Photos are here:     https://photos.app.goo.gl/4mVFMXvLuqjtkbeBA

Before the Start:  My 16^th 5K of 2025 saw the Scallywompus Wanderlust 5K, one of the events in the Scallywompus Texas Hill Country series of 4 races. This event, held in Fredericksburg, Texas, included a half marathon; 10K; 5K; and 5K competitive walk.  All events started and finished at the Fredericksburg Town Square area.  I got up fairly early and left early as Fredericksburg over an hour’s drive from where I live in San Antonio.  The drive mentally felt long, and there was one lane closure along the way on Interstate 10-west, but that went pretty quickly. There was also a lot of fog and spitting light rain every once in a while. The hardest part of the drive for me was when we turned onto the Route 87 that took us into Fredericksburg; lots of steep hills to drive up-and-down an done of the most boring roads ever that I have been on, lol. Mentally, it felt like it took ‘forever’ to finally get to Fredericksburg.  I finally did get there, found some pretty good parking, picked up my packet, and then enjoyed chatting with others there, and getting some pre-start photos and, as this is a dog-friendly event, handed out doggie treats, making new 4-legged friends. There were quite a few dogs at this event.

On the course:     The half started first at 8 a.m., followed by the 10k and competitive 5K walkers at 8:45 a.m. and then we 5K participants at 9 a.m.  It was quite a crowd for each race; the 5K alone had 370 finishers. The National Anthem was played and then each event got started right on time. I heard post-race from the half marathon participants that they had one heck of a steep hill to climb on their course. I’m not sure if the 10K had hills. As for us 5K folks, our course was pretty flat for most of the way with just a few mild inclines to go up/down; for the most part it was pretty flat. The course went through the neighborhoods adjacent and behind the town square area. The weather pretty much cooperated too, with a temp around 68 degrees – I prefer running in warm weather, lol – lots of cloud cover, and the humidity was not too bad at all. I did my usual method of 8-minute-run/2 minute-walk – can’t run a whole event nonstop anymore due to my spinal arthritis – and took some photos during my walk breaks. I ran most of the last mile non-stop, ignoring my watch beeping to take my last walk break.  I ended up 2^nd out of 3 participant in my 70 to 74 males age group, with a chip time of 39:47, averaging 12:49 per mile. Per my Garmin, I also had negative splits, with my last mile being 12:19, which was nice. I have not seen that pace result since before I had my prostate cancer in 2021, so it looks like I am gradually getting back to my old running self.

After My Finish: A young lass handed us our finishers medal and then I stood a bit away from the finish mat and got a few photos of others finishing. After that, I went and got some water into me, and wandered around getting some after-photos of participants, volunteers, supporters – including the dogs, of course; I was very popular with the dogs, lol, since I had treats. Age group award was a nice wine glass but, as I have done a lot of Scallywompus events over the years, I am running out of shelf-room for them, lol; so I gave mine to a nice lady who is a wine drinker, which I am not, and continued to wander here-and-there, chatting with lots of people there and getting post-event photos.  I saw my friend Elaine, and she told me the organizers had run out of finisher medals – I guess there was a bigger turnout than expected – and a friend of hers had done the 10K  – her first one if I remember correctly – so I gave my medal to Elaine to give to her friend.  I usually don’t keep my medals anyway.  I toss them into a box I have and after I get enough of them, I then donated them to the Morgan’s Wonderland Multi-Assistance Center (The MAC) to give to the disabled kids being helped there or to one of our local hospitals to give to kids fighting cancer.  The young lady was very happy to get the medal and I got a photo with her – except I forgot, lol, that I had the VW Bus magnet part of the medal in my pocket, so I will have to give that to Elaine next time I see her to give to her friend.

Epilogue:  Scallywompus put on these Series events over the whole year, that each include The Alamo Beer Series and The Texas Hill Country Series.  Each series includes 4 events.  One can sign up for each individually or for all  four at the same time and get a registration discount. The Scallywompus philosophy is “Come for the race. Stay for the party.”  They are not kidding, either.  They throw quite an elaborate post-race party with all kinds of food vendors, both alcoholic beverages (wine, margaritas, and more) and nonalcoholic beverages.  There was another pavilion across from the main pavilion where one could get grilled sausage wraps, all kinds of various food items, including fresh fruits, various candies, and more.  Music was provided by the DJ, my friend Paul, and very nice finisher medals for each race.   The magnetic finisher medals for this one were also “hippy-themed” and had a VW Bus magnet that attaches to the medal.  Race-themed dress is encouraged for each series. For the Wanderlust, which had a 60s and 70s hippy theme, several  participants and supporters showed up in tye-dyed shirts, bell bottoms, big wild sunglasses/glasses – reminded me of Sir Elton John, lol – and all kinds of various themed items; fun stuff.  One guy I was near on the course ran in his bell-bottomed pants, leather vest, etc., and he was pretty quick too, he was in front of me the whole way. Fun stuff.

Mucho thanks to all the folks that mad this one happen for we participants:  Our Race Director who I think was my friend Tony Garcia; our MC Anthony Zamora doing his usual great job; our DJ Music Man, Paul; all the many volunteers there  for us doing race-day packet pickup; being course marshals; handing out medals at the finish line, providing water and other drinks for us, and so forth; the law enforcement and medical people there for us; Pushbutton Photography folks taking the ‘official” race photos – far better than my amateur ones, lol; the bike lead folks for the speedy participants – I wonder if one of them had to ‘bike lead’ up that steep half-marathon hill – all the people who came to support their friends or family runners and cheered all of us on; all the race sponsors; and anyone else involved here I did not mention; thank you all!  Next event for me is Give Cancer The Boot 5K on April 5^th, put on by UT Health.  See you there if you’ve signed up. Happy and safe-and-successful running to all!