Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/SZBAN1eniW7nFSsN6  

Before the start:   My 36^th  race of 2024 was the E-Dragon 5K Summer Series, Race #2, on Sunday, June 9^th at the South Side Lions Park East in San Antonio. This was my 2^nd race of the weekend after doing The Big Run 5K the day before.   The Summer Series event raises funds for a scholarship. This is a nice park in San Antonio, that is part of the  San Antonio Parks and Recreation Greenway Trails System, that connects several city parks with each other. The events have an early start time of  shortly after 7 a.m., after the Kids Run is held. For 5K #2, there was a total of 93 finishers, per the results list. I arrived with about 45 minutes until starting time. I saw my friend, Erik, co-owner of E-Dragon, who was just about to leave as he got word his wife had just delivered their new daughter. We had a brief exchange, wished each other well, and I congratulated him on his new family addition, and he was on his way. I also saw my walking friend, Peggy, and got a photo of her and friend. After getting my packet, I then got a few more pre-start photos before we got going.

On the course: This was an out-and-back course on the park’s paved trails, giving us a couple of nice views of the park’s man-made Lake, Lion’s Park Lake, where several people fish. The first mile or so was fairly flat,  with us crossing a short bridge, and then we began climbing a bit, after crossing another bridge.  The course took us on a trail that would have taken us to Comanche County Park on Rigsby Road, if we had continued that far. We climbed up to a water station and then went downhill, crossing underneath an overpass, and then down short hill, and crossed over a short concrete bridge. We rounded a trail bend after the bridge and then had a short uphill climb to the turn-round point and then did the course in reverse to get back to the finish.  As usual, I did my run/walk thing – can’t run nonstop anymore for a whole race with this spinal arthritis – and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks.  After crossing the short bridge we’d gone over to get the to turn-round, I began running again and went nonstop to the finish, ending up with a chip time of 40:34, good enough for 2^nd in my 70-99 males age group, out of the 4 people in it.  I might have finished a bit faster, but my darn running shorts tie string broke, and so I had to keep pulling up my running shorts on occasion, lol, which slowed me down each time I had to do that; probably the right thing to do, though; don’t want anyone wanting to put their eyes out if they inadvertently see my wrinkled old-man butt.  We old guys, you see, are like trees that get a new circle each year we age; we old guys get a new butt-wrinkle each year.   

 After my finish:   Did a short cool-down walk, got some water in me and then got a few photos of other finishers coming in. After that, relaxed a bit in the shade of the park pavilion, drinking some more water and chatting with friends, other participants, etc., who were in the pavilion; then it was up-and-out again to get some post-race photos of the happy finishers, etc., and to watch the post-race awards being handed out.

Epilogue:  This is a really well-done event by E-Dragon and their volunteers, with a really nice course – hilly in places, but nice –  that gives you some nice views of the lake along the way and then the creek near the turn-round point. The award medals are small ‘coins’ that have a code on it to get a discount when one registers for another E-Dragon race, very nice.   Various post-race fruits and other goodies were offered and they also had these  “frozen pops” things that hit the spot on a humid day; official photographer on the course getting participant photos, and plenty of cold bottled water; I don’t recall if there was post-race beer. Race shirts were sold at very reasonable prices to help raise funds for the cause, as the entry fee for these races is pretty low, and if you sign up for more than one initially, then you get a nice discount with that, too. Mucho thanks to all who helped make this event possible for we participants: the sponsors; all the many volunteers; our MC Anthony; E-Dragon, of course for initiating it; the race photographers; and anyone involved I didn’t mention.  Thank you all!  Hope to see you at a future race sometime!  Also, big congrats to my friends,  E-Dragon co-owners Erik and Christine, whose baby daughter was born this race morning.