Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/DeNtu1M3v4aXoQQY8

Before The Start:   On Sunday, October 8, 2023, I did my 57^th race of the year, Harvest Trot 5K, held on the campus of Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. This race helps provide food to the college’s food pantry/food bank for students in need. This is a FREE race, with your entry fee being to bring some nonperishable goods to help fill the student pantry.  Packet pickup was on the day of the race, with the event starting at 8 a.m. I’ve lived in San Antonio for almost 30 years now and had never been to this campus, although I am familiar with what they do, as I am UTSA staff and NW Vista is a partner school with UTSA, as are most of the Alamo Community Colleges.  Precinct 1 County Commissioner Rebecca Clay-Flores was sponsoring this event and served as the Race Director, if I remember correctly. I arrived with about an hour to go to start time, found some parking, and got my packet, which includes a nicely designed race bib and a pretty nice quality race shirt.  I then got a few pre-start photos. 

 On the Course:   I was very bright for this one, as I work pink in honor of this being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and dedicated this race to my friend, Amy, who just finished her long treatment; and to my boss, Sarah, another survivor, and my friend Sally R., another survivor, and the person way back when who named me “Scotty Dogg”, although she doesn’t remember that, but I certainly do, lol. The course was 2-loops around the campus. The weather was just about perfect, with a temperature in the low 60s, virtually no wind, and some sunshine. We started in front of the building where packet pickup and race day registration had taken place. We then proceeded across a bridge – a nice concrete bridge, very steady, that does not shake like those wooden bridges when you cross them, lol, that are on the race routes of the Mission County Park area.   We rounded a building and then hit the streets.  I pretty much thought this would be a flat campus, but I was wrong.  We had not even gone a ½ mile before the hills started; and these are no baby hills, either. This course was a lot of up-and-down, some loop arounds, a couple of out-and-back spots, and so forth. For what the planners had to work with, it actually was a pretty nicely laid-out course…but those hills, wow.  They were not steep-steep hills like at Eisenhower Park or Helotes, but even so, we all certainly got a workout. Another nice thing, these campus roads are nice and wide, so plenty of room for everyone. After working our way around the outer roads of the campus, we then did a route that took us back to the start/finish area, and then did the same loop again,  being completely done after we passed under the finish line the second time around.  The age groups were 1 to 99 so, lol, I knew I would not be placing today.  However, even after doing a race the day before this one, I was still feeling pretty good and ended up running my last 1.2 miles non-stop to the finish, sweet. I ended up with a 42:10 chip time, finishing 35^th out of the 72 males running.  My speedy friend, Sam, who also did the same race I did on Saturday, must have still been feeling pretty good too, he finished in under 30 minutes, wow.   I saw a few others too, who had done the Scallywompus race on Saturday and came for this one.

After My Finish:  Got some water and got a banana and did a short cool-down walk as I got those down.  Then I enjoyed interacting with other participants  and friends that were there, and getting some post-race photos.  I also went over and personally thanked all the law enforcement officers that were there. I kind of grew up in law enforcement, in a way, as my Dad had worked as a juvenile probation officer. I swear, every county cop, judge, lawyer, knew his name and if I got into trouble and an officer looked at my student ID, the first thing I was asked, lol, is “Are you Bob’s kid?”  Uh, oh. One nice touch…the Race Director/Commissioner also thanked the officers personally by having them each presented a race medal for them being there; I thought that was so nice, and a real class act. I also chatted with some of the vendors – CPS Energy even had a table, so I asked the guy if he had my bill, lol. Umm, no. 

Epilogue: For a free race, this really was nicely done, with finisher medals for all participants and a very nice quality race shirt. There were also lots of vendors there, not only showing their products, but also  giving away some free items. There were even some food trucks there if you wanted to purchase some post-race eats. The nearest building to us was open for use, so we had very nice indoor restrooms, always better than porta-potties, lol.   The route was a bit challenging, but not so much that you couldn’t do it – gosh, one little girl passed me on hill like I was standing still, lol. The race is also dog friendly and stroller, disabled wheeled vehicles, etc.,  friendly. Very nice facilities available too, e.g., indoor restrooms, water fountains, etc. I most certainly will put this one on my race calendar again and would definitely recommend it to others.  Many, many thanks to all the people who made this one happen for we participants: The Commissioner and her staff, NW Vista management for letting us have campus access, all the many volunteers and vendors/sponsors, all the law enforcement folks out there, iaap for doing the course setup, timing, results; our music-and-sound guy, and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.