Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PKnhvHdN4VKxUeqN8
Before The Start: On Sunday, July 12, 2026, I did my 40th race of the year, the Popsicle Dash 5K, held at Mission County Park in San Antonio. There was also a 10K and a Kids Run. This event This was my second race of the July 11th – July 12th weekend; on Saturday, July 11th, I completed the Bigfoot Racing Sharkweek Showdown 5K. The Popsicle Dash is one of a series of races put on by Lonestar Running Company. Participants can signup for all the series for indivdual races. The timing and results for this event was done by Sun & Ski Sports. I arrived at the race venue around 6:45 a.m., got my race packet and then got a few pre-start photos. It seeme like “Old Home Week”, lol, as several of my friends who had also done the Bigfoot Racing event on Saturday were also here for this event. Per race results posted on RunSignUp website, there were 91 finishers for the 5K and 22 finishers for the 10K.
On The Course: The 5K and 10K participants all started together at 7:30 a.m. Both events were out-and-back, with the 5K course being one lap and the 10K course being 2 laps. Our weather for this one was, as some TV weather folks report “abundant sunshine” with a temp of 78 degrees and with the humidity a ‘feels like” temp of 81 degrees. Our start and finish area was on a paved trail trail located right in front of a WWII cannon on display, pointing righ in the direction of the starting area; talk about motivation to keep you moving, lol! A gentleman beautifully sang The National Anthem and then we got started. The paved path took us past the park’s main pavilion area to our right and then we went onto a paved trail of the San Antonio Riverwalk that is adjacent to the park. Once we exited the park, the hills began right away as we made a left turn upon leaving the park and immediately went down a fairly steep downhill. We had a very short flat bit for a couple of minutes and then began climbing again, with the river on our right as we headed for our turn-round. This course is just about ALL hills, with the only flat parts of the course being the start/finish area, and a flat part of the course just before we get to the turn-round; all the rest of the course is either uphill or downhill. These hills are not as steep as, for example, the paved trails at The Rim or Eisenhower Park, which have REALLY steep hills, but one still gets a pretty good workout on these hills and also some pretty nice views of the river, which was on our right heading for the turn-round, on our left heading for the finish. I did my usual thing of 8-minutes-running-2 minutes walking, due to my spinal arthritis which is ‘active’ now, so can’t run non-stop anymore for the whole race distance, and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks. I felt pretty good overall and usually will run the last half of a 5K non-stop; however, one of my BAMC docs – my orthopedist – knows I am a runner – he is a runner also – and reads my blog – like he’s chekcking up on me lol, to make sure I’m behaving – and he knows this course, so he sent me a message saying since pretty much ran the last half of Saturday’s race non-stop, then today I should “behave myself”, lol, and take all my walk breaks for this event; well, okay then; so I behaved – somewhat, lol – and took a few extra walk breaks to get some photos and I only ran the last half-mile non-stop to the finish; that counts as behaving, right? Lol. I finished with a chip time of 45:32, averaging 14:41 per mile. Per my garmin my splits were Mile 1: 13:40. Mile 2: 15:52 – took a few more photo breaks on this mile to get photos of the river, etc. – and Mile 3, negative split of 13:43. I was first in my 70-99 males age group primarily because I was the only one IN my age group for the 5K, lol; even so, I’ll take it!
After My Finish: I stood near the finish line area, far enough away to not impede other incoming fnishers, but close enough to get a few photos of others finishing. It was easy to distinguish the 5k partiipants from the 10k participants as we 5K folks wore blue bibs and the 10K participants had green bibs. I then took a short break and went and sat in my car for a bit with the a/c on full blast to help me cool off a bit, and “refreshed” myself with some iced down water and gatorade I had brought with me. After that it was back to wanderring around the race area chatting with other participants; friends; supporters, vendors/sponsors; two law enforcement constables there for our safety, one of whom was a fellow veteran; and I also handed out some dog treats at this is a dog-friendly event; met a very cool dog named Reese and his owners let me have a photo with him. We were friends-for-life after he got a couple of treats from me, lol. There was no awards ceremony for each age group, only for the Top 3 overall in each age group; however, participants could check at the Sun and Ski Sports tent to find his/her age group place and If you were first in your age group, you received another medal, with a ribbon had printed on it “First Place”; so those who were first place in their age groups got an additional medal.
Epilogue: This event is very nicely done and is part of a series of “Dash” races that include The Lemonade Dash, the Popsicle Dash, and the Watermelon Dash, which will be the next race in the series. You can sign up for the whole series or each race indidually. Each race has post-race snacks and food/drink appropriate to the name of the race; so the next upcoming event – the Watermelon Dash – will have watermelon at that event. All these races are held at Mission County Park this year. I got to meet the Race Director and also some of the folks with Sun & Ski Sports. This is a very nicely organized event, one I would recommend to others, and I certainly will do some of their other events in the future.
The finisher medal and the age group medal for the top finishers in each age group are both nice and creatively done. The race shirt is a singlet, simply done with the race name on the front of the shirt and no printed advertising, etc., on the back of it. Pre-start and post-race, there are all kinds of various snack available, as well as lots of water and some other drinks from vendors, etc. Mission County Park is also nice because it has good indoor restroom facilities and also water fountains. Thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants, e.g., Sun & Ski Sports; Lone Star Running Company; the phographers there – I don’t remember the company name – who were taking all the ‘official’ race photos; the two Constables there for our safety; and, of course, all the many volunteers there for us doing race day packet pickup duties; manning the course water station; the guy who sang The National Anthem for us; 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.
Scottydog Reports 