Photos are here:      https://photos.app.goo.gl/HNyjk5vSsyDedz8d7

Before the start.   My 7^th race of 2024 was the Cupid’s Chase 5K held at O.P. Schnabel Park in San Antonio on February 10, which just happens to be my birthday, so this was my first race in my new age group, 70 and up.   This event is put on by the San Antonio office of Community Options, Inc. a national organizations that assists people with disabilities for housing, employment, and more. I try to do this event as often as a I can, since I can relate;  I have a mild disability – or, as my wife says, a ‘differability’ – and also, I was a March of Dimes baby, born with dislocated hips; most young people these days don’t even know what March of Dimes is, buy you who are in or close to my age bracket know what that means.  Race start time of 9 a.m.  I arrived with about an hour to go to start time, got my packet, and then got a few pre-start photos.  The weather called for some light rain – not really much at all, so it was overcast, with no wind; 64 degrees, and very humid at 90% humidity.  Thankfully O.P. Schnable is a very nice park with a large, covered pavilion that includes several picnic tables, inside restrooms, water fountains, a playground area for the kiddies, and couple of good nearby large parking areas.  Pre-start, I enjoyed getting the photos, and chatting with friends who were doing this one also and making new friends as I chatted with other participants.  This is also a pet-friendly event so, after handing out a few dog biscuits, I was very popular with the canines, lol.  For this event, there were 172 finishers.

On the course:  Having lived in San Antonio since 1994 – and a runner since 1983 – I am very familiar with this park, having completed over the years quite a few training runs and races here. The course is hilly.  It began lightly raining on us a tad just as we started, but that soon subsided. Starting from a pavilion, we went up a hill right off the bat.  It’s not a very steep hill, more like a very long incline, but it’s still a climb.  After reaching the peak, we made a right turn and then went downhill for a bit, crossing over a pedestrian bridge that goes over the park creek.  After that, we had a bit of flat for a short while, although we did go up-and-down a few short inclines here-and-there on the way out.  The course was quite wet in spots from some Friday night/early a.m. Saturday rain, so we had to watch for mud and standing water on the course. Thankfully, there was nothing really major on the course that we had to go through or get around, mainly just small puddles here-and-there, easily navigable.  I did my usual thing of 8-min-run/2 mi walk – have to take walk breaks due to some spinal arthritis and DDD (degenerative disc disease) and a facet joints issue  – and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks and giving encouraging shout-outs to friends and other participants. Got to the course water station and turn-round point – said the to volunteers there, what, no beer? Lol – and then headed for the finish. On the way back we actually had more hills – and longer ones too, than on the way out; one of them was quite a little climb.  We then entered back onto the trail upon which we had come out and returned to the finish the way we had started out. Of course, since going out was downhill, we now had a series of three uphills before making the final turn that took us downhill (it was uphill on the way out) to the finish.  With the exception of stopping to taka couple photos of the hills we had come down on the start, I ended up doing most of Mile 2 to the finish non-stop – with my pacemaker “Yakking” at me all the way in it’s BEEP BEEP code of “Are you trying to kill us?”  lol.   I ended up with a chip time of 41:27, first in my 70-99 age group, as there were only 2 in my age group, lol.  I think I might have broken 40 minutes but, when I made that final turn to go downhill to the finish, I just happened to spot a dog and his human sitting in the pavilion there, so took a moment to give doggie a treat.  The two lady course volunteers at that turn were cracking up about that, lol.  Got a very pleasant surprise at the finish. My wife had showed up with a group of some of my closest running friends and they were all holding a big Banner stretching quite a ways that read ‘HAPPY 70^TH SCOTTY DOGG”.   Aww, how nice is that?  Apparently, my wife had called one of my friends and that person called more of my friends and they got this all arranged to surprise me at the event, wow.  I am one lucky dog to have a wife and friends like these.

After My Finish:  Got my finisher medal and then joined my wife and friends at a picnic table near the start/finish. Wow, they had a slew of birthday treats, all kinds of cupcakes, and banana-nut bread, yummy, one of my favorites, which is what I indulged in. Then I got told I had placed first in my age group, so had to go back to the pavilion for the awards ceremony, where I got a few more photos and invited some others to come share in the goodies.  Then it was back to my birthday group for a pleasant time with these great friends.  Very nice way to finish a race.

 Epilogue:   As noted, this is one of my favorite events to do.  It is always well-organized. As many times as I’ve done this, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced any ‘glitch’ with this event.  As noted previously it is, held in several cities at various times.  The Corpus Christi Cupid’s Chase, for example, was done on the same day the San Antonio one was held.  I think just about all the US regional offices hold this one sometime during the year as one of their primary fundraisers. The event also had raffle tickets for various prizes; really nice quality race shirt; finisher medals for all; and unique other medals for the age-group placers in each age group.  I definitely will continue to do this one and certainly would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all the many who made this one possible for we participants; all the sponsors;  the Community Options San Antonio staff and all their many volunteers; our DJ and sound guy there for us;  the park police officers there for our safety; Athlete Guild – a top-notch race management company based in New Braunfels, which happens to be owned by two good personal friends of mine, one of whom, like me, is a recent cancer survivor – for the course setup, timing, results; and of course, all my crazy-in-a-good-way friends, along with my beautiful wife, who gave me such a nice birthday race day surprise. Apologies if I missed anyone; thanks to ALL who were involved!   Now I have to go get some rest;  I have another race to do on Sunday, Feb 11^th.  Happy and safe running to all my fellow runners!