Photos are here:    https://photos.app.goo.gl/oxCVfzJfXbrtTUoA9

Before The Start: My 35^th race of 2023 was The Longest Day 5K (Beard vs Beans) held on June 24^th at Comanche Park in San Antonio.  This event includes a 10K; a 5K; a Kid’s Run; and a 0.5 Beer Run. Put on by brothers Matthew and Miguel, this event raises awareness and donations to end Alzheimer’s Disease.  Established in 2017, the brothers have raised over $100K since the Beards vs Beans competition between the brothers started. If I remember correctly, the brother that raises the most funds for the event then presents a challenge that the other brother has to meet. This event is the second of two events the brothers put on each year, the first being the Run To Remember 5K , usually done in April, and then this event.  There were 58 finishers for the 10K and 203 finishers for the 5K. Weather was ‘sort of’ cooperative with a bit of cloud cover and a temp of 77 degrees and a ‘feels-like’ of 81.  I arrived about 6:45 a.m. and got a few pre-start photos.

On The Course:   The 10K started at 7:30 a.m. with the 5K following at 7:45 a.m. The course started on one of the park access roads that took us to one of the park’s off-road paved trails. There are two different directions one can take when reaching the road and trails intersection, one fairly flat, and the other with a few hills; so of course our Race Director sent us on the hills course, lol.  It actually is a pretty nice course, with lots of shade along the way.  Once on the trail we wound around on the paved trail, crossing over Bridge #1 on the course, which took us over part of Salado Creek that flows through the park.  The trail then took us past a children’s play area and we came to our first hill, a downhill that took us over Bridge #2.  We  continued flat for a few minutes, and the another downhill that took us over Bridge #3, across another part of the creek.  After this bridge, we then had a fairly long, but not too steep, uphill that took us under an overpass and then on up to a course water stop, which was the 5K turnround.  The 10K folks continued on at that point, heading onto a trail that connected with another city park, Southside Lions East.  I don’t know if the 10K folks went all the way to this park, but I know the route, so they had a long downhill and then probably had to turn around and go UP those hills – it’s a long climb too – when they headed to the finish. As noted, the 5K folks turned around at the water station and then proceeded back the way we had come out; so of course our downhills were now uphills and the uphills on the way out were now downhills, and we crossed over all those bridges again. After finally reaching the park access road, we then proceeded to the finish the way we had come out. Whew! Lol. It really is a nicely thought-ot course though.  Of course, after the access road, if we had made a right turn onto the trails instead of a left turn, our out-and-back course, at least for the 5K, would have been one with NO hills, just one small up incline after the turn-round on that side. Race Directors/Course Planners can sometimes have  a mean streak, lol. 😉 I just took it fairly easy, making a few more stops than I normally do to get some on-course photos, and doing my usual 8-min-run/2-minute walk thing. I finished 5^th out of 7 in my 65-69 males age group, chip time of 44:40.  My speedy walker friend, Patrick, finished only 2 minutes behind me.

After My Finish:  Nice touch at the finish, volunteers handed out not only the finisher medals but also some iced-down small towels to put on the back of your neck – or wherever you wanted it – which really felt great after a humid outing.  I walked around for a bit, got a few photos of some others coming in, and then sat for a while with my towel on my neck, sipping some post-race Force water (electrolytes water),  one of my personal favorite water brands, and also slowly ate a banana, as I usually do after I run; did you know bananas can help you replace electrolytes after a run?  After that, I did my usual post-race thing of talking with friends and other participants and getting some ‘happy finisher’ photos.  The kids run was also put on and then the beer run, which was hilarious, lol, watching these folks trying to move with full glass of beer and spill as little as possible.

Epilogue:   Miguel and Matthew always put on a great event. There are always lots of vendors, lots of post-race goodies – beer included and a great selection of fresh fruits from my friend Gilbert.  Very nice quality race shirt, and a very nice finisher medal.  I do so many events in a year that my race shirt closet gets pretty full pretty quick, lol; so I  ordered a youth shirt this year and asked Miguel to give it to a kid who had someone in the family  with this disease and then, in my mind as I was on the course, my race was dedicated to that kid and his/her family; always mentally helps me keep on going.   This really is a well done event with lots going on, good quality shirts, nice finisher medals, photo backdrops and another photo op-place where the camera when around you full-circle – made me kind of dizzy just watching it, lol. I would certainly recommend this one to others, and the two events of the brothers each year will always be on my race calendar as long as I am able to run or walk.   Thanks so much to all involved that made this one happen for we participants: all the sponsors/vendors, all the many event volunteers for packet pickup, registration, water stops, course marshals, etc; the two park police officers out there for our safety; iaap for the course setup, timing, and results; our fantastic MC, Anthony Zamora who always does a great job for us; Erik and E-Dragon Productions for being there too; and any others involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!