Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AXoVhvGo9qkZhaEc6
Before the Start: My 10th race of 2025 was the Trail to Eagle 5K held on Sunday, February 23, with start and finish at Olmos Basin Park in San Antonio. This was my 2nd race of the weekend, after doing Diploma Dash 5K on Saturday. This even was to help raise funds to help Eagle Scout Thomas Murray with his Eagle Scout community project of building a musical sound garden with outdoor musical instruments, to be installed at McAllister Park. The weather for this one was much better than for the one on Saturday. The rain had moved out and we had sunshine and blue skies, with a temp at the 8:30 start time of around 43 degrees, and no wind. I arrived about 40 minutes before the 8:30 a.m. start time and got some pre-start photos. There were also a few dogs in attendance, so I also handed out treats to them. I was very popular with the dogs after that, including one specific dog, Dutch, who is very friendly and a real hoot, lol; appropriately named too; he looks just like one of the Dutch Boy Paint dogs I used to see on TV in their commercials when I was growing up.
On the course: We started in the park, going on the park’s main road. The course took us over to one of to the park’s off-road paved trails. We did a short stint on this, crossing a wooden bridge and then went across a parking area. This brought us onto Contour Avenue, where we turned right and began a climb up a long hill. It was not all that steep, but it sure was long, lol. When we got to the top, we then turned right – I think this was McCullough Drive but may be mistaken – and then went to a turn-round point. After making the turn-round, we went back to the start/finish line the way we had come out. It was a nicely thought-out course, very accessible to walkers and runners. I did my usual run/walk thing of 8-minutes-run/2-minutes-walk, and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks. After getting back onto Contour Avenue, I ran the last part of the course non-stop to the finish. I usually do a 5K in about 43 minutes or so, but for this one I managed a chip-time finish of 40:10, averaging 12:56 per mile, which was good enough for first place in my 70-99 males age group.
After My Finish: I got a few photos of others coming into the finish and then headed back to the area where race-day packet pickup was, along with our music-and-sound-guy, and where the awards ceremony would be. I got a few more photos of participants and supporters and also some photos of those who earned age-group medals.
Epilogue: Very nicely done event. There were 96 finishers, 64 male and 32 female, so not a huge number, but this only made it feel like a big group of friends had gathered on this day to help this young man out. For the time on the course, since it was out-and-back, as we participants passed each other by, there were lots of supportive call-outs of encouragement, which was nice. All the volunteers for us on the course were also very supportive, cheering us on. Post-race, there were grilled sausage wraps, lots of water, of course, and various other things. The goodie bag for this one is pretty nice too, with a nice water bottle, 2 bags of Rico’s Air Popped Popcorn, nicely designed race shirt, and so forth. When I did packet pickup, our Race Director asked me if I had ordered the wrong size shirt. No, lol. I do so many races over a year, I am running out of drawer space for them; so I usually order a youth-size shirt, and then donate it to either the Multi-Assistance Center at Morgans Wonderland, which helps kids with disabilities (I was a disabled kid) or to the kids’ cancer ward of UT-Health or Children’s Hospital. Since this event is for a specific project, I don’t know if this is a one-time race or if it will be held again for some other good cause. If so, I will certainly do it again would recommend it to others. Much thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us, e.g., our Race Director and her family members; all the many volunteers; Athlete Guild for course-setup, timing, and results; law enforcement officers out there for our safety; our music-and-sound guy; Thomas, who did a good job with the awards ceremony; iRun Texas for allowing packet pickup at one of its locations; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all! Next up for me: Kick Cancer Pep Rally on March 1st, at Pickrell Park.
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