Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/hgvnAczfKTMUXtPv5

Before The Start:    My 28^th race of the year was the 12^th annual Dino Dash 5K and Kids Run put on by The Witte Museum. Held on May 27^th, this event supports scholarships for the field trips of young students to visit The Witte Museum. Race start time of 7:30 a.m., with the Kids Run held after the main event. Mother Nature was very kind to us, with a nice temp in the low 70s, fairly low humidity, and a sunny day. Free parking for this event was at the Brackenridge Park parking garage, which is quite close to the museum, so very convenient. I had picked up my packet the day before race day, so arrived on site with just under an hour to start time and got a few pre-start photos.

On The Course:  The course was in Brackenridge Park, a mix of the park roads and off-road trails. We started on the park road that is directly behind the museum – Tuleta is the road name, if I remember correctly. We started by going toward the park’s train tracks, then making a right turn onto the road that is near the San Antonio Zoo Aviary.  After crossing The Iron Bridge, we then turned left, going past the park’s baseball fields. We then headed toward the park’s Hildebrand Road entrance-and-exit.  We did not go up to Hildebrand, but turned left onto a service road which took us back the way we had come out, and crossed over The Iron Bridge again.  This took us back to our start/finish road, with the Zoo’s tourist train crossing tracks in front of us.  We turned right onto this road, heading in the direction of the San Antonio Zoo entrance.  At the end of this road, we turned left.  This took us along another park road that took us to Mulberry Street, where we could see part of Brackenridge Golf Course across the street.  We did a turn-round here and proceeded back the way we had come out. Once we were back at the railroad tracks crossing, we turned right, heading in the direction of Broadway. Near the end of this road, we then made a right turn that took us onto one of the park’s off-road trails.  We wound around on this trail until we reached a circle- kind of like an off-road roundabout, lol. We looped around this circle – where there was also a water station; no beer 😉 – and then went on trail that took us back to where we had started the off-road part of the course.  Once back on this road, we then went back to the railroad crossing, made a right turn, and then headed for the finish line. It was quite a nicely laid out course with lots of opportunities to  see friends coming-and-going to cheer each other on.  I did my usual run-walk intervals – 8 min run/2-min walk – taking some on-course photos during my walk breaks.  I met my two race goals – finish standing up, and no ambulance waiting for me – and had a chip time of 42:55, averaging 13:49 per mile.  In my 60-69 males age group, I was 7^th out of 12 finishers.

After My Finish –   Got a few photos of some others finishing. After that, a short cool-down walk and got some post-race photos of happy finishers – including dogs; this is a dog-friendly event – and their supporters.  The Race Director also asked if I would be interested in doing an interview with KENS-5.  Sure, why not; so did that for about 5 – 10 minutes.  The camera guy and I hit it off – like me, he has cats too, lol – and it was a very enjoyable experience.    Not sure when, or if, it will air, but it was fun.

 Epilogue:   This is a very enjoyable event to do. Entry fee is higher than those for most 5Ks, but The Witte offers a lot, and you do get free  access to the museum, including all their ‘special exhibits too.  All finishers get a nice little finisher medal, and the race shirt is a very nice quality tech tee; with, of course, a running dinosaur on it, lol. Lots of vendors with pre-race and post-race goodies, including a coffee company, which my friend Woody would have loved. Also nice that the museum gave us use of their indoor restroom facilities; much nicer than porta-potties. This is the 12^th year for this event. and I have done a few of them over the years since it started. I missed 2021 and 2022 as  I was dealing with prostate cancer which, thankfully, I did beat, and then its side effects from my treatments, which I am still dealing with; those make take quite a while to resolve but while I get through it all, I try to do as many races as I can. Never Give UP! I would certainly recommend this event to others, it’s a lot of fun – and those participants that ran in those dinosaur outfits just cracked me up, lol.

MUCHO thanks to all that made this one happen for we participants: All the museum staff involved; all the volunteers; all the sponsors; the police officers out there for our safety who monitored the road closures; iaap face management for their usual great job of course setup, timing, and results; KENS-5 guy for being there to film the Kids Run – and thanks for the interview, I had a great time interacting with you – and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned.  See you next year!