Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LqyyVg83itY6bogb7

Before The Start:   Held on July 23, my 41^st race of 2023 was the E-Dragon Summer Series 5K, Race #5, the last in this series of 5Ks that were each done in various San Antonio city parks. This series supports a scholarship for a young runner. Participants could sign up for each race individually or sign up for the whole series.  If a participant did 4 of the 5 races in the series, then at the last one you received a very nice finisher medals.  As well as the finisher medal, there were also age group awards – 5-year age groups – for each of the races in the series.  Since the registration for each event was a low $15 entry, you could get a race shirt, but had to pay for those separately, at a pretty reasonable price, which still made the total lower than most race entry fees. I signed up and did all 5 of the 5Ks.  Race #5 was held at McAllister Park in San Antonio, with a 7 a.m. start for the Kid’s run, and the 5K following very shortly after, around 7:15 or so.  I got to the site a bit late – but still in time for the start – picked up my packet and then got a few pre-start photos before we got going.  We had a bit of rain and thunder during the early morning hours, but it sure didn’t help.  The temperature at our start time was already in the low 80s and the humidity was in the 90% range, with no wind, good grief; gotta love Texas summer weather, lol.

 On the Course:  I did my usual 8-min run/2-minute walk thing and took photos during my walk breaks. This was my 2^nd race of the weekend after doing on Saturday, the 22^nd, the pretty hilly Stars and Stripes 5K, held at the Star and Stripes Drive-In Theater in New Braunfels (there was also a half marathon and a 10K).  That was a pretty hilly course, and my legs for this Sunday 5K were feeling that Saturday 5K, so I took it fairly easy for this one, taking a few more walk breaks than I usually do.  That killed my finish time, of course, but it’s all good.  We started on the road near the lower soccer fields, and just down from the Youth Baseball stadium in the park. The course consisted of paved park roads and off-road paved trails….with no hills, thank goodness, lol. For the first leg of our course, we traveled up a paved park road that took us to an off-road trail entrance just down the road from Becken Pavilion.  We turned onto this trail that wound us through a nicely shaded wooded area and past a police sub-station that is near the park. We then crossed the road that used to be, many years ago, the original road entrance to the park off of Jones Maltsberger Road.  This is now a closed road used by runners, walkers, and cyclists. After crossing this road, we wound around on another paved trail that took us onto a trail which was a short ways down from the Turkey Roost Pavilion parking area. Turning right onto this trail, we then proceeded down to another park road, that led to the Becken Pavilion. We crossed over this road, continuing on a paved trail on the other side.  This took us to a paved trail that was behind the soccer fields and baseball field on our left.  After going down this trail, we mad a left turn and this trail took us back to the park road on which we had started, with the baseball field on our immediate left.  We turned left off of the trail and then proceeded  about 3/10 of a mile back to the start/finish line. Out of the 6 people in my 65-69 age group, I was just about dead last, at #5 with a chip time of 44:30.

After My Finish:  Got my finisher medal after I crossed the finish line and then – nice touch, always done by E-Dragon and iaap folks – got an iced-water downed small towel to put on the back of my neck to help cool down, man that felt good.  I did a short cool-down walk and then went and sat for about 10 minutes in my vehicle with the a/c on full blast, as I drank some water; felt much better after that, so it was off to get some post-race photos and post-race goodies. I always enjoy chatting with the other participants post-race and some of them have some really interesting stories, running history, etc.  I love the San Antonio running community and am so lucky to have made some lasting friendships with some of the people in it.

Epilogue:  This is a really nice series, VERY reasonably priced, put on by E-Dragon Productions.  You get a nice ‘tour’ of all the parks in the series and can get a reasonably prices race shirt for each event – the shirt color is different for each race. Award winners also get a very nicely designed Award Coin which can be used to get a discount for registration of other E-Dragon races.  Erik and Kristine Burciaga do such a great job with their company and with supporting the local running community. Top-Notch local race management company iaap works hand-in-hand with E-Dragon to provide the course setup, timing, and results. I heartily recommend this series to the running community and will certainly be doing it again myself.  Much thanks to all who make this event series happen for we participants: E-Dragon, iaap, our music man Paul, all the many sponsors/vendors, police officers out there for our safety, our MC Anthony Zamora – always does a superb job – and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all! Oh, and thanks to the patience of the other park patrons we encounter along the various courses, as the parks are still open to the public during these events.