Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/B8xowF7gk9zMRQUD9   

Before the start:     My 39^th race of 2024 was the Beards vs Beans: Longest Day 5K/10K held on June 22 at McAllister Park, with a 7:30 a.m. start for the  10K and an 8 a.m. start for the 5K.   Beards vs Beans was started by brothers Matt and Miguel to raise funds to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association of San Antonio and South Texas. Two races are done each year, one hosted by Miguel and the other by Matt. Whichever brother raises the most funds at his hosted event, the other brother than has to meet a challenge put out by the ‘winning’ brother. Either way, both brothers win, as this is a very popular event, so these events raise quite a few funds for Alzheimer’s.  After the main events are done there is also a post-race event a 0.5 beer race, in which participants must do this carrying a full glass of beer; whoever has the fullest glass after the finish is declared the winner. Local race management company E-Dragon Enterprises put on this event, with race company iaap doing the timing and results. Both are top-notch locally-based race management companies that put on several events over the years. Our MC, Anthony Zamora, was our MC for this event. He MCs for quite a few local races and did his usual great job for this one.  Our sound-and-music guy, Paul, was also there, doing his usual great job too.  .  I had picked up my packet the day before, so after arriving at the park with plenty of time before the start, I got a few pre-race photos.  There was quite a nice turn-out for this one, as always.  The 5K ended up with 227 finishers, and the 10K had 57 finishers.

On the course: The start-and-finish was at the upper parking lot of McAllister Park, where the dog park is located. I’ve done events here before so knew what to expect:  hilly!  Both 10K and 5K were out and back. The course went from the parking lot onto a paved trail that wound us downhill to an underpass that took us underneath the Wurzbach Parkway. After we were on the other side of the parkway, we then started to climb…and then climbed some more lol. Some of the speedier 5K folks were already heading back toward the finish by the time I started this climb.  The first male and female who came in first for the 5K – really speedy – had both passed me by on their  way to the finish before I had event gotten into the underpass, wow; they were moving. After we finally crested this hill, then it was a downhill to the 5K turn-round point.  The 10K participants continued on and I think had to go into Lady Bird Johnson Park to get to their turn-round, so they really had some hills. Of course, after I made the turn-round, I that downhill was now an uphill on the way back; a pretty long uphill to.  I finally crested the hill and then it was downhill to the underpass. Once through the underpass then, of course, that downhill we did from the start now become a pretty long uphill back to the finish. There were two people in front of me – a young lady and young man – wearing pretty funny matching outfits, so I just kept my eyes on them, using them as my ‘rabbits’ to get me to the finish.  I was not very close to them, but I did manage to keep them in sight, saw them finish, and then a few minutes after them I finished too, with my last mile being a negative split, nice. I ended up with a chip time of 39:37, averaging 12:45 per mile, which was good enough for 2^nd in my 70-99 males age group.

 After my finish:  I got a few photos of other participants coming in, then got some water and went and relaxed in my vehicle for 10 minutes with the a/c on full blast, cooling down. It was pretty darn humid out there, with no wind, and the temp was around 81 degrees at start time.     We had crazy humidity  – 88% at start time, almost matching the temperature.  Felt much better after getting re-hydrated and doing the a/c cool-down, so after that it was off to get some more photos, and some post-race goodies and watch the beer race, which was pretty funny.

Epilogue:  As usual with e-Dragon, iaap, and the two brothers, everything went along pretty smoothly from my point of view; there may have been some glitches for a few people, but I never heard about them, except for my friend, Carolyn who placed in her age group, but did not get mentioned during the awards ceremony. They got it worked out, though, and she did get her medal.  Lots of post-race goodies, including beer, Kiolbassa grilled sausages – my favorite, but sadly, cannot have them anymore bummer – lots of fresh fruits, courtesy of some of the sponsors/vendors and my friend Gilbert who provides some really good fresh fruits over the year at several races; Shiner beer; Force water; and lots more.  All finishers got a really nice finisher medal, and the race shirt is a very nice quality. Age group and overall placers got a really nice E-Dragon coin that can be used to get a registration discount for future E-Dragon events.  There was also a costume contest, and a Kid’s Run before the start of the main events. This is also a dog-friendly event, so several doggies there, which made me doggie popular since, as usual, I had dog-treats in my pockets. A very nicely done event, one I will continue to do in the future; although….hey, this is Texas summer, it starts getting light at 6:30 a.m., so how about an earlier start right around then? We’re runners and walkers, we’re used to getting up early, lol  Mucho thanks to all that made this one happen for we participants, e.g., the two brothers, Miguel and Matt; our sound/music guy, Paul; our MC, Anthony; Erik of e-Dragon; all the iaap crew; all the many, many volunteers and sponsors;. law enforcement folks out there for us; and the patience of all the other users of the park not doing this event, as the park was still open to all; Burleson Yard in San Antonio, for the pre-race packet pickup location; and to anyone else involved not have mentioned here. Thank you all!