Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rVYUMaojbhSooMe1A

Before The Start:    My 37^th race of 2022 was the Texas Too Hot 5K held at Boerne Lake Park on July 10, 2022. There also was a 15K.  Put on by Mitch and Michelle Allen’s iRun Texas, a very popular local running store, that also puts on group runs, coaching, training, etc., this is a very popular event that has gone on for more than 10 years. The 5K had 243 finishers and the 15K had 209 finishers. I initially thought this was my 40^th race of the year, but apparently my old-man brain has trouble remembering, lol. When I checked my log, it was #37 for the year.  Still not too bad, though. Very nice race venue too, with beautiful lake views, lots of shade trees to sit under post-race, and a small pavilion too.

On The Course:  Both events started together at 7:30 a.m.  Thankfully, Mitch starts this one early, which helps with the heat, but even so, this is Texas summer, so already at start time it was climbing towards 82 degrees. The course was a mix of an off-road trail and asphalt pavement.  After just having a colonoscopy on the Friday before this event, I rested all day Saturday and decided just not to push it for this one, go at a nice-and-easy pace, walk more, take a few more photo stops and just relax with it and have fun. We started near one of the park picnic areas and almost right off the bat climbed a fairly steep hill – but thankfully short, for the most part – which put us on top of a kind of tall flood-control embankment, upon which we proceeded down a fairly rocky dirt trail.  I’ve done this race ever since it started, and for this year’s event it seemed to me it was a lot less rocky than I remembered for the past events, as if the park officials had groomed this trail a bit, which was all right with me, made for much better going. Along this part of the course we got some beautiful views of the lake, and also a nice cooling breeze coming off the lake. It was still warm, but the breeze did help.  Right after we hit Mile 1 on this trail, we then proceeded onto asphalt pavement.  This took us past a water stop – and the Mile 8 marker for the 15K folks on their way back to the finish. After passing this we turned onto a public asphalt road that was open to traffic.  We all climbed a long up incline.  The 5K people turned around on this road, while the 15K people headed for the hills farther on; and from what my friends who did the 15K told me post-race, these were no baby hills, either. One guy told me the darn turn-round hill was worse than some of the hills at the Texas Tough 10-miler, jeez; tough course!  Meanwhile…after making our turn-round, we 5K folks went back to the finish the way we had come out.  As noted previously, I just took it easy and kept on moving. My garmin told me I was averaging 14:30 minute miles and finally showed me a finish time of 46:50. However, when I looked at the official results, my chip-time was 43:48, averaging 14:01 per mile, so I did better than I thought.  I’ve had this Garmin for a while, so may be time to go see Mitch and get a new one.

After My Finish:  Always a nice touch with this event, the iRun folks have cooling towels on ice at the finish for we participants to drape on our head, neck, shoulders, etc., which felt great after this course. Plenty of bottled water on ice too, right there at the finish line so you don’t have to go looking for it. Very nice finisher medal handed to you after you crossed the line.  Very nice finish line process.  I went and found a seat in the shaded pavilion for a few minutes and just relaxed for a bit, sipping my water and enjoying a post-race protein bar.  Then it was off to chat with friends and other participants, supporters, volunteers, sponsors, etc., and getting some post-race photos. The Village Idiots – that is their team name – kindly invited me to share their picnic area and enjoy some of their food, thank you very much. Awards ceremony done nicely by Mitch and Michelle – although they really need to start with we older folks first; we need to get home to take our nap! 😉 – and very nice award medals.  There was also a bib-number raffle – I didn’t win squat – and Shiner was there with their very good beer; I enjoyed one – my limit at a race since I was driving.  After things began wrapping up, it was nice to be with The Village Idiots Group and just relax by the lake for a while with good company.

Epilogue: This is a really well-done and well-organized event put on by iRun Texas.  I will continue to do this one in the future and would certainly recommend it to others. Yes, it is a warm one but one worth doing.  The race ‘shirt’ is actually a very nice quality singlet, which you don’t get from most races; the finisher medals are nicely designed; and there are all kinds of sponsors and vendors at this event, including Brooks running shoes guy; a company – I think it was Promotion Physical Therapy – giving post-race massage-and-stretches; PhotoWolfe had one of those selfie photo cameras you could use; and SplitSecond Timing did the timing and results.  Mark Purnell – in my opinion, the best race MC ever, followed as a close second by my entertaining MC friend, Anthony Zamora  – did our announcing for us in his usual superb manner. Local race company eDragon Productions – who put on pretty darn good events too – was a sponsor as was PawBasics, a pet nutrition and supply center. Maybe I should get some dog biscuits from them.  😉  All-in-all one very nicely done event.  Thank you, Irun Texas people and all the volunteers, sponsors, and anyone else involved putting this one on for we participants.