that at least let me know I was on the correct course. I found out later that several people had missed a turn and ended up back on the road. I guess that ‘all alone’ running helped my pace, lol, because I ended up doing negative splits for the course, finishing 40:40 chip time, averaging 13:06 per mile. I did mile 2 in 12:53 and Mile 3 in 12:24. It’s been a while since I’ve been under 13-minute miles – this darn prostate cancer I am being treated for right now has slowed me down a bit, but even so I am just happy I can do any running at all – so I was one happy dog with my results. There were only 2 in my 65 – 69 male age group, so I ended up first in that, nice.
After My Finish: First, got some water and enjoyed a post-race banana provided by my friend
Gilbert, who operates a fruit and veggies stand and has the best stuff ever, always fresh and tasty. After that, enjoyed post-race chatting with friends and other participants and making new friends. This is also a dog friendly event so enjoyed giving out treats to the doggies there and we were friends for life after that, lol. When I run I take dog biscuits with me all the time, races and training runs, in case one chases me. When I toss the biscuit, they usually go after the treat instead of me, lol. For the friendly ones, I just give them a treat, with permission from their humans, of course. I think a lot of the San Antonio dogs in the areas I run have come to know me now, they see me coming and sometimes start giving me a barking greeting, which I guess means “Here comes the doggie treat guy!” lol.
Epilogue: Very nicely done event, with e-Dragon Race Director Erik and his volunteers dong the usual great job. Little bit of a mishap with the course missed turn for some participants, but everyone pretty much took it in stride – no pun intended – and it did not affect the awards for the age group placers. Very unique ‘coin medals’ for the placers and a very nice quality race shirt. Nicely laid out course – whichever path you ended up on 😉 – and flat too, which was nice after my hilly Saturday 5K. I did this Series last year and it was good, but this year it is even better as last year was just one park and this year provides a little more variety with 4 parks. I will keep on doing this series as long as they have it, and certainly would recommend it to others. Mucho thanks to everyone who had a part in getting this one done for we participants: e-Dragon, all the many volunteers and any other sponsors and supporters, iaap race management company for the race timing and results, and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all so much!
Scottydog Reports 