Photos are here:     https://photos.app.goo.gl/t6cuFJwAPgTyd7y79

Before The Start:   My 14^th race of 2026 was Freda’s Run 5K: A 5K Run/Walk for the Arts.  Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was a Mexican painter and cultural icon known for her self-portraits and works inspired by Mexican nature and artifacts.   This was my 2^nd 5K of the weekend after doing the St. Paddy’s 5K the day before this one at Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas.  This event was held at McAllister Park in San Antonio, Texas, with a start time of 9:30 a.m.. As I live very close to McAllister Park, I got to sleep in a bit. I got to the park with about an hour to go to start time, got my packet, and then got a few pre-start photos as I wandered here-and-there, chatting with other participants, supporters, and volunteers. Also, as this is a dog friendly event, I handed out treats to the dogs that attended.  Per posted results there was a total  228 finishers – walkers and runners – for this event. Several were in “Freda” costume, some of them very imaginative and colorful.

On The Course:  I did my usual run-8-minutes/walk-2 minutes and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks and also handed out treats to dogs I met – including some of the dogs of non-event park users who were out walking their dogs.  The last mile I pretty much ran non-stop.  The majority of the course was a loop course on paved trails that gave us a nice tour of most of the park, followed by an out-and-back on one of the park roads before heading to the finish line.  We started on the street where the park’s lower soccer fields are, passing by the youth baseball field before we turned onto the paved trails of the park.  The first trail took us behind the soccer fields.  We could also see the baseball diamond to the right.  We made a left turn onto another trail and this tool us to one of the park roads, just down from Becken Pavilion.  We crossed over this street and then looped around another trail that took us generally in the direction of the police sub-station near the park.  However, we did not take the substation trail; we stayed left and went across a park road, passing by a course water station. This trail looped us around until we came back to the original trail we’d started on, where we had first entered it.  We made a right turn and then went to a turn-round point. After making the turn-round, we then headed in the direction of the finish line, once more passing by the baseball field and then the soccer fields before entering the start/finish chute. Whew!  My garmin showed a finish time of 44:55.  The timing chip had my finish time at 44:45, good enough for 2^nd in my 70-99 age group as, lol, there were only two people in my age group.

After My finish: I was handed my finisher medal and then stood out of the way at the back pf the finish chute and got a few photos of others coming in. After that, I wandered around again, like I had before the start and got some “Happy Finisher” photos; I call them that, lol, because you ever notice more people are smiling after the race than before and during?  I also continued to hand out treats to my dog friends. I was very popular with the dogs, lol.  A few of them even tried to follow me around. I ended up 2^nd in my age group.  I guess #1 had already left, as I was the only one in my age group on the podium. Well, I sat on the podium, jokingly telling our MC, and my friend, Anthony, that I got a bit of vertigo if I stood on things that made me be in “high” places.  There was also a “Freda Costume” contest which was pretty entertaining with the winner-by-applause getting a nice prize.   After that, stayed a tad longer, getting some more photos and chatting with others and then it was time to head on home.

Epilogue: This is a very nicely-done event orchestrated by my friend and iaap co-owner, Ceci Iniguez; she did a great job with this event – and she had a pretty nice costume herself. The course was really nice and well-thought-out and had two water stations, if I remember correctly. We also had a nice day for it; very little wind; ample sunshine; and the temp at start time was 71 degrees; a little warm and humid for some, but perfect for me, lol. I much prefer warm temperatures. The finisher medals are really nice and the race shirt is also really well done.  The age-group awards are really unique and themed for the event; there were various types of dolls; and my 2^nd place age group award is this box with a clear plastic front and inside is what looks like a hand-drawn picture of Freda and showing some  of her art:  panoramic view of some city buildings, water towers and a church; pretty cool. I’m assuming this panorama has something to do with Freda’s personal and career history. Post-race there were various kinds of drinks – including beer – and various food goodies.  The race shirt is really good quality and nicely designed, with Freda on the front; no printing on the back; and the finisher medal is really nice.  I would do this event again and would recommend it to others. 

Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us participants:  Ceci, of course, along with the whole iaap crew that did the course set-up, timing and results; our course marshals and the volunteers at the two water stations on the course; the bike lead guy for the faster participants; all the race-day packet pickup volunteers and all the finish line volunteers handing out the finisher medals and water to those who wanted it; the two Park Police officers and the EMT folks there for our safety; and a thank you to all non-race patrons of the park as we invaded their space for a while; also thanks to our MC, Anthony, doing his usual great job, and our music-and-sound lady who was cranking out some tunes for us before-and-after. If I missed anyone, my apologies.

Whatever your passion is, may you always enjoy it safely and have much success. If you’re a fellow runner/race participant and see me at an event, give me a shout-out; love chatting with my fellow runners, and we can get a photo together for my race report I do for each of my events.