Photos are here:     https://photos.app.goo.gl/pmUxF9XSzn3ZUY4G9        

Before The Start:  My 38^th race of 2026 was Race #3 of the e-Dragon San Antonio Summer Series. This series includes 5 races held over the summer at various local San Antonio parks. The races help provide a scholarship to a male and female student after the completion of the 5-races series event.  Race 3, held on Sunday, July 5, was at Ladybird Johnson Park in San Antonio with packet pickup from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., and a scheduled start time of 7: 30 a.m. This was my second race of the weekend, after having completed on Saturday the 4^th of  July “Let Freedom Run 5K” in Schertz, Texas, with the route being the city’s 4^th of July Pararade route.  Per posted results, there were 116 finishers for this event. I arrived at the park shortly after 6 a.m., got my race packet and then got a few pre-start photos.    

On The Course:  The 5K was an out-and-back done on the paved concrete trails of the park. We started by going around the park’s traffic circle, and then went down a paved incline that took us to the park’s main paved trails. After my Saturday race on the parade route, which had a 9:15 a.m. start and had virtually no shade at all along the course, making it feel very hot – temp of 81 degrees at the start, with a “feels like temp” of 91 and a heat index of 101 –  I appreciated that this park had lots of shaded areas along the way.  I did my usual thing of 8-minutes-run/2-minutes walk and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks.  At the bottom of this incline we made a left turn that started us heading in the direction of the Los Patios Shoppes area. We did a couple of up-and-down inclines on this route, but nothing that could be called a serious hill. Our longest incline, up on the way out and down on the way back, was just a bit past Mile 1 on the way out and before Mile 2 on the way back, was just after we crossed over a bridge on the way to the turn-round.   Overall, I felt pretty good, and as usual ran my “sedate” running pace, lol, averaging a 14:37 pace per mile.  My speedy walking friend, Peggy, was near me for just about all of the course, sometimes passing me by when I took my walk breaks and then me catching up to her and passing her by after my walk breaks were over.  We do a lot of the same events over the year and have this “leapfrog” thing going on at most of them. After making the turn-round, which was near the Loop 410 frontage road in the Los Patios area, I pretty much ran almost non-stop to the finish, with just a few quick stops of less than a minute to take a few on-course photos of some of my friends that I saw and of some of the course, like the bridge we crossed twice, and the incline we came down at the start and had to climb up as we went to the finish. After cresting that last incline, I ran around the traffic circle, and crossed the finish line with a time of 44:06, averaging 14:12 per mile; per my Garmin, my last mile was a negative split, nice.   

After My Finish:  I did a short cool-down walk while sipping some water and then stood near the finish area, getting some photos of others finishing, including friends at this event.  I did not have to wait long for my friend Peggy to come in, lol.  After the turn-round she had pretty much been close behind me for most of the way back to the finish. She is a very talented and strong walker and finished only about a minute and some change behind me.   After that, I wandered here-and-there, getting some more photos, and also got an award for being 3^rd in my 70-99 males age group. I got a nice ‘award coin” and all participants also got a nicely-done small pin too with the race name on it.

Epilogue:  This is a really nice event, organized and put on by e-Dragon Productions, owned by my friends, Erik and Kristine Burciaga.  They are a family of very talented runners too. When I was on the course – not even close to the turn-round yet – I saw Erik and one of his young sons already heading toward the finish; then as got closer to Los Patios area, I think I saw another son of his, younger than the first son I’d seen running with Erik, also heading to the finish and he was also way ahead of me, lol; Kristine, who today was doing packet pickup and more, is also a very talented runner.  Hmm, I think I need to get a transfustion, lol, from these family members.  Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants, e.g., the Burciaga family; our MC, Anthony Zamora doing his usual great job for us as our MC; all the many volunteers that helped with packet pickup and the setup and takedown of the  start-and-finish-line area; manned the course water station; the J&B photography folks that took all the ‘official’ event photos; race management company iaap that did the timing and results – primarily my friend Rafa Iniguez with iaap, who was the only iaap timer there for this event; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!
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 if you are so inclined, we can get a photo together for my race report I do for each of my events I sign up for. Stay safe, stay happy, and enjoy what you do. Cheers