Photos are here:          https://photos.app.goo.gl/d7AYZN8Ea4mFz7De7

Before the Start:   My 5^th race of 2025 as the Scallywompus San Marcos 5K, held on February 2 in San Marcos, Texas. This event was one of 4 races for the Texas Hill Country series of races.  There was a half-marathon, a 10K, a 5K run, and a 5K walk, with staggered start times.  We 5K folks started last at 8:35 a.m.  The half folks went first, followed by the 10K and the people doing the 5K walk. I mis-read the start time for the 5K and got what I thought was a late start from home, so was putting the pedal to the medal to get there on time; I didn’t even know my old car could go that fast, lol. When I finally did arrive on race time, it was around 8:14 so, thinking I had to get going quick, I ran to the packet pickup table to get my bib….and they told me no, the 5K start time was 8:35; well, shoot hen, I had plenty of time, lol.  Got my packet and then proceeded to get a few pre-start photos. The half-marathoners had already started and the 10K and walkers would be starting pretty soon.  We had some very nice weather for this one; lots of runners like some cloud cover; me, I like running when it is sunny and warm and today we had ‘abundant’ sunshine, almost no cloud cover, and a temp of 57 degrees at the start; nice.  This is also a dog-friendly event so the doggies were very happy to see me, lol, after they found out I had a pocketful of dog treats.

On the course:  We started in the parking lot area of the Tanger Outlets mall area, full of various stores, shoppes, places to eat and, nicely, indoor restrooms. We proceeded to go through the parking lot to a point that brought us out to Center Point Road on the north side of the mall, where we mad a right turn and went onto a paved asphalt road.  It was flat for a while – a very short while, lol, and then we began to climb.  The course is mostly up-and-down hills to the turn-round, and then we do it in reverse on the way back to the finish. The hills are not really steep, just kind of long in places; I was thankful for that, as I am still getting physical therapy for my ankle that I had a stress fracture on back in November.  I showed my therapist photos of the course, and he said I was okay to do this one, just take it easy, don’t push it, which made me laugh, since my pace is about 13 – 15 minutes per mile these days as I still have some cancer treatment side effects, and while I get my ankle strong again; push it indeed; lol.  For this one, I was just a ‘Clairol’ runner –  Nice ‘N Easy’, lol – and took a couple more walk breaks than I usually take to get a few extra photos.   After the turn-round, back we went, the way we had come out, with the sun at our backs now as I continued my 8-minutes run/2-minutes-walk thing.  As we came down the last hill, I saw the outlet’s huge American flag flying (hand-salute!), so tucked my camera away and did about ¾ of the last mile non-stop.  I ended up with a chip time of 44:35, averaging 4^th in my 70 – 79 males age group. There were only for in my age group, lol; we all placed because the awards went 4 deep.

After My Finish:   I got a few photos of others coming into the finish and got a photo with my friend Jill, who did the 5K also.  Since this is a Scallywompus event, there were all kinds of goodies and services, such as grilled sausages; beer; margaritas (I think); cold drinks, water; photo backdrops; a massage therapist on duty; and all kinds of other sponsor booths;  I enjoyed a cold beer – one is my limit as I was driving – and some gatorade and water as I wandered here-and-there getting some after-photos.

Epilogue:  This is a really nicely done event.  I have not done it in a while, so it was good to be back. Very nice course; finisher medal to all finishers; nice quality race shirt; and the age group awards were various types of wine glasses, depending on where you placed. There were also several fellow veterans at this event, so I enjoyed swapping stories with them about our experiences. I would recommend this one and definitely will do it again sometime.  Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for we participants, e.g., all the sponsors and volunteers; the patience of any drivers that were on the course, as the road was still open to traffic; and to all the mall area employees and customers who were there at the time of the event; Pushbutton Photography for their camera work; our MC, Anthony, doing his usual great job; iaap for the course set-up, timing, results; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned; thank you all! Hope to see y’all again at future events.