Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/HfXeMGu5eywQqz2w9       

Before the Start:   My 14^th race of 2025 was the Shamrock Shuffle 5K held on March 15^th at Ladybird Johnson Park in San Antonio, Texas.  Put on by local running company iRun Texas, this event raised funds for Transplants for Children. The race start time was 8:30 a.m., with a Kids Run at 8 a.m.  There were 425 finishers at this event.  I arrived with just under an hour to go and got a few pre-start photos. This is also a dog-friendly event so, after handing out treats to a couple of them, I became very popular with the dogs there, lol.

On the course:  Major wind was predicted to arrive in San Antonio around 12 pm.  There was a bit of light wind, but nothing very serious and while we were on the course there was just about no wind at all.   We had abundant sunshine with a nice temp in the low 60s.  The course was out-and-back.  We started on the traffic circle at the park, making a loop around this, and then heading down a short incline to the park’s paved off-road trails.  We had a few up-and-down inclines along the way, but nothing you could really call a major hill.  The course took us toward the Los Patios Shoppes area and the 410-frontage road, which was our turn-round point, where we went about face and returned to the start/finish line in reverse of the way we had come out.  With 425 participants, the course was a bit crowded in the early stages but, from where I was at any given point, everyone was very courteous about it all, giving way to the faster participants.  The park was also open to non-participating users, so we did encounter some cyclists and other runners and walkers doing their own thing; they, too, were pretty polite about it all, from what I saw at any given time on the course. I did my usual 8-minutes-running/2-minutes-walking and took some photos during my walk breaks.  I am not speedy by any means – averaging 12 to 14 minutes-per-mile with my run/walk and photo stops – and was feeling pretty good the whole way.  After taking a walk-and-photo break just after mile 2, I then ran back to the finish non-stop, ignoring my timer when it beeped for me next walk break. I ended up with a chip time of 40:10, averaging 12:48 per mile, which is pretty good for my usual slow self, lol. I did not place in my 70 – 74 males age group; I am not sure where I placed or how many there were in my age group; I could not find any online posted age group results for this event. Even so, I made my two primary race goals: finish standing up and no ambulance waiting specifically for me, lol.

After My Finish:   I got a few photos of some others coming up the last incline as they headed to the finish, and then wandered around, chatting with other participants and getting photos of happy finishers, supporters, volunteers, etc.   Post-race goodies included Shiner Bock beer – which was turned green by some method – as well as some nutrition bars, bottled water, bananas, and more.  The awards ceremony was done at the park’s main pavilion – it’s only pavilion – and the age group awards were these small green plants.  The overall female and male winners each got a brand-new pair of Saucony running shoes. The awards were presented nicely by our MC, who kindly started with the oldest age groups first, so we could get home and get our nap after this outing, lol. Epilogue:   This is a very nicely done event put on by iRun Texas, well-organized and managed. The course is very nice, with off-road paved trails large enough to accommodate a lot of participants. Each finisher got a very nice-quality small finisher medal.  The race shirt is very nice quality too; I passed on the shirt, since I do so many races each month, I am running out of room for shirts, lol, so iRun folks at packet pickup gave me a free pair of running socks instead, nice.  Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for we participants:  iRun; Split Second Timing;  all the many volunteers for packet pickup and race day; the EMTs and police officers out there for our safety; Shiner Bock Beer, Saucony, and all the other sponsors; our MC, Anthony Zamora, doing his usual great job as MC; and everyone else involved that I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!  Hope to see you at a future running event sometime.