Photos are here:      https://photos.app.goo.gl/CcCAkS9vC7iv5g7r5

Before the Start:   My 81^st race of 2025 was the El Santa Run 5K held at Mission County Park #1, with a start time of 7:30 a.m. This was my second race of the weekend, after doing the Jingle Paws Classic 5K on Saturday. This event was put on by Andiamo Race Productions, with timing and results done by race management company iaap.  I left home pretty early and arrived at the race site around 6:30 a.m., one of the first few participants to arrive. The Andiamo crew was still setting up the race area and organizing things for race-day packet pickup. My friends, Johnny, and Keyes and his friend, arrived shortly after me, so we just relaxed a bit and chatted about this-and-that as we waited for race-day packet pickup to get started. The Andiamo crew had everything in order pretty quickly. After getting my packet and getting my race bib on, I wandered around pre-start, chatting with other participants that were now arriving pretty quickly and got some pre-start photos. There were several participants and supporters in some very interesting and imaginative costumes. This is also a dog-friendly event, so I handed out treats to the dog there, with permission of their humans.  After I gave him a treat, one dog, a really beautiful Great Pyrenees that belonged to our MC, kept going for the back pocket of my running shorts, lol, every time I passed by him; he knew exactly where the treats were, lol. There was a stretch session before we got started; The National Anthem was played, and then we were off. There were 246 finishers for this 5K. The weather for this one was at 61 degrees, with no wind, abundant sunshine, and a pretty high humidity of around 86 percent.

On the course:  The course was an out-and-back on the concrete paved trails of the Mission Reach part of the San Antonio Greenway System of trails, and very hilly.  I did my usual run/walk thing and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks.  The start was done in waves, releasing about 15 to 20 participants every  few minutes or so, to allow participants to have some maneuvering room. After crossing the timing matt, we immediately made a left turn that took us down a fairly steep, short hill.  We then had some level running, and then went up a fairly long, but not too steep uphill, with some nice views of the San Antonio River on our right. I was feeling good and went along pretty well. We then had a bit of flat for a short while – a very short while, lol – and then climbed again, topping this hill at the first water station on the course- what, no beer? Lol.  After the water station, we went downhill, then around a bend and uphill again, and then went beneath a bridge, and on a long downhill, with the river still to our right. This downhill got us onto a flat part of the course with a view of a bridge ahead that was the 5K turn-round point, and some nice views of the river on our right. At this point, AI pretty much starting ignoring my garmin notifying me of walk breaks and pretty much ran nonstop from underneath the bridge all the way back to the finish, with just a few short quick stops of maybe a minute or so to get some oncourse photos and then was off-and-running again.  After getting to the bridge, I got a photo of our turn-round course marshal and then proceeded to head back to the finish line. Now, of course, that very steep hill we came down to get to the turn-round was now an uphill for us.  That was the toughest hill on the course, in my opinion. As we passed by the water station again, I jokingly asked the volunteer there for us “What, you didn’t send anyone for the beer?”  By now the speedier participants had most likely already finished, so we middle-and-back of the pack folks had plenty of room for our trip back to the finish.  I  chatted and ran off-and-on with several different participants on the way back and got a couple more quick photos. We finally went onto our last downhill, and could see ahead of us the finish line area – which was now an uphill for us.  I had been running for the last ½ mile or so with a very nice young lady – her name went out of my old-man head, so when I saw the finish I told her “Let’s get it done..” and off we went, making pretty good time. I finished  a bit before her, with a  chip time of 40:35, averaging 13:04 per mile and, per my Garmin had negatives splits for each mile, with my last mile being done in 12:42, nice.  I got a photo of her finishing and then, staying away from the timing matt, went  back out on top of the hill and got a few more photos of others coming into the finish. 

After My Finish:   After getting those finisher photos, I then wandered around the pavilion area again, chatting with participants, volunteers, supporters, vendors, etc.; handing out more treats to the dogs there, and getting some after photos.  Santa Claus was there too by one of the photo backdrops, so lots of folks wanted photos with him. Our MC actually got a whole lot of participants and  supporters do crowd around him, and the official event photographer took some photos of them. This race Santa is actually a friend of mine, so after things got less crowded around him, I got a photo with him.  Our MC announced the awards – the first overall in each age group got an award; I was second in mine; and the overall male and female also got prizes. She is the human of the Pyrenees dog and had the dog beside her, but while she was doing her thing, the dog saw me, and kept trying, lol, to get to my pocket where I had the treats; so I finally went and stood beside the dog, so she could keep doing her thing without having to keep pulling the dog back, lol.  After she finished the awards, I gave her a handful of treats for the dog, so he would not keep wandering after me, lol. He’s a very friendly and beautiful dog.  I also got a photo of some of the family members, my friends, the Iniguez family, who are owners of iaap race management company which, in my opinion, is the top-notch San Antonio-based race management company.  They do events for several things all over the state of Texas.  Finally, it was time to go – as usual, I was one of the last participants to leave – so headed out, making a stop at the very nearby JBSA Fort Sam Houston fitness center where I enjoyed a nice, hot shower that felt great, and got into some dry clothes, so I did not have to drive home all sweaty

Epilogue:  Andiamo Productions has a series of 4 races each year and if you do all four, you get a nice medal for that. I only did this one for this year.  The company always does a great job with their events, and they are very worthwhile to do.  The finisher medal for this one is very nice, and the race shirt is a really nice quality long-sleeved shirt. I do so many races in the year, I often donate my race shirts since I’m running out of drawer space, lol; but this one is a keeper. The course is challenging – lots of climbing up-and-down – but well thought-out with lots of room for all, and very nice views of the river. I will definitely do this one again in the future and would recommend Andiamo events to others.

Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for us participants:  All the people who organized this one for us; all the many volunteers out there for us participants; the law enforcement officers on-site for our safety; our sound and music guy; and my personal friends of iaap who did the timing and results in their usual great manner.  Also, all the race sponsors and patrons; and, as this course was open to others not doing the 5K, e.g., other runners, walkers, cyclists, etc., thanks to them for their patience with us.  From where I was on the course at any given moment, the cyclists were really good about calling out as they came up behind us, so thanks to them for that.  Also, many thanks to those on the course who were running with me at various course spots, as we chatted and encouraged each other on, which is always very helpful; and to our official photographers whose photos will surely be much better than mine, lol, taken with my old-time pushbutton Canon camera; and to anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!

Whatever your personal exercise passion is, may you always be successful and may you always stay healthy enough to keep on doing it.   Maybe you will see me at a future event sometime; if so, give me a shout-out and we can chat and maybe even get a photo tother, if you are so inclined.  I have one more event to do this year, a 5K at Ladybird Johnson Park on December 27^th. Happy and safe holidays to you all.