Photos are here:      https://photos.app.goo.gl/5oFSLDvvTZBJKxPA7

Before the Start:   My 3^rd race of 2025 was the Martin Luther King 5K (MLK 5K) held on Saturday, January 19^th at Martin Luther King Park in San Antonio.  This event raises scholarship funds for the Young Men’s Leadership Academy (YMLA). This is one of my ‘streak’ races, having done this event ever since it first started. Start time of 9 a.m.  I do not know why, but for some reason this race always seems to be held at the same time San Antonio gets hit with cold weather. This year was no exception, and actually a little coler than some previous years. A really nasty cold front began to move in on Sunday Morning – predicted to stick around until Wednesday – so race day morning brought us a temp of 41 degrees with a ‘feels like’ temp of 29, per the weather channels,  yikes!  I am not a fan of cold weather, lol; I much prefer running in temps of 65 and above; I’d rather have a temp of 80 or 90 than a temp that is below 50, lol;  so I was VERY layered up, lol, when I arrived at the race site; kind of felt like Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon who was all layered up for winter, saying “Oh, I am quite warm now….but just can’t move.” Lol.  Well, I was not quite that bad, but I did have on some thermal tights, then winter long-racing pants over that, one of these ‘face-mask” warmers, with a hat on top of that; a thick pair of thermal socks, and  2 pairs of gloves. Unlike Charlie Brown, though, I was still able to move.  It was very chilly before the start, with an actual temp of 38 and a feels like of 28 for a bit.  We did have a very nice sunny and rain-free day, so that was good, but a brisk wind made it feel a bit cooler as we waited for the start. I  had picked up my packet on the Friday before the event, so when I arrived I wandered around chatting with friends and other participants, volunteers, etc, and getting some pre-start photos, and also handing out treats to the doggies there – hence my nickname of Scotty Dogg, which I also use as my race name and that is what just about all the people in the running community call me. 

On the course: The course setup, timing, and results were done by my good friends at iaap, probably the top-notch race management company based in San Antonio; they always do a great job.   The course was out-and-back on the park’s paved trails.  We started right on time. For a very chilly day, there was a nice turnout, with 353 finishers for this event. Right before the start, I rolled up my sleeve a bit to start my garmin watch for my run/walk method and….no garmin, what? Oh shoot…I remembered I had taken it off to charge it…and forgot to put in on when I left.  At my doc’s orders, I do run/walk because I have spinal arthritis; I also had my old-time San-Disk player, so I came up with a plan to “run 4 songs” and walk 1 song, since most songs are about 2 – 3 minutes or so – and glad I did not have Stairway to Heaven on there, lol, that would have been a long interval – and this ended up working just fine. Also nice was that once we got onto the trails, there were lots of woods on either side of us, so that gave us a nice wind-breaker; all those layers I was wearing, lol, I actually started feeling a bit too warm, so  pocketed the face mask, which helped, but did keep on my hat. My last walk break was just a tad after Mile 2, and shortly after encountered a very nice lady who kindly kept me company for a while as we ran along, unlike me with my memory, she actually did have her timer, so was able to let me know how far we had left. With about a half-mile to go, she told me she was going to push on ahead. I wished her luck and kept going myself. I had one short stop from Mile 2 marker to the finish, but ran just about all that last mile. Saw the finish line and pushed a bit more.  The clock read 45 minutes and my chip time was 44:09, which is about right for the pace I do, I usually average between 12 – 14 minutes per mile,  so my ‘music timing’ worked quite well, lol. Even so, I think I will try to remember my garmin from now on.  I ended up first in the 70-and over males category, mainly because I was the only one in my age group, lol. Even so, I’ll take it.

After My Finish: Very nice little after-party with drinks, snacks – lots of tasty pastries too, I indulged in a couple – and other things. Finisher medal to all finishers, and I got an additional medal for placing. Very nice quality race shirt, but since I do so many races, I have lots of race shirts – including one from this event from a past race – so when I registered I asked for a youth shirt and told them to give it to one of the students. 

Epilogue:  This is a very nicely done event with lots of good people there, including the participants; the many volunteers; some of the music students entertaining us, thank you very much; iaapweb doing the timing, results, and course set up; an official photographer; also indoor restrooms, which was nice, let us get out of that wind for a bit; and local police on-site for our safety, thank you.  It was also nice seeing Mr. Derrick Brown again, the Principal of YMLA; he really does a great job with this event and was our announcer for the awards.  I always enjoy a nice chat with him when I do this event. This event will always be a keeper on my race calendar as long as I am able; although, Mr. Brown, maybe you could say a little prayer to Dr. King in Heaven and maybe ask him to speak to Mother Nature about maybe giving us some really nice weather for this event just a few times in the future, lol. Oh well, either way, I am still going to be there.  Happy running and/or walking to all! Stay safe, and see you next year at this one!