Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/UhnKxHy7r4DGLvhYA 

Before the Start: My 56^th race of 2024 was the Spooky Sprint 5K held on Sunday, October 6^th at McAllister Park.  Put on by Bigfoot Running, this event had a half-marathon, 10K, a 5K, and a 1-mile walk.  The start and finish was in the pavilion area area across from the main baseball fields, after you enter the Wurzbach Parkway entrance.  Start time was 8 a.m. for all events. This is a Halloween-themed event with a costume contest, so several people were in various costumes.  I had picked up my packet the day before, so after getting parked, I got a few pre-start photos. As this was a Sunday morning event, there was a pretty nice turn-out for this one; not too many Sunday events were being held on this day. I am not sure of the total number of participants, but there were a lot of people there. This is also a dog-friendly course. Prior to the start, the costume contest was held, and then after that, we all got started. All the participants started together, no matter which event you were doing.

On the course:  We started right on time. The course took us past dog park, and then down a fairly long-but-not-too-steep hill.  After getting down this, we then proceeded to go under the overpass that took us underneath the Wurzbach Parkway.  It was flat for a bit, and then we began to climb a pretty long uphill.  We had a nice view of parts of McAllister Park from the top of this hill.  When we crested the top of the hill, we then descended a long downhill, which took us to underneath another overpass. This is where the 5K folks turned around and headed back the way we’d come out.  The 10K and half marathon folks kept going heading for Lady Bird Johnson Park, where they would continue their courses. One lady who did the half marathon told me after she finished that they had even more hills on their course because after Ladybird Johnson Park, they had to cross over the 410 frontage road and there were some pretty good climbs for them after that; and then, of course, they had to come back the way they’d come out.  Zowie!  I’m glad I only do 5Ks these days, lol.  I was feeling a bit the 5k I’d done the day before this one – which had been at Lady Bird Park – so just took it fairly easy.  I was feeling pretty good overall though, and just did my usual 8-minutes running/2 minutes walking and got some course photos during my walk breaks.  After going back under the Wurzbach Parkway underpass, I thought, I am ready to be done, so I just kept on going, ignoring my watch beeping for my last walk break.  I ended up doing a negative split for my last mile and had a chip-time finish of 43:42, averaging 13-something per mile.  This was good enough for first in my age group. I think I was the only one in my age group, lol.

 After My Finish:  That was a challenging course, but I felt pretty good overall.  I got some water and Gatorade from my car and then found a nice shady spot to just sit for a while and relax.  After that I wandered around getting some more photos and chatting with others there, and also handed out some more treats to the doggies. There was no awards ceremony; you just went up to the registration table and the guy there looked up your results, and then If you had placed, you got a nice little pin for placing.  That was fine with me, seemed to save a lot of time, especially with how many people turned out for these events; and maybe they only had a certain amount of time to keep the pavilion area.

Epilogue:  Again, I am not sure what the total amount of participants was.  RunSignUp website had a list of the placers for the events, but did not show the number of total participant, but there were quite a few, both runners and walkers; this is also a ‘chair-friendly event, and I saw a couple of ‘differability” people doing the 5K course in their chairs’ there were also a few people pushing strollers, etc.; they probably got a good workout on those hills!  Bigfoot Running did a good job with this one; I’d do this one again. It’s a somewhat challenging course, but a nice one, and the race location is nice; especially for me, lol, as I live pretty darn close to McAllister Park, less than 3 miles away, so got to sleep in a bit for a change before a race day. Nice quality race shirt – I got a small and then donated mine – and a very nicely done finisher medal. The age group “winner’ pin is a Winged Shoe a-la Hermes, the Greek messenger god. Mucho thanks to Bigfoot Running and all the many volunteers, sponsors, vendors, park police, etc., who made this one happen for us participants. Also, thanks to Fleet Feet near the Quarry for being the pre-race packet pickup location; and thanks to anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Happy and safe running, walking, cycling, or whatever your exercise passion is; I have five more races scheduled in October, so maybe I’ll see you on the road sometime.