Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/KDwEf3hXe5vsDZKV6

 Before the Start:  My 46^th race of 2024 was the E-Dragon Productions Run Festival on Sunday, September 1^st.  Put on by the Burciaga family, this event was held at Southside Lions Park East in San Antonio as a celebration of their 11 years in business and as a thank you to all in the running community who have supported them, e.g., runners, walkers, volunteers, etc. Registration fees were done at a really low price: $1 for the 1-mile walk; $5 for the 5K; $6.20 for the 10K, and $13.10 for the half marathon…get it? The price was the distance of each event. This made it a pretty popular event; 47 finishers for the half-marathon; 69 for the 10K; 117 for the 5K; and 8 doing the 1-mile walk, totaling 241 doing the live events. There was also a virtual option.  

On the course:  Courses were a kind of out-and-back-and-loop done on the paved trails of the park, depending on which event you did. If I remember correctly the 1-mile walkers were out and-back.  The running events took each of us to a turn-round point, where we then came back the way we had gone out.  The turn-round point for the 5K was a paved trail that would have taken us to Comanche Park if we had continued on it, but we did not go that far. I’m not sure how far the 10K and half folks had to go for their turn-round point. After making the turn-round point, we then came back the way we had gone out, but after crossing a park road that took us back onto the trail we had started on, instead of going back the way we came out, we headed to the finish in a different direction, following a trail that took over a causeway near the park’s man-made lake, then went onto a trail with the lake to our right as we went to the finish. It was a very nicely-thought out course. It did have some hills – more like up-and-down inclines for the 5K course, not steep and not too bad at all; the 10K and half folks had to go farther up than we 5K folks, so their up-and down climb was probably a bit more challenging. The last half mile was pretty much flat all the way to the finish.  There were only 2 in my 70-99 male age group with the other person being my speedy friend Jim Yanaway who finished under 25 minutes.  I ‘closely’ followed him, lol, with a 41:15 finish, lol.

After My Finish:   Got some water, did a short cool-down walk, and then got a few photos of some others coming in. After that, went to visit my good friend Fruity Gilbert (he’s a fruit vendor and a cyclist) who is at local events quite a bit offering a super nice array of post-race fruits.  Sat chatting with him for a while as I cooled off, and then it was time to wander around, chatting with other participants, supporters, sponsors, volunteers, etc., and getting some after photos.

Epilogue:  As usual for e-Dragon, a very nicely done event.  Age-group placers got a nice -e-Dragon coin that has a code on it that can be used for a registration discount for e-Dragon races.  They also had a medal rack at the finish of various medals from many of their events and you could just pick the medal you liked; same with the shirts; there was a table with shirts left over from their various events; many styles to choose from, e.g, singlets, long-sleeve, hoodie, dri-fit, etc., and you just chose the one you wanted. Mucho thanks to the Burciaga family for all the work they put in giving us these events. Thanks also to iaap, who works closely with e-Dragon and does the timing, results, etc. Also, a big thanks to all the others who made this one happen for we participants, including volunteers, sponsors, our MC Anthony, and anyone else involved; thank you all so much.  Happy running, walking, cycling, or whatever your passion may be.  Stay safe, stay happy, keep going, and Never Give Up! Hope to see you at an event in the future.