Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/pHvvJK5TGgusTsic7

Before the start. My 5^th race of 2024 was the Das Dreizen 5K held at Prince Sohms Park in New Braunfels, Texas on Sunday, January 28^th.   There was also a half-marathon.  The event had a fairly nice turn-out with 149 finishers for the 5K and 127 finishers for the half. Athlete Guild did the timing and results for this event, and Mark Purnell was our MC, doing his usual great job. I went to packet pickup the day before at Two Rivers Running and then drove down to the park to make sure I could find the place, as I am directionally challenged, lol. After being given good directions from the packet pickup folks, I actually found it pretty easily.  The half had a 7 a.m. start with the 5K starting at 7:40 a.m, so I was up early, got some breakfast and headed to the race site, arriving just before the start of the half-marathon. I saw my friends Jorgina and Krista in the half-marathon start crowd and got a photo of them just before they started. I then wandered around chatting with the volunteers, 5K participants and their supporters, getting some pre-start photos and also handed out several doggie treats, as this is a dog-friendly event.  I also left some biscuits with some of the Athlete Guild volunteers to hand out to the doggies.

On the course: We started right on time. We rounded a grassy area in the park, went up the paved entrance/exit to the park and then proceeded over to San Antonio Street, where we did a short downhill and then crossed over a bridge. After going down San Antonio Street a bit more, we then turned into a residential neighborhood. We did a an out-and-back on this street, which took us to the halfway point. Just before getting back to San Antonio Street, we made a turn into another residential area, through which we did a loop-around that brought us back to San Antonio Street, just down from the bridge.  After making a right turn, we crossed over the bridge again and returned to the park to finish.  It is a nicely thought-out course.  I took it fairly easy for this one after doing a very hilly 5K in San Antonio the day before.  Even so, I did okay, and ran most of the last mile non-stop.   I ended up 3^rd out of the 4 in my 65-69 males age group, with a chip time of 40:47 and also had negative splits for each mile done, nice. I feel like I am slowly and surely getting stronger and back to my old-self as my cancer side-effects from my 2021 to 2022 treatments are now really starting to subside a lot finally, and thank goodness.   I thought it was funny, as I got closer to the finish line, MC Mark called out to me on the microphone “Hurry up, Scotty, the first half-marathoner finisher is right behind you!”  I did end up crossing the line just a tad ahead of him by less than a minute, lol. Yay me.  That guy is very speedy!

After My Finish:  I wandered around again, getting some more photos, this time of happy finishers and supporters, volunteers, the doggies, etc.  There was also a quite nice array of post-race goodies, both edible and non-edible, lol, which included a finisher medal for all finishers, Shiner Bock beer, various fresh fruits, and sausage wraps.  Also saws my speedy friend, Maria, finishing the half, and got a photo of her too.  I indulged in a beer and a sausage wrap, both of them very satisfying. Enjoyed continuing to chat with friends and treat the doggies, and really was surprised when I was called out for an age group award at my sedate pace, but I’ll take it.

Epilogue:  This is the first time I’ve done this event and it really is a nice race.  Although it was a tad chilly for me at 41 degrees – I prefer the 60s and 70s, lol – it was still pretty nice with lots of sunshine and no wind.  Lots of nice post-race goodies to enjoy; official photographers there to take photos; dog-friendly event; lots of port-a-potties available; so many that there were not even any long lines for the use of them, people were in-and-out pretty quick. There were also several vendors, some of whom had a few give-away items.  Participants got a very nice quality race shirt and all finishers got a finisher medal. Age-group placers got an additional medal for that.  The parking was kind of crazy, since the park is pretty small, so only vendors, volunteers, timers, etc., were allowed to use the park lot.  The rest of us parked at one of the Schlitterbahn lots, that company kindly let us use. It was about a ¼ mile walk or so to the park and then back to the lot after the finish.  Running is not my problem, walking is, with this darn spinal arthritis/degenerative disc disease I have – I do have a disabled parking tag to use when needed. For some darn reason, I have no idea why, doing walks kicks up my arthritis/DDD more than running does, go figure;  so I just took it nice and easy, taking my time walking back and enjoying my surroundings and was just fine, although the walk of what, maybe ¼ of a mile  took me about half the time it took me to do my 5k, lol.  Yes, I am a very slow walker.   Anyway, I would do this event again and would recommend it to others.  Next up for me is the Stock Show and Rodeo Stampede 5K on February 3. See you there if you are doing that one!