https://photos.app.goo.gl/8W6QgG2TzFZuqPrr7

 Before the start:     My 14^th race of 2024 was the City Manager 5K held on March 9^th at the San Antonio Zoo and Brackenridge Park.  This is a very popular annual event with a very low entry fee – free for city employees and active-duty military, and only $5 for everyone else.  There ended being just a little over 3,000 registrants for this one. The start time was promptly at 7 a.m., so I got up pretty early, had some breakfast and then got down to the Zoo parking area pretty early too and got some good parking.  St. Mary’s Street access to the Zoo area was closed off to through traffic, so only participants and people involved with the event could come down that street to get to the parking area. I had previously picked up my race packet, so just sat in the car a bit to stay warm, since Mother Nature decided to bring some lower temps to us for the weekend. We had 60s and 70s and one day when it got to the 90s during the week and then Mother Nature dumped that for us, leaving us with a temp on race day around 52 degrees with a biting wind that made it feel even colder.  The Zoo folks opened the front entrance for us, so we were able to go inside the Zoo area and find a few warm inside rooms, as well as indoor restrooms, which was nice. About 30 minutes or so before the start the majority of participants had moved to the start area which was near the ‘green lawn” area of the Zoo.  At least the sun was shining, so that was good. As usual for me at races I do, I wandered around chatting with friends/other participants as I got a few pre-start photos.  Apologies to my friends in the iaap crew who were doing race day packet pickup; the group one I took of them came out very blurry – my great camera skills – so they looked like they were all in Witness Protection, so I dumped that one.  With about 30 minutes or so to start time, the race managers began to get us “herded” over to the start area.  By this time the sun had come up and it felt a little warmer, but that darn wind never did quiet down for us. I got some more photos while out in the starting area and then in the start crowd after we all started lining up.

  

On the course:  The National Anthem was played – thank you for that – and then we got lined up and got started right on time. We did a fairly short stint through part of the Zoo, exiting a back gate that took us onto a road that exited onto Hildebrand Street, if we had gone that way. We went in the opposite direction, doing a bit of winding around and then crossed over the Iron Bridge in the park.  This took us onto a road that was below the cobblestoned path near the Zoo Aviary, and went by a pavilion on our left side. We came to an intersection that had the Witte Museum down from us on the left. We went straight forward here, crossing the railroad tracks for the Zoo train and then went to a turn-round that brought us back to the train crossing. We then turned left onto a road that took us back toward the Zoo and a water crossing area now closed to traffic. When we came to the water crossing area, we made a left turn onto a road that took us toward the Brackenridge Golf Course. We did not go quite that far, as we had another turn-round point on this road. We then went back the way we had come out, ending up once more on the Iron Bridge road. After going once more over the bridge, we then turned left onto the paved cobblestone trail – oh yay, lol; watch your step here – that took us along the Zoo fence-line where the Zoo Aviary is located. We came off of this by the traffic circle in front of the zoo, made a right turn, went past the zoo main entrance, went up a short incline, and then entered the zoo grounds via a back gate near where the Animal Shelter is located. Once back on zoo grounds, we then did a short winding path – with some aviary birds cheering us on, lol – that took us back to the finish.  When we started, I estimated, with my walk breaks and photo breaks, a finish time of 41 to 42 minutes.  However, I surprised myself by running most of the last mile nonstop and ended up with my last mile being 12:15, zowie – and a chip time finish of 39:47, finishing 4^th out of 15 in my 70-99 age group. Nice.     

 After my finish:     Did a short cool-down walk, got some hydration in me and then enjoyed chatting with other participants, supporters, volunteers, race organizers, etc., and  post-race photos. Very nice after-party in a very nice area with lots of unique scenery that you don’t see at a ‘normal’ race, this being onsite at the zoo. It was a fun time. 

Epilogue:    This really is a nicely done event, handled with quality by all the volunteers, the Zoo personnel, the iaap crew that did the course setup, timing, results, etc. Also, thanks to all those police officers there both inside the Zoo area and along the course, for our safety.  There were awards given to the top finishers.  No finisher medals like some races have, and I can understand why for this one; 3,000+ finisher medals would be a pretty darn high race expense. The race shirt is a pretty nice quality short-sleeved shirt, with City Managers 5K on the front; on the back it has a picture of some runners moving along with some zoo animals right there with them; nicely designed race bib too, as you can see from the photos. I would definitely do this event again – hopefully with warmer weather next time, lol – and certainly would recommend it to others. Mucho thanks to all those responsible for making this one happen to us: City of San Antonio (COSA) staff; our City Manager, Erik Walsh and all his staff; police officers, EMT staff, and firefighters there for us – and one group of firefighters ran the event; iaap for the course setup, timing, results, etc; and, of course, all the Zoo staff people involved; any sponsors/donors who contributed for the success of this event; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so  much.  Now I have to get some rest, lol. I have another race to do the day after this one.