Photos are here:     https://photos.app.goo.gl/Xsp2JYgnr7RgiKSu6   

Before the Start:   My 8th 5K was Street2Feet 5k, held on Sunday, February 16^th at Brooks City (formerly Brooks Air Force Base) in San Antonio. This was my 2^nd 5K of the weekend, after doing the Aiden Alexander Memorial 5K on Saturday.  Street2Feet 5K program, founded in 2008 by Race Director Lana Hernandez, is a wellness program for those experiencing homelessness in San Antonio. It promotes health in mind, body, and spirit”, using walking or running a 5K as a medicine. The start and finish at Brooks City was at Hanger 9. Built in 1918, Hangar 9 is an historic setting at the former Brooks Air Force Base.  It is one of the oldest aircraft storage and repair facilities. Now used as a special event facility, it was named in 1976 as a National Landmark. Race start time of at 8 a.m.  I arrived around 7:20 a.m. Someone told me that about 300 people had registered for this one, both runners and walkers. In checking the results from iaap, the company that did the course set up, timing, and results, there were actually 352 finishers, so a very nice turn-out for this one.  After arrival at the race site, I enjoyed chatting with friends and other participants and getting some pre-start photos.  This is also a dog-friendly event, so I handed out a few treats;  I was very popular with the dogs there after that, lol, including the dogs of two of my friends. These two dogs –  Lucy and Luna – always recognize me when I show up at a same event they are doing and come right for me, lol, to get a treat.  I always carry treats when I run. If one chases me on a run, I toss the dog-treat in the other direction, and the dog usually goes after that, giving me time to walk away in the other direction. If the dog is friendly, then I give it a treat, if its human gives me permission. Hence my name “Scottydogg (yes with 2 ‘g’s to make it unique) since my first name is Scott. Just about all my running community friends call me this now, lol.

On the course:  When I first checked the predicted weather for this event – on the Thursday before race day – the predicted forecast was a temp of about 47 at the 8 a.m. start time, with sunshine, and wind at 5 mph, so not bad.  Well, that sure changed on Saturday evening, when a cold front moved in. At start time, the temperature was 41 degrees, with a ‘feels-like’ temp of 37, and the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 mph, good grief. I am not a fan of cold; I am probably one of the few runners who actually likes running in warm weather; 60 to 75 degrees is fine with me, lol. After seeing the new forecast, I layered up like crazy with two base layers and my race shirt on top of that, as well as a pair of long-legged running tights designed for cooler weather; a hat on my head and gloves on my hands. Even with all this, that darn wind was still tough to run in, but at least I felt comfortable. The course was an out—and-back on the paved concrete/ streets of Brooks City.  We started on a street just to the side of the hangar, and then made a left turn that put us with out of the wind for a bit.  These streets are very wide, making lots of room for everyone to maneuver. We made a left turn onto another street that put us right back into the wind, and that took us to a turn-round point.  After making the turn-round, the wind was still blowing, but it felt a bit weaker on this part of the route; I have no idea why, but I was thankful for it, lol.

After going down this part of the course, we then made a turn that took us toward the 2-mile marker. Again, the wind felt a little weaker along this part.  After the 2-mile marker, we ended up going back onto the second street we had been on after the start. This took us back to the start/finish street. When we turned onto that, I could see the finish line ahead and tried to pick up some speed, event though, on this last part of the course, the strong wind was blowing head-on, right into our faces, good grief. Never-the-less, I kept on pushing ahead as fast as my old-man legs would let me and crossed the finish line.  I ended up with a gun time of 42:07 and chip time of 41:46., finishing 2^nd out of 4 in my 70-99 males age group. My speedy friend, long-legged friend Jim, was first with a chip time of 27:57, zowie. Our friend Roland, was 3^rd, so we were all happy that each of us had placed.