Photos are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MscimADGUHthVsCw6
Before The Start: My 35th race of 2022, and the 2nd of the July 4 holiday weekend, was the 4th race of the 5K Summer Series, a series of 4 events held at different San Antonio public parks. Today’s 5K was held at Martin Luther King Jr. Park with a start time of 7 a.m. Nice turn-out with 155 finishers. Funds raised from this series provides a scholarship to a local-area athlete. The series is put on by e-Dragon Productions, owned and operated by the Burciaga family, with friend Erik Burciaga acting as Race Director for the series. Top-notch local race management company iaap provided course setup, timing, and results for the series. Being Texas summer, nice to have an early start time, but even at that time of day it was pretty warm, with the temps already in the mid-70s.
On The Course: The course was out-and-back. We started at the front of the park and went onto the park’s off-road paved trails. MLK park is a very nice park with lots of shade along the trails, which was much appreciated on a warm morning. The course has virtually no hills at all, just a couple of mild inclines Turn-around point was very well-marked and there was a water station along the way. I slogged along at my usual two running speeds – Slow and Slower – but somehow managed to do fairly well for me. I hit the first mile in 13 minutes; relaxed a bit for Mile 2, done in 13:38, and then pushed myself a bit more for Mile 3, done in 12:46. Per the official results, ended up with a chip-time of 40:29, averaging 13:02 per mile. This was 4 minutes faster than the 5K I did the day before, nice. Got 2nd in my age group, as there were only 2 in my age group, lol. The other one was my good friend Woody who finished in 25 minutes and change, about twice as fast as me, lol. All good, I enjoyed myself and did take photos on the course during my walk breaks.
After My Finish: After crossing the finish line, I slowed myself easily down, and then did a cool-down walk for a few minutes. It was pretty humid so I went and sat in my car for about 10 minutes with the a/c on while I drank some of my ‘fortified’ water, with electrolytes, etc, and ate a protein bar. Felt much better after that and then it was off to chat post-race with friends/other participants and get some more photos. Nice awards ceremony done by Erik – although, in my opinion, he really needs to start with the Old People first; we need to get home to take our nap! 😉 The award ‘medals’ were unique e-Dragon coins with a number on the back of them that can be used for a discount when you register for an e-Dragon upcoming race, very nice. There were also finisher medals for participants at this last event of the series.
Epilogue: This is a fun series of events that gives you a look at various San Antonio parks. I signed up for all four, but did 3 of the 4, missing one of them due to some issues/side-effects associated with my current cancer treatment. Thoroughly enjoyed the ones I did complete and certainly would recommend this series to runners/walkers. They are also dog-friendly if you want to run or walk with your dog. Nice quality race shirt too. You can purchase a shirt for each event – all the money raised goes toward the scholarship – and the shirt color choice is different for each 5k in the series. The race entry fee is VERY reasonably priced too. Mucho thanks to all the people involved in providing this one to we participants; all the sponsors, volunteers, park police officers that were at these events for our safety; our Music-and-Sound Man, Paul; iaap for all the course setups, results, etc; and, of course the e-Dragon Burciaga family who organize all these events. Apologies if I missed anyone, thank you too if you are involved.
Scottydog Reports 