Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/BuAaf63Xv6KobVdx7

Before The Start:  My 34^th race of 2023, and my second of the Father’s Day weekend, was Race 3 of The San Antonio Summer Series 5Ks,  a series of 5Ks  put on by E-Dragon Productions, a top-notch local race management company, as well as being a print shop (shirts, etc.,)  and a vendor of a various merchandise. Held about every other week on Sunday morning at various local San Antono city parks.  Held on June 18^th, the location of this one was South Side Lions Park East, located off of Pecan Valley Drive. The park is part of the San Antonio Greenway Trails system, connecting with other parks, such as Comanche Park, so walkers, runners, and cyclists can get in a lot of miles at one outing if so desired. Event start time was 7 a.m., with the Kids Run going first, and the 5K starting after that. The early start was appreciated, as Mother Nature is having a Texas cookout, grilling the heck out of our state, with “feels like” temps sometimes going over 100 degrees by the late afternoon, and the humidity is just crazy.  For this event, the temp at 7 a.m. was already near 80 degrees with a feels like time of 85, good grief. I arrived around 6:30 a.m., got my race packet and then got a few before photos.  Given that a lot of people had done an event the day before – there were 3 local races held in San Antonio on Saturday – and that this was Father’s Day Sunday, so people probably had made plans for that, this was a fairly smaller event with 79 total finishers. I arrived with about 40 minutes to go, got my race packet, and then got a few pre-start photos.

On The Course:  The course was a mix of out-and-back and a sort-of loop, done on the parks off-road paved trails. We started at the park’s main pavilion, proceeding along a paved trail that gave us a view of the park’s man-made lake on our right.  We then crossed over one of the park roads and continued our adventure by going onto another park trail. This trail took us across a bridge and then we began to climb; this is not a steep hill, but a pretty long and gradual incline that keeps going up…and up….and up, lol. After finally getting back to level ground we then passed the course water station and proceeded downhill and under an overpass, crossing our second course bridge on the way to the turn-round.  After the bridge, we rounded a bend in the trail and then climbed again for a bit, going to the turn-round. Then it was downhill back to the bridge, then we climbed up the trail that was a downhill on the way out, going once more under the traffic overpass. After we got past the water stop, we did have some level ground for a bit, and then went down that long incline we had climbed on the way to the 5K turn-round. After getting down this we re-crossed the first bridge we had come across and went back on the first trail we had started on.  Instead of turning right to go back the way we had first come out, we turned left, working our way around this trail – the lake once more to the right of us – in a kind of loop that took us around part of the lake and, finally, back to the finish. YAY.  I ended up with a chip time of 45:08, gun time 45:28, ending up 2^nd out of 4 in my 65-69 males age group.  After I finished, one lady, lol, asked me if someone had thrown water on me since I was so soaked, lol. I told her no, it’s all me; I am a very heavy sweater….which is why my wife especially loves me on cold winter days, lol….cuz I’m a heavy sweater.

After My Finish: Got some water and did a short cool-down walk and felt pretty good overall, then sat of  a bit in the pavilion, sipping my water and eating a banana.  Felt much relaxed and hydrated after that, and then did my usual post-race thing of getting some photos of the Happy Finishers, supporters, volunteers, etc. Everyone seemed in pretty good spirits and nobody fell out in this crazy weather, thank goodness. This is a dog-friendly event too, but the only dog I saw doing the event was Uber – short for Exuberant, lol, he is one happy and active dog – the dog of my friend Albert; and they did okay, too, finishing pretty strong, and Albert made sure he had plenty of water along the way.  Uber is a very cool dog – who knows I have treats, so when he sees me at an event he gets very excited, lol, you might say, even Exuberant.

  
Epilogue:  This is a very well done event – as all E-Dragon events are – with the course setup, timing and results done by top-notch San Antonio-based iaap race management company. They are VERY good at what they do and take care of a lot of races over the year; they even did all 3 of the races that were held the day before this one. E-Dragon is a family business and co-owners husband-and-wife Kristine and Erik know their business.  For my race shirts that I get printed to help self-motivate me, they are my primary go-to people to get my shirts printed, with iaap – who also does shirt printing, etc. – a very close second. I did some of these series races last year and this year signed up for all of them. I definitely will do these again in the future and would recommend others.  Funds raised from these events, if I remember correctly, goes for a scholarship to a local young runner, which is presented at the last race in the series, if I remember that correctly too.  You also got to know a lot of the parks in this series, so definitely worthwhile.  Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for we participants, included E-Dragon Productions and the Burciaga family; iaap, owned and operated by the Iniguez family – who are pretty darn talented runners themselves  –  for the course setup, timing, and results; all the race volunteers, and all the race sponsors, vendors, etc., and anyone else involved that I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much!