Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/1EAzxBTY2m3HtzLt5

Before The Start: My 32^nd 5K of 2023 was The Big Run 5K, held on June 10^th during the week of Global Running Day/Global Running Week.  Presented by Michelob Ultra, E-Dragon Productions, and Fleet Feet, this event had a 5K;  12-and-under 1 mile run; and a Fleet Feet staff competition.   The Big Run is, to quote, “a celebration of running and the community it pulls together.”  Start and finish at McAllister Park in San Antonio on the Dog Park trailhead.  I live only about a 10-minute drive from the park, so got to sleep in a bit for this one that had a scheduled 7:30 a.m. start. I arrived at the park about 40 minutes from the scheduled start time and got a few pre-start photos.

On The Course: The start/finish line was on the parking lot/pavement slightly down from the beginning of the Dog Park Trailhead.  The Kid’s Run went first.  After they finished, the elite runners got a 5-minute head-start in front of the rest of the pack. The rest of us got going after that.  The course was out-and-back on paved concrete trails.  For the first part of the course, we had some pretty nicely shaded areas, which was nice as we had no cloud cover; it was a very bright sunshine day, already in the 70s, with expected heat indexes to reach over 100 later in the day. The course took us on a gradual downhill as we headed in the direction of the Wurzbach Parkway.  After getting down the hill, we then went under an overpass, with the parkway above us. Once on the other side of the parkway, we then took the trail that went in the direction of Lady Bird Johnson Park. On this side of the course, there was virtually no shade at all, and we also had some up-and-down climbing to do on some pretty fair-sized hills. There was one water station on the course. We climbed up a pretty good-sized hill and then went down a hill to get to the turn-round point. Since it was downhill to the turn-round, we then had to go back up that hill on our way to the finish. The first uphill we had on the way out now became a downhill for us, taking us back past the water station, then down to the underpass once more and back to the concrete trail we had started on as a downhill; so now, of course, it was an uphill for us on the way to the finish. Thankfully, however we were back in shade for this part of the course. Once we crested this hill, we then had a flat route that took us back to the finish.  Local race management company iaapweb tabulated the results. I ended up 4^th out of 6^th in my 60-69 males age group, gun time 42:10, chip time 41:49.  For the last mile I ignored my watch beeping at me for a walk break and ended up with a negative split for Mile 3, nice.

After My Finish:     Dang, it was WARM!  After getting my finisher medal, I went over to my car and sat in it for about 10 minutes, lol, with the a/c on full blast while I got some hydration into me.  Ahhh, felt much better.  Then it was off to mingle with the other finishers and get some post-race photos and enjoy some of the post-race goodies, which included various fruits, sausage wraps, beer, water, Gatorade, and other items.  This is also a dog-friendly event, so I was very popular with the canines as I handed out treats to them.

Epilogue:   This is a nicely done event, well organized, and with a pretty nice course. My only suggestion for a change is to start us at 7 a.m., since this is Texas summer, lol, and it gets pretty warm out there pretty quick. Other than that, well-done. REALLY nice quality tech-tee race shirt/singlet – I chose the singlet –  and lots of post-race goodies and some sponsor freebies hand-outs. Considering that there were several other local area events on this race day, this one had a nice turn-out with 216 finishers;  actually a few more than that, but the dogs aren’t counted as finishers…what’s up with that?  Lol. For those that wanted it, some pretty darn good cold beer from Weathered Souls and Black Laboratory Brewing.  I would do this one again and would recommend it to others.   Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for we participants; E-Dragon Productions – and thanks to Erik for his MC duties; iaap; all the sponsors and all the volunteers; our sound-and-music guy; the official photographer(s); the patience of the other patrons in the park – and thanks to all those cyclists that called out as they came up behind us – and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!