Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CH8Av5vbD4Wiq5wd8

Before The Start:   On Sunday, September 10, 2023, I did my 50^th 5K of 2023, the El Grito 5K put on by Andiamo Races at Mission County Park in San Antonio.  This was my 2^nd 5K of the weekend after having done the Patriot’s Day 5K on Saturday in Pleasanton, Texas.  Race start time of 7:30, with race day packet pickup time beginning on race day about 45 minutes before the start. I arrived very early, got my race packet and then wandered around before start time getting a few pre-race photos. Andiamo has a good selection of races with a usually nice turn out.  Since there had been so many races in the area on Saturday, this one had a fairly smaller turn-out with 185 finishers; not bad, though, for an early Sunday morning 5K.  The race location, Missions County Park #1 is a really nice area with lots of room, a very large meeting hall area, and a smaller pavilion in the courtyard area.  It also nicely has water fountains and indoor restrooms. For those who wanted to participate there was a warm up about 15 minutes before the start, led by a Camp Gladiator trainer.  The National Anthem was then beautifully sung by two young ladies, and then we got lined up for our start.

 On the Course:  The course is out-and-back. We lined up at behind an entrance to the Riverwalk. When we exited the pavilion grounds, I saw people turning left, so, having done this course before, I knew we would be dealing with hills…and more hills…and then a couple more hills, lol. The reward, however, for doing all these hills was some really nice views along the way of the river to our right on the way out, our left on the way back.   I did my usual 8-min-run/2-min-walk and took some photos along the way, during my walk breaks.  Our turn-round point was a small bridge that went across the river.  We did not cross the bridge, we turned around in front of it and then went back to the pavilion the way we had come out.  Going back, we had more uphills than down hills and, since we had come downhill right after leaving the pavilion area, we had to climb that last hill to finish, making a right turn at the top of it to go back into the park area to pass through the timing chutes.  For whatever reason, I was feeling pretty good today and actually ran better for this one than the flat 5K I did on Saturday. For the last mile, I took only a short walk break, and then ran just about all of Mile 3 to the finish.  I ended up with a chip time of 41:42, 5^th in my 60-69 males age group. I was happy with this time, which was 4 minutes faster than my very humid Saturday 5K.

After My Finish: Relaxed in the outer pavilion in the shade, eating a banana and rehydrating with some water and this electrolyte non-carbonated drink I had never heard of – SAP, or something like that – which was actually quite good. I just enjoyed for a while sitting with friend and chatting; then it was off to get some post-race photos of the Happy Finishers, volunteers, supporters, etc.

Epilogue:   Andiamo throws a pretty nice after-party with lots of food and drink.  Not as quite as ‘rambunctious” as the Scallywompus parties, but it’s still a very good one.  Lots of food and drink; this “live” photo both with a thing that went around you taking photos – made me dizzy just watching it, lol – and there was a group of musicians providing some entertaining post-race music.   The finisher medals are really nicely designed and the race shirts are really nicely designed with high quality and comfort in mind.  It’s been a while since I’ve done an Andiamo event and this one did not disappoint.  I’d certainly do this one again and recommend it to others. Please note that Andiamo gives awards to the overall winners and then only the first male and female in each age group. I believe they do this to have more funding to provide those really nicely designed finisher medals and all those post-race goodies, as well as those very nice high-quality shirts.  It doesn’t bother me since I never expect to place anyway, lol, and after 2 years of recent cancer treatments and heading toward 70 years old next year and after 40 years of running – I started my running life in 1983 in Turkey during my Air Force days –  I’ve become more of a ‘fun-runner’ now and am thoroughly enjoying myself.  No pressure to place, lol.  Give an Andiamo race a chance, you just might like it. Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants; all the volunteers, iaap for the timing, results, etc., all the many sponsors supporting this event; Camp Gladiator for the warm-up session, and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned; thank you all!