Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Xq7c54VqRhT76dPz5

Before The Start:   On Sunday, October 29^th, 2023, I completed my 60^th 5K of the year.  Held at Eisenhower Park in San Antonio, Texas, the Monster Dash 5K supports the Now You See Me Foundation, an organization that raises funding for critically injured athletes and spinal cord research.  I am not in that category, but I do have spinal arthritis and degenerative disc disease at 6 levels in my spine, along with some facet joint issues; I was also a March of Dimes baby, born with dislocated hips; so I try to do these events for the disabled as much as possible.  Along with the 5K, there was also a 10K and a 1-mile walk. The race had a late start time of 9:30 a.m., so got to sleep in a bit longer for this one.  There was a nice turn-out for this one of  a total of about 400 participants for the 3 events, maybe a bit more. I arrived at the park with about 45 minutes until start time and got a few pre-start photos. This is also a dog-friendly event and some of the dogs actually recognized me, knowing I had treats, lol; the reason I am called Scotty Dogg, since my first name is Scott. My friend, Sally Rios, named me that way back, when several of us were doing a race and almost finished and I stopped to treat a dog in the neighborhood we were running through and she yelled at me “Darn it, Scotty, we’re doing a race! Get back here you darn Scottydog.”   She says she doesn’t recall that, but I sure do, lol. And the rest is history, lol. I liked it, so I started using that as my race name.  Before the start of this one, Orange Theory also led a pre-race warmup for those who wanted to participate, and a lady also beautifully sang The National Anthem.

 On the Course:  We had a mix of cloud and sun, with virtually no wind, and a temp at start time of 73 degrees.  The terrain: Hilly!  This is Eisenhower Park and I’ve run here before; so I expected this to be a pretty hilly course and I was not wrong. The course never went off road, it was all done on paved pathways. We started at the park’s largest pavilion area, which had a very large, covered pavilion and lots of space and was on the side of the park closest to the Camp Bullis entry gate.  Once we exited the pavilion gate, we made a right turn proceeding up to a flat paved asphalt path.  This took us past the park’s other, smaller pavilion, where we did a short loop-around and then went onto a path adjacent to Military Highway just down from the Camp Bullis gate. We then headed onto the paved concrete greenway, going in the direction of 1604.  This greenway trail, if you stay on it long enough, will eventually take you over to The Rim area, but we did not go that far. Once we were on the concrete, the hills began in earnest; and these wre no baby hills, either; our Halloween present from this event was hills, more hills, and then more hills, both up and down and fairly long too.  I did my usual walk/run thing of 8-minutes run/2 minute walk and took some photos during my walk breaks, and also a few before my walk break on occasion. While climbing some of these hills, a few choice words came to mind, lol about my friend Jose, of iaap, who had laid out this course for us. I finally got to the 5K turn-round and then, of course, we had to do all those hills again, in reverse on the way to the finish.  I actually ended up feeling pretty good the whole way – thank goodness I do regular hill training once a week; not like these hills, but still, it did help me be prepared.  Of the four people in my  60 – 69 males age group for the 5K, I ended up dead last with a chip time of 43:35, averaging 14:02 per mile.

After My Finish:  I stuck around the finish line for a few minutes, getting a few of photos of others coming in, including my “race friend”, Peggy – we often coincidentally do a lot of the same events – who walks as fast as I run, and sometimes faster.  After that, I went to my car and cooled off with the a/c on full blast as I rehydrated with some Gatorade and water. Then it was back to the pavilion area to get some post-race photos, chat with friends, and get some post-race treats.  There was a Dunkin Donuts food truck on site, and there was also breakfast tacos and some other items, including beer, and various other things from some of the vendors and sponsors there.   There was also a post-race costume contest for the kids – one for the boys, one for the girls – and then a men’s and women’s  costume contest. For the kids contest of the girls, it came down to two little girls who got the loudest cheers. When one of them won, the other kid looked so disappointed, that I went and found her and, with her mom’s permission, gave her my race finisher medal – I do so many races in a year anyway, I have a lots of these, so what the heck.  Her BIG smile was medal enough for me. Epilogue:  This is a really nicely done event for a great cause.  The location – although VERY HILLY, Jose Iniguez!!! 😉 – is really a nice one, with a challenging but doable course and the greenway trails are so wide now, since this park was renovated, there was plenty of room for everyone; I never saw anyone getting impeded. Very nice finisher medal, very nice-quality race shirt. Lots of various goodies, both food and a few give-aways from the vendors; our music man Paul playing the tunes for us; and MC Jason entertaining us.  I will certainly do this one again, and definitely would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for we participants: iaap; the many race volunteers; the foundation; all the vendors and sponsors; law enforcement out there us; our MC and music guy; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here, thank you all.  To all: Happy running, walking, biking, or whatever your chosen exercise method is; may you all have success.  See you at the races sometime, I hope!