Photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ro7W5Xs6G5ey3mwq9
Before The Start: My 33rd race of 2022 was Beans vs Beards: The Longest Day 5K put on by brothers Matthew and Miguel on Sunday, Jun 26th at Comanche County Park in San Antonio. There was also a 10K, a Kid’s Run, and a 0.5K Beer Run. This event raises money for Alzheimer’s research, a cause close to the heart of the brothers who have had family members pass on from this awful disease. I am sure several of us, including me, can relate to that. The 10K started at 7:30 a.m, with the 5K start following at 8 a.m. I arrived with just under 45 minutes until the 5K and got a few pre-start photos. This is a very popular event put on by two very popular members of our local running community, so a nice turn-out, especially considering that on Saturday, the day before this one, there were several other local area events which some of these participants had done too – one even in the late afternoon at 5 pm with a 102 degree temp at start time, jeez!
On The Course: The course was on paved road near the start-and-finish – with pretty uneven surfaces there for a bit, as the pavement was cracked and missing in some parts, so had to watch your step – and then on the off-road paved park trails. Given that this is Texas summer – and we’ve been having a heat wave since May – it was pretty warm and humid, with a temp of 79 degrees at start time. Thankfully, the course up to the 5K turn-round point has lots of tree shade along the way, which helped, and no hills, just a short incline we went down on the way out and up on the way back. Since I did no go past the 5K turn-round point, I am not sure what the 10K folks had to deal with past that point. I took it pretty easy, doing my run/walk thing and taking some photos along the way – some a bit blurry; my old-time push-button Canon camera is not really great with ‘motion’ photos. I ended up 7th out of 10 in my 60-69 age group, with a 42:14 chip time, averaging 13+ minutes per mile. The last mile I ran in with a very nice lady who kept me company right to the finish, and we had a nice chat along the way. Very much appreciate her running with me, it helped mentally making the distance seem like it was going by quicker.
After My Finish: First thing, right after I crossed the finish line I went from run to a quick walk and kept walking so at to cool down gradually. I have a bad habit, lol, of sometimes stopping right after I cross the finish line and then, of course, all the blood pools straight down right out of my head and I get a bit dizzy, which scares the heck out of my friends as I have a pacemaker and am being treated right now for cancer, so they right away think I am having some kind of medical episode. No, I am not, I am having a ‘being stupid’ episode, lol; made sure to behave myself this time and I felt fine after about 5 minutes of walking around. I then made sure to re-hydrate and get something into my stomach. There was quite a variety of post-race goodies. After that, time to wander around chatting with friends, getting some post-race photos, watch the 0.5K beer run – each participant carrying a mug of beer as he/she ran, trying not to spill any – and enjoy the awards ceremonies. Several of my running pals placed in their age groups.
Epilogue: Very nicely done event put on by the two brothers. They also have an earlier event each year called Run To Remember, which is also well done. These are ‘contests’ between the two brothers to see who can raise the most for the cause – and the losing brother has to do some kind of ‘challenge” specified by the winning brother. All in good fun to raise fund for this very worthwhile cause. Very unique and nice quality race shirt; finisher medals to all; and unique coin awards provided by e-Dragon Productions for the age group placers. LOTS of vendor/sponsor booths at these events, with lots of goodies, ranging rom various fruits, drinks, and other goodies, including these small cream peanut butter half-sandwiches, which really hit the spot for me. These Alzheimer events put on by the brothers are definitely “keeper” events which I make sure to regularly include on my race calendar. Thank you so much to all the people making this one happen, including iaapweb for course setup, timing, and results; Miguel and Matthew, of course; all the many sponsors and all the many volunteers; Burleson Yard Beer Garden for pre-race day packet pickup location; my friend Jada for being the ‘medical help’ at the event; our amazing, talented, and humorous MC, Anthony Zamora; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!
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