Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/unEdGYpuU1KDG3gR6

Before The Start: My 4^th race of 2026 was the River Road Run 5k held on January 10^th, in Comfort, Texas, at Comfort City Park.  Put on by race organization Scallywompus, this event featured a half-marathon; 10-miler; 5K; and a competitive 5K walk.  Considering that a cold-front moved in for the weekend of this event –  it was 36 degrees at 7 a.m. with a pretty strong wind blowing when I left home to go to Comfort – there was a pretty nice turnout for this one. There were 335 finishers for the 5K; 72 finishers for the half;, 52 finishers for the 10-miler; and 36 finishers for the competitive 5K walk.  The 5K start time was 9 a.m.  I got there just a little before 8 a.m., in time to see the half-marathoners starting their event.  The 10-milers and competitive 5k participants started at 8:30 a.m., and we 5K participants started at 9 a.m. After getting my race packet. I then wandered around, getting a few pre-start photos and handing out some treats to the doggies there, since this is a dog-friendly event.  The wind was blowing pretty darn good so, even though I hate wearing hats, I wore a hat for this one, along with some liner gloves and a pair of windproof gloves over those as AI have some mild arthritis in my hands, making my hands at times really feel the cold.   All the events pretty much started right on time.

On The Course: The course was on paved roads. As usual, due to my spinal arthritis, I did my 8-min-run/2 minute walk thing and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks. We started from Comfort City Park, heading out of the park entrance and then going onto past some local businesses and family residences. During this part of the course, the wind was surprisingly low-key, so I guess we were getting a windbreak from the structures we passed by. That did not last long, though, maybe a half-mile or so, and then we were in the wind again. We still had just some pretty mild up-and-down inclines, until we came to a bridge that took us over the Guadalupe River.  After crossing the bridge, we then went up a pretty steep hill and then, after cresting that hill, we really had some wind blowing on us. This road took us past a power station on our right, and then we made a right turn onto another road that took us up to a course water station.  I kept going past that and saw my friend Ralph heading toward me on his way to the finish. He stopped to take a photo of me and shouted at me not to go past the 2-mile marker; well, okay then. I got to the 2-mile marker, turned around and headed for the finish.  I kept thinking, wait a minute if this is 2 miles and I saw where the 1-mile marker was, then this course is going to be long for me. I checked with some other runners around me, and they had the same thoughts as I did, this course was going to be a bit long. We all kept on going, of course, went back past the water station – and found out later, this should have been our turn-round for the 5K, but there was no turn-around marker or sign – and just kept on going. We turned back onto the Power Station road and that long downhill we had coming out was no an uphill with the wind blowing pretty good on us as we went up it. After cresting it, we then went down the hill to that bridge, where I stopped briefly to get a couple of photos from the bridge.  After that, I pretty much ran nonstop to the finish for the last mile, and as we approached the finish, that wind was right in our faces.  I finished 3^rd out of 3 in my 70-79 males age group, with a chip time of 48:50 and my garmin showed I had done 3.5 miles, so because some of us had not turned around at the water station, which was our 5K turn-round, we did go long.  I heard there were few complaints about it, but most of us just took it in stride…no pun intended. I figured I’d just got a few extra bonus-running minutes, lol.  We did find out from our MC that there had been a sign at the water station, but that crazy wind picked up the sign and blew the thing into the field behind the water stop table, and they could not get it back as they were busy and also had a pretty large barbed-wire fence to contend with if they’d tried.

After My Finish:  Got my finisher medal – the thing is huge – and then went and sat in my car for a while, warming up again. After that, I wandered around the race area chatting with friends and other participants and getting a few after-photos, including the finish line volunteers that were handing out the medals. At least we were moving; they had to stand there for hours in that wind until all the finishers were done, so I thanked them for that.  Since there were only 3 in my age group, I got an age group award, which was a very nice small Scallywompus drinking glass. I like this smaller glass lots better than the larger ones they used to give. As noted, the finisher medal is nicely designed and very large, and the race shirt is nice quality too. Epilogue: Scallywompus motto is “Come for the race. Stay for the party.”  They are not kidding, either.  There was all kinds of things going on post-race, with adult beverages served, as well as non-alcohol beverages; and grilled Kiolbassa sausages; fresh fruits,, and more. There were nice backdrops for photo ops, and folks from Pushbutton Photography took photos before, during, and after the races, so check out their site for the race photos.  Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants, e.g., all the many volunteers; our music man Paul for playing the tunes; all the many sponsors for this event; the patience of the residents and the drivers on the course as we invaded their space for a few hours; our EMT folks there, just in case; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!   Whatever your passion is, may you always stay healthy doing it and be successful in reaching  your goals.