Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yuk4bFdsy35PzJsD8

Before The Start: My 36^th  5K of 2023 was Race #4 of 5 total 5Ks being done for the E-Dragon Productions Summer Series 5Ks, with each event done in a local San Antonio Community Park.  This series of events raises funds for a scholarship given to a young San Antonio runner after the series ends.  Held on Sunday, July 2^nd,  Race 4 location was Martin Luther King Park in San Antonio.  This is a very nice park with off-road paved trails that is part of San Antonio’s Greenway system of trails.  The trails in this park connect with trails in other parks, so one can go a long way, if so desired, on a run, walk, or cycling ride.  Start time for this one was 7:15 a.m., which was much appreciated, given the crazy heat days we’ve been having this summer, with temps often over 100 degrees on several days. Mother Nature was kind to us for this event; we had lots of cloud cover, a fairly nice breeze blowing, and lots of shade along the way and a temp at start time of around 77 – 78 degrees. After a lot of mornings where the low temp was in the 80s right off the bat at 6 a.m., that 78 temp felt pretty good.  Also, the trails of MLK Park are fairly flat; nothing you can really call a hill, just a few inclines along the way and those were pretty short. I arrived pretty early, around 6:10 a.m.  The iaap crew – in my opinion, the top race management company in San Antonio – were still putting up the start/finish line and getting things ready.  I got my race packet and then got a few pre-start photos.

On The Course:   Before the main event got started there was a Kid’s run, with all present cheering them on. The main event started right on time. Considering that the 4^th of July weekend is coming up and lots of people are traveling, this one had a pretty nice turn-out with 116 finishers. The course was out-and-back on the park’s paved off-road trails.  I did my usual run/walk thing, talking photos during my walk breaks.  After I got to the turn-round I got ambitious and ended up running just about non-stop to the finish line.  I encountered a very nice young lady along the way who ran with me for quite a ways before she took a walk break.  With about 4-tenths of a mile to go, my friend Jackie – very speedy runner- had come out on the course and began to run in with me; as fast as she runs, I’m surprised, lol, she didn’t hurt herself trying to run my slow pace, lol.  When I got to 3-tenths of a mile to go, another speedy friend, Jada, joined us.  Then, as the 3 of us rounded a curve, 3 more runners joined us. By the time I went around the last curve on the course, and could finally see the finish line, I had quite the entourage, lol, of about 5 of the speedier runners with me, all cheering me on.  I almost about started crying, lol, to have such good comrades/friends as these who would show so much support and encouragement for me.  One more curve to go around before the finish line and at this point, my ‘crew” dropped off  with a ‘You got this, Scotty” and I took off for the finish line on my own.  Ended up with a gun time of 41:32, chip time of 41:13, and a negative split for Mile 3 at 13:07, and averaging 13:16 per mile.  I was really happy with this as my last few races before this I’ve been averaging 14+ minute miles. Must be all those hills I’ve been doing my training runs on, lol. Whatever the reason, I was one happy doggie and also this was good enough for this smaller event to place 3^rd in my 65-69 males age group.

After My Finish:   Well, we may have had a tad cooler weather for this one, but it was still humid as all get out. I got some water and then went to the ‘cooling area’ – this was a nice touch done by E-Dragon and iaap – where you could sit in a chair and just relax under these ‘misters’ that gently put a light spray of cold water onto you; wow, that felt great after my run. I relaxed there with friends for several minutes and then it was off to get some post-race photos of the happy finishers, volunteers, supporters, etc.  Award ceremony was nicely done – with we older folks getting our awards first a nice touch, so we could go home and get our naps 😉- working down to the younger winners. Epilogue: This is a really nice series of events put on by E-Dragon Productions.  One can register for each race individually or you can sign up for all of them for a pretty nice discount. The price is very reasonable too, only a $15 entry fee per race and then you can buy a race shirt, also reasonably priced, for each of the races or just which ever race in the series you want a shirt for. The shirt for each race of the series is a different color for each race and all are really nicely designed tech tees, also done by E-Dragon, as printing is another part of their business.  They have it all covered and do it excellently.  I love the folks at E-Dragon – the Burciaga family, proud to be able to call them friends – and they always give you true quality for every part of their businesses, races, shirts, printing, etc., as well as doing so much for the running community, just as there race partners, iaap do too.  Alone, both of these companies are great, so when they partner up you know you are going to get a superb event, quality merchandise, etc.  If you’ve never done and E-Dragon or iaap event, I encourage you to do so; they do a great job and if something does go wrong – we’re all human so sometimes things happen – they will really ‘go to town’ to try and make it right for you.  I will definitely keep on doing their events and would recommend them to all.  Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for we participants; E-Dragon; iaap; the many volunteers, all the sponsors/vendors involved, any law enforcement folks at some of these events for our safety; our sound-and-music folks; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!