Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/8jf3nqxcEpY8nWDK7

Before The Start: My 37^th race of 2023 was the San Antonio Road Runners 4^th of July 4-miler held on July 4^th at Mission County Park in San Antono. This event was hosted by the oldest running club in San Antonio, the San Antonio Road Runners, celebrating in 2023 their 50^th anniversary.  Along with the main event, there was also an untimed 2-miler and a Kid’s Run. The main event and 2-miler had a nice early start of 7:30 a.m, with the Kid’s Run done about 15 minutes before the start of the other events.  My wife, Gail, signed up for the 2-miler. We arrived at race venue around 6:20 a.m.  We’d already gotten our packets earlier in the week, so Gail went to find a seat and relax a bit before the start while I wandered around doing my usual pre-start photo thing.  After getting back with Gail, I saw she was talking to one of my friends, Albert who, it turned out, was one of her friends too; she knew him from way back when, from the time they had both previously worked for Wells Fargo, what are the odds, lol. I wandered around and got a few more photos; watched the kids run, and then it was time for we 4-milers and 2-milers to get going.  The temp was around 77 degrees, and the humidity was way the heck up there, something like 80 percent to 90 percent but we did have lots of cloud-cover.

 On the Course: I am not sure how many did the 2-miler as it was an untimed fun run, so no results posted for that one. For the 5K, there was a total of 366 finishers; I heard this race had sold out, so I was glad I had registered early.  We started from Mission Park, went through the park gate and then did a short stint on the road that leads to the parking lot, before taking a left turn onto a sidewalk.  We went up this sidewalk between a row of flags on either side of us and then exited the sidewalk onto Padre Drive, if I remember correctly.  We followed the road down to Mission Parkway making a left onto this street. This was a hilly little street, with some mild uphill and downhill inclines. We went down a short hill first, then up another one, then had a bit of flat for a while, with a couple of views, on our way out, of the river to the left of us.  We went under bridge, then another short uphill, and then followed the road to the 2-mile marker. To get to the 2-mile marker, we had to go down another short incline and then back up the incline, which was fairly steep, but short, and then we proceeded back to the finish line exactly the way we had come out, this time with the river to our right.  Since I had not done a 4-miler in quite a while – I normally just do 5K events – dang, by the time I was heading to Mile 3, I was really starting to feel it, so I just took it easy, took a few more walk-and-photo breaks than I normally do, and just kept on plugging along. With just over ½ mile left, I told myself heck with this, let’s just get it done and ran non-stop to the finish.  Surprisingly, I actually ended up with a negative split for Mile 3 to the finish. I was 10^th out of 11 in my 65-69 males age group, so not quite last, lol. My chip time was 58:35 and gun time 59:24, so I did finish under an hour, just barely, lol. 

After My Finish:  The finish line volunteers handed out iced-down small towels as you came in, and man, that felt great.  I think I may have gotten a tad dehydrated, even though I did have a full bottle of water about 30 minutes before the start; however, this was a cupless race, so you had to bring your own cup for the water stop and I had forgotten mine, duhh, so didn’t get any water on the course and just kept plugging along. I got my iced towel, found some water, went and found my wife, and then just sat for a while, letting that towel ice me down and sipping my water; felt a bit nauseous for about 2 minutes but that passed after I got some hydration in me, and also ate a banana, which helped – did you know, one simple banana will give you about 20% of your electrolytes requirement for the day? It’s an amazing little fruit and very convenient.  After relaxing for a bit, it was then time to wander around and get some photos of the happy finishers, supporters, etc., which is always enjoyable, interacting with my running friends and other runners, their supporters, and the many vendors.  One of them, my friend Gilbert, is an expertise fruit guy and always brings really good fresh fruits for before and after. He knows I like a post-race banana so always has one for me. For this event, he told me he was thinking about me and tried to bring some other fruits I might like, and our conversation went like this, lol:  Scotty, brought some other fruits I thought you might like; so, do you like cantaloupe?  Nope.  Watermelon? Nope. Melons? Nope. Poor Gilbert, I am the “problem child” of the fruit world, lol. About the only fruits I eat are apples, oranges, bananas, blueberries, raspberries – no strawberries, yuk, even though my favorite ice cream is strawberry, so go figure, lol – sometimes an avocado.  My wife has easy fruit shopping with me, lol.

Epilogue:  This is a really nicely done event by the San Antonio Road Runners with a good course, really nice race shirts, very nice finisher medal, and lots of post-race goodies, including Kiolbassa sausage wraps, multiple types of drinks, including cold beer, force electrolyte water, and more; various fruits, some nutrition bars, and more.  I’d do this one again and would recommend it to others. Sure would be nice if it were cooler though; too bad our forefathers didn’t declare independence in November, lol.  Even so, a very well-done event, and the park has great facilities, including indoor restrooms and water fountains. Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for we participants: SARR leadership and volunteer members – saw board member Scott Peacock out there for us; all the many volunteers, sponsors, and vendors who helped fund things; Anthony Zamora for once again doing his usual great job as event MC, and our music and sound man, Paul Garcia; also many thanks to the police officers out there on the course for our safety; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all! Next up for me is Texas Too Hot 5K on July 9^th at Boerne Lake; yes I am a glutton for punishment, lol.