Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/ncsxibb7jP7MV7kv9

Before The Start: My 3^rd race of 2023 was the inaugural Big Foot Classic 5K held on January 13 at O.P.  Schnabel Park in San Antonio.  The event included a 10K, a 15K, and a 1 Mile run. Start time of 9 a.m.  I had picked up my packet the day before, so arrived at the race venue around 8:15 a.m. and got a few pre-start photos.  The weather was pretty cooperative, with sunshine, blue skies, and a 41-degree temp at start time.    For an inaugural event, the race had a very nice turn out. In the 5K alone, there were 163 finishers.

 On the Course:   All the courses were out-and-back.  We started by the park’s main pavilion and then proceeded onto the park’s off-road paved running trails.  The course was flat for the most part, but we did start off going uphill, passing a small pavilion at the top of the hill, and then made a right turn and went downhill.  This took us to a left turn on another downhill, crossing over an elevated walkway.  We then proceed to a trail intersection – going onto a short down incline – and turned left at a trail intersection. I was happy to see this, lol, because I’ve run in this park several times and if we had continued straight at that intersection, there is quite a long downhill that way, which we would have had to come back up on the way back.  As it was, the trail we did go onto had mostly flat terrain with a few up-and-down inclines, but nothing you could really call a hill. We went to a turn-round, and then proceeded back the way we had come out. This meant, of course, that when we got back to that elevated walkway, we then had to climb up the hills that we had gone down on the way out. Once we got back to that small pavilion at the top, we then made a left turn and went downhill to the finish.  I had gotten a dermatology procedure on January 9^th to remove some basal carcinoma cells in two places on my back and had waterproof bandages covering the two stitched areas, and am also still dealing with a few side effects from my prostate cancer treatments and follow-up procedures that I had done, 2021 – 2023; so I followed by Doc’s advice by just taking this one really easy, doing my run/walk thing and taking photos during my walk breaks, and making a few additional stops to hand out treats to the doggies I encountered along the way, with the permission of their humans. I started run/walk way back when, after I found I have spinal arthritis, as running non-stop is now too hard on my back.  These days, after all that, I normally do about 12 – 14 minute-miles, running 8-minutes, walking 2 minutes; for this one I made a point of going much slower and taking extra walk break breaks. My first mile was 15 minutes-and-change. Overall, I felt pretty good and just enjoyed myself, now caring about my time.  My last mile I did run nonstop a bit more, as I could ‘smell’ the finish line, lol.  I ended up with a finish time of 44:21 and was first in my male 65-69 age group since, lol, I was the only one in my age group; but I did not really pay attention to the awards ceremony since I thought there was no way I was going to place at my pace, so I missed getting my medal, but that’s okay.  If the Race Director happens to read this report – just give mine to some kid, preferably a disabled one. I was a disabled kid myself, a “March of Dimes” baby, born with dislocated hips.

After My Finish:   Got some water; cool-down walk, and then wandered around chatting with other participants and their supporters and took some post-race photos.  There were several veterans at this one – including some older ones like me – so lots of sharing of our stories and experiences. This is also a dog-friendly event too. I soon ran out of doggie treats, which I carry with me when I do a race or run – hence my name Scottydog, named that way back when, as me and friends headed toward the finish line, I stopped to treat a dog in its yard and one of my friends called out “Darn it, Scotty, we are doing a race here!  Get back here, you darn Scottydog!”  And the rest, as they say, is history, lol. Now pretty much everyone in the running community – and even my wife sometimes, lol – calls me Scottydog – and lots of people know me from my blog, Scottydog Reports and Facebook, where I put my race reports and photos.  I was very popular with the dogs at this event, lol, after they knew I had treats.

Epilogue: This is one of the best inaugural races I have ever done in my 40 years of being a runner; yep, 40 years; I started April 15, 1983, when I was assigned in Turkey during my Air Force days. I always remember the date because it was tax day, lol.    Anyway, as noted, very well-done event, well-organized; nice race location; very nice quality race shirt; and Bigfoot was even at the event, lol.  He was probably the warmest one there in that costume.  I would definitely do this one again and would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all the ones who made this one happen for we participants: Big Foot Running, all the many volunteers, all the race sponsors/vendors, the law enforcement officers out there for us, and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.   See you at a future event sometime, maybe.  I still have 4 more races scheduled for this month. Stay safe and Never Give Up!