Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/hKQPc7eVWLoafUDA8

Before the start:     My 23^rd race of 2024 was the Confetti 5K on April 20^th at Our Lady Of The Lake University (OLLU) in San Antonio. This event benefits OLLU scholarships at the university.  The Confetti 5K is part of the festivities of Fiesta San Antonio, a 10-day event each April that includes races, parades, and many other activities such as the Oyster Bake, Taste of New Orleans, Battle of the Flowers parade and more.  Start time of 9 a.m.  I arrived early, around 6:45 a.m. – too early to get my packet – so enjoyed getting some good parking and then chatting with friends and sponsors who were volunteering/supporting the event, and I also got a few early pre-start photos.  Around 7:30 or so, people began arriving in larger numbers. I got my packet and then the race day registration volunteers surprised me by giving me a personalized shirt that my friend, Race Director Liz, had ordered for me.  This event is a ‘streak’ race for me. I have done this 5K every year since it first started and have reported on every one of them. Liz tells me I am the ”Poster Boy” of the event, lol, and she often surprises me with things for this event. This year she even put a photo of me from one of the previous races on the online registration announcement page.  After getting my race bib on, I then continued to chat with fellow participants, volunteers, sponsors, etc. and got a few more pre-start photos.  The weather was just about perfect; temp of around 62 degrees, a tad humid, but not too bad, and overcast skies, but it never did rain on us.

On the course: The National Anthem was sung beautifully by my friend Meghan – who also ran the event – and then we all got started.  They don’t call this event the Confetti 5K for nothing.  As we started off, confetti was shot into the air, floating all around us as we went out of the starting gate. The course took us toward the back gate of the campus, doing a short out-and-back on one campus road, and then continued on, exiting the campus via the back gate on Commerce Street. Once off the campus we then proceeded to a bridge which we crossed over, and then went along the off-road paved Greenway trails of Apache Creek, if I remember correctly, with some nice views of the water. We passed the Mile 1 marker along the part of the course.  We then went to the end of this trail, crossed over another bridge that took us to the other side of the water and continued on some trails on that side. This part of the course had us do 2 bridge crossings, going across the water, and then down to another bridge that took us back to the side we had just left.  After crossing this bridge we came to a water station, where I stopped momentarily to give a biscuit to a dog at the water station. We then went along another paved trail that took us back to Commerce Street. Once on Commerce Street, we went back to the finish the way we had originally come out, with the exception of not doing that short out-and-back we had done after starting. For my 70-99 males age group, I ended up 2^nd with a chip time of 40:16, and I had negative splits for the course too, nice. Leo, first in my age group, finished about 4 minutes ahead of me. There were 10 total in our age group.

 After my finish:  I did a short cool-down walk, got some water into me, and then enjoyed the post-race festivities and goodies, that included sausage-on-a stick Dos Eques beer, lots of water, and lot of various other sundries and goodies from the sponsors, vendors etc., and also got some after-photos. I was there post-race quite a while and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Epilogue:  This is one top-notch quality event.  OLLU also politely keeps the doors of the main building open so participants can use the indoor restroom facilities, which is nice. Really nice quality race shirts done by Quali-Tees Etc.; timing and results done by exceptional, and locally owned race management company iaap; sausages and beer provided by Kiolbassa and Dos Equis; and there were lots of other food, drinks, and various goodies provided by many of the other sponsors too; I saw plates of cookies on one table, and another had some hand-out candies – popular with the kids, lol. There were 571 5K finishers for this event, so you can see how popular it is. Liz and her crew do a great job with this event, and always have. It is one of my favorite events of the year and I will keep doing it as long as I am able. Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for we participants, e.g., all the sponsors; OLLU staff and students who were out there for us;  all the many volunteers; the law enforcement officers, e.g. campus police, SAPD, etc., who were there for our safety, our MC, Anthony, doing his usual great job;  our music-and-sound folk who were jammin’ us with some classic rock n roll, my personal favorite music; and there was also a Kids Run right before the main event, so thanks to those who organized that; and, of course, all the many sponsors/vendors who help pay for it all. Apologies if I missed anyone. Thanks to all involved!   See you next year!