Photos are here:     https://photos.app.goo.gl/xxjvWs1bLJViUQy7A  

Before the Start:  My 69^th race of 2025 was the Dios de la Muertos 5K held on Sunday, October 26, at McAllister Park in San Antonio. This was my 2^nd event of the weekend, after doing my 68^th race of the year the day before this one at Morgan’s Wonderland.  Dios de Los Muertos is a traditional Hispanic culture holiday involving family and friends gathering to pay respects and remember friends and family members who have passed away. There are often various types of celebrations, some solemn, some taking on humorous memories of loved ones who have passed, and so forth. At some of these organized events, people often gathered, wearing various types of costumes in honor and celebrations of these passed relatives. Such was the case with this event, organized by the Iniquez family, a family of very talented runners who own and operate iaap (iaapweb.com), putting on several outstanding running events over the year. This one is a very popular event, ending up having over 300 finishers, both runners and walkers. It had a 9:30 a.m. start, so I got to sleep in a bit, as I live pretty close to the park, and arrived there around 8:30 am.  After getting my packet, I then enjoyed chatting with friends and other participants, and getting a few pre-start photos.  This event is also dog-friendly so, as usual when dogs are at the events I do, I handed out a few treats to them.

On the course:    There was a kids run before the start of the main course, and then we got going after that. The course was an out-and-back, starting on the road near the Lower Soccer Fields at the park. The road took us past the soccer fields, then past a baseball field and then we turned onto trail that took us in the direction of the park entrance on Jones Maltsberger Road. However, we did not go that far. At a trail intersection we turned left, going past Becken Pavilion. Afte passing the pavilion we continued down the trail and then took a left turn that brought us onto one of the park’s main roads. We turned right onto this road and began heading toward our turn-round point. We wound around this road, making a left around a curve that got us heading in a direction going toward the start/finish area. About halfway down this road, we came to the 5K turn-round sign and water station. We then went back to the finish line the exact way we had come out. I was feeling pretty good, so ended up running the last ½ of the course nonstop to the finish, ending with a chip time of 41:12, finishing 4^th in my age group, finishing 4 minutes behind the guy who came in third.

After My Finish:  I stood near the finish line and go a few photos of others coming in. After that, I went in search of water and just relaxed for a few minutes as I drank some water and orange juice. I then went wandering around chatting with people there and getting some after-photos of fellow participants, volunteers, supporters, etc., and handed out some more treats to the doggies there.  There was also a costume contest, which must have been difficult for the judges because there were some pretty imaginative costumes at this event.  After that, the awards ceremony was done. A very speedy young lad ended up first overall male with a time of 18:48, wow.  I foresee running scholarship in his future if he keeps that up. Overall female was a member of the Iniquez family – all the family members of this family are very talented runners – and Bethany is no exception, she averaged a 6:36 per mile pace, wow. Well, shoot, I can do that too…for about 15 seconds, lol.   

Epilogue:   This is a really well-done event – as are all the Iniguez family races I’ve attended over the years.  The age group awards were designed with the theme of the race, these small boxes with little Day of the Dead cutout figures inside. All finishers also got a really nice finisher medal; there were two finisher medal designs, one with a skeleton running with a dog, and the other with a skull on top of a kind of butterfly body below it. I had originally gotten the one with the dog – just luck of the draw, that’s the one a volunteer handed to me at the finish line – but I ended up trading that one with my friend Carolyn, since she runs with a dog and had wanted one of those, but they were gone by the time she finished. I did not mind trading as I usually donate any medals I get to disabled kids and/or kids with cancer, since I was a disabled kid, born with dislocated hips, and have beaten cancer 4 times; so  it was all good with me.  I will most definitely keep on doing this event in the future and would certainly recommend it to others.  A popular event like this takes a lot of work to organize and Race Director Ceci and her family did a great job with it, as did all the many volunteers there, so much thanks to all of them. Also thanks to the Park Police Officers out there for our safety – I knew a couple of them -and thanks to our water station volunteers; all the people that did packet pickup for us; the EMT on site for us; our MC and my friend, Lana, another Iniguez family member who also did a great job for us; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!  Whatever your passion may be, may you always stay safe and have much success.