Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/KiyM51yHGQxV87X66     

Before the start:    My 37^th race of 2024 was the Y’all Means All Pride 5K held in San Antonio on June 15^th at Lady Bird Johnson Park. There were 315 finishers for this event that supports the Thrive Youth Center, which provides LGBTQ+  homeless young adults a safe and supporting housing environment so they can become productive, skilled, educated, and successful adults.  This event sold out. It was capped at 400 entries and ended up with a a total of 315 finishers, so just about everyone registered showed up.  The 5K start time was 8 a.m.,  with a temp in the upper 70s, low 80s at start time.  I had previously picked up my packet, so arrived with a little over an hour to go and got some pre-start photos.

On the course:  This course was an out-and-back starting from the LBJ Park trailhead.  We did a lap around the park’s traffic circle near a large parking lot and then went down an incline that took us to the paved park trails below.  We made a right turn, heading in the direction of a trail that would have taken us to McAllister Park if we had stayed on it; however, we just did a short turn-round and then headed back the way we had come.  We continued on the park’s paved trail that eventually took us through the Los Patios shoppes area and to a turn-round just short of the frontage road of Loop 410 highway, and then returned to the finish in reverse of the way we had come out.  This course is mostly flat, with a few small up-and-down inclines along the way. The longest ‘hill’ – which was not much of a hill at all – was the incline we had gone down to get to the park’s main trails and then climbed up it, to get back to the traffic circle, where we went around once more, in reverse from the start, to get to the finish line.  A nice thing about this park too, for the route, is there is lots of shade along the trails. I ended up with a 42:58 chip time, averaging 13:50 per mile and was 1^st in my 70-89 males age group, largely because, lol, I was the only one in this age group. The age group award was this funny, yellow plastic ‘banana holder’ lol, which I thought was pretty amusing and inventive.

 After my finish:    After getting rehydrated and doing a short cool-down walk, I then got some post-race photos.  I normally take quite a few post-race photos, but for some reason my usually-ever-faithful old-fashioned Canon push-button camera started whacking out on me and froze up at times.  I still managed to get some post-race photos of happy finishers, etc., , but I think this may be “Old Red’s” final performance for photos.  Thankfully, when I got this one, I also got a few spares, back in the day when they were pretty inexpensive; you can hardly find these anymore and some of the prices being asked for them currently are just crazy, like they are collector’s items or something, good grief. I’d like to get Old Red repaired, but I don’t think any camera repair shop would even keep parts on hand for an old-time Canon camera. Be that as it may, I still got a few photos of some of the happy finishers, supporters, etc.

Epilogue:   This event was put on by In The Loop Running Crew and they did a very good job at it. Nicely thought-out course; lots of pre-and-post-race hydration available; many various vendors with different types of merchandise; shaded pavilion for post-race where you could sit and relax, and there was also a ‘cooling’ tent that had a “mister’ in it, nice. All the volunteers were great. There is only one porta-potty at LBJ Park – which I never understood as this park is quite well-used so you’d think the Park Service leadership would pull their heads out of you-know-where and put a few more here – but the race organizers rented a couple more so that made it better for the event. There was also a water station at the turn-round point, which was nice too.  I enjoyed doing this one – in honor of my daughter who supports this cause – and it has a very nice finisher medal too for all finishers.  I don’t remember if there is a race shirt; I do so many races over a year I bring home a lot of shirts, lol; so I often order a youth shirt and then just ask the organizers to just please donate it to some kid they may know; it’s all good.  Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for we participants, e.g., In The Loop Running Crew; Thrive Youth Center; all the many vendors, sponsors, and volunteers out there for us; our MC, my friend Anthony Zamora; the EMT/Medic that was on site for us, as well as the Park Police Officers there for our safety; my friends at iaap, the race management company that did the course setup, timing and results; the official photographer there for us; and any others involved that I may not have mentioned here, thank you all.  Also, although this event was not recommended for our canine pals due to the heat, there were few dogs there that I enjoyed meeting and giving treats to, with permission of the humans; yes, I am the Good Humor Man for dogs, lol. Thanks to all who supported this event. Hope to see you at a future race sometime!  Now, MY old-dog self needs to go get a nap…I’ve got another 5K the day after this one, lol.