Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bmUNeLaAQxnHtNpd9
Before the Start: My 28th race of 2025 was the first race of E-Dragon Productions SA 5K Summer Series, held on Sunday, May 18, at Martin Luther King Park in San Antonio. The series includes 5 events of 5K races held in various San Antonio parks from May to July. The event supports The E-Dragon Scholarship Fund, established from fund raised by the 5K Summer Series and donations by the running community. Start time for these events is 7 a.m. for the Kid’s run and 7:15 a.m. for the main event, with packet pickup from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. on race days only. This was my 2nd race of the weekend, after completing on Saturday a 5K in New Braunfels put on by an American Legion post there. I arrived on-site, just past 5:30 a.m., one of the first few to arrive, so I got some good parking, and then just waited for packet pickup to start, chatting with other early-bird arrivals. Packet pickup started right on time. After getting my packet I then got a few pre-start photos. There were 115 finishers for the 5K.
On the course: Everything started right on time. The National Anthem was played, the Kids did their thing, and then the 5K started. The course was out-and-back on the paved trails of MLK Park. Weather was dry and humid, with the temp already in the low 70s when we started. The course was pretty flat, with a few up-and-down inclines you could not really call hills; we did have lots of shade from the trees along the park trails. The worst part of the course for me was the bridge that went over Salado Creek that flows near the park trails; that darn thing shakes when even just one person goes over it, so multiple people on it make it shake pretty well, and a swaying motion like that sometimes kicks up my BPPV (a mild form of vertigo; so I can’t go on boats either) so I got over that darn thing as quickly as I could. I did my usual run/walk thing (8-min-run/2-min walk) and took photos during my walk breaks. I ran for a bit with friend, Mary, but when I took my first walk break, she surged on ahead, although I had her in my sight for most of the course. The last ½ mile I mostly ran non-stop, catching up to Mary and for the last bit we were running side-by-side, but when the finish line came into view, she surged ahead once more, with me just a bit behind her. I ended up with a chip time of 41:09, about 10 seconds behind Mary, and my last mile was a negative split, nice. There were only two in my age group, me and speedy friend Jim, who finished waaay ahead of me in 25 minutes and change, so I ended up getting an age-group placer medal.
After My Finish: Dang, it was humid! I went and sat in my vehicle for about 15 minutes, with the a/c on full blast and drank some Gatorade I had put on ice; felt much cooler after that, lol, so went back out to get some post-race photos and chat with friends, other participants, supporters, sponsors, etc, and cheer on the age-group placers and the overall male and female placers. My friend, Bob, was overall male winner in 20-minutes and change, dang, that pace in that humidity. The overall female was even faster doing 18 minutes and change, good grief.
Epilogue: e-Dragon always puts on a variety of good events over the year – some of them pretty challenging, since the co-owner, my friend Erik does not seem to know the definition, lol, of the word ‘flat’. Just kidding, Erik. Very nice age-group award medal with a code on it that you can use to get a discount when you register for upcoming e-Dragon races. The company Dragon was even out there for photo ops – that person must have been pretty warm in that costume on this humid morning, so much appreciation to him/her for doing that. Very friendly course – except for that darn bridge, lol – and a lot of good camaraderie among the participants before, during, and after. I would certainly do this one again and would recommend it to others. Much thanks to all who made this one happen for us: the packet pickup folks out there so early for us, and all the rest of the race-day volunteers there for us; iaap race management company for doing the timing, results; all the sponsors/vendors that supported this event; and Erik, again, since he was also did bike-lead duty for the 5K, as well as his kids that were there too; I’ve seen a couple of those youngsters run and they are faster than me, lol; and anyone else involved that I did not mention here. Thank you all so much! Next up for me: Freedom Run on May 24 at LBJ Park in San Antonio, followed on Sunday by the American Hero 5K at Comanche Park in San Antonio.
Whatever your exercise passion is, I wish you all to be happy and safe with it.
Scottydog Reports 