Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/k2xZRs5jQUBg7RRo6

Before The Start:  My 41^st race of 2026, held on July 18^th  was the Stars and Stripes Drive-In Movie Theater 5K, held at – you guessed it, lol – The Stars and Stripes Drive-in  Movie Theater, lol.  Put on mby my friends at Athlete Guild, there were several events for this one:  half-marathon; 10K; a 5K run and a 5K Competitive Walkers event; There was also a Kid’s Run.  I had a bit of a challenge this year getting to the race site. I left pretty home in San Antonio pretty early – 5 a.m., but all the I-35 north access roads in my area were blocked due to ongoing construction. We drivers out there ended up being directed by the traffic police there in a very roundabout way to FINALLy get onto I-35 North, so I’m glad I started out early. It did not help for navigationally challenged me, lol, as I had written down the wrong exit number to get to the theater. I ended way beyond where I was supposed to be, good grief and lol, so knew I had gone too far, so I turned around and went back the other way. I did stop at a 24-hour Burger King and the two ladies there were helpful in getting me back on track. I also a police car, so stopped and asked the officer for the correct exit. He told me not to worry about it, he was going that way too, and was going to be one of the officers on duty at one of the roads on the way to the theater, watching traffic, so he led me to the correct exit and then pretty much “escorted” me to the race site; so the lesson here is if you don’t want to go on a “mystery tour” when I travel, don’t travel with me, lol.  After finally arriving at the race site I got my packet and got my race bib on and then got some pre-start photos.  Our temperature for this event was 79 degrees, with humidity of 88 percent.

 On The Course:   The half marathon started first, followed by the 10K, and then the 5K runners and competitive walkers all started together. I did my usual thing of run-8-minutes/walk-2-minutes and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks. We started near the theater, going away from the theater, first on a bit of a gravelly surface and then onto an asphalt suface, heading down the theater exit/entrace road. At the end of this we made a right turn and had a very short bit of level ground before climbing a fairly long uphilll. Near the top of this first hill, we then made a left turn, continuing up another fairly long hill, passing a couple of residential homes along the way. When we crested this hill, we then began a loooooong downhill, where we got to Mile 1.  I am not fond of downhill running, as I have some spinal arthritis and downills pound my back a bit more than uphills do.   Some of the speedier participants in the events that started before the 5k were already heading for their finishes, wow; these folks were really moving fast. On this road we also passed the course water station, so thanks to those volunteers being out there for us. We also had been told prior to our start that there was water on the course from all the recent rain, so be awar of that. After going down the hill, the water on the course was actually at a flat section of the course before we started up another hill – shorter than the one we’d just come down – and it was not too deep at all on the right side of the course – just a few inches deep –  so the majority of us passed over the ‘water hazard’ on that side.  Once we crested the second hill, we then went down a fairly flat road that took us to the 5K turn-round, and then went back in reverse of the way we’d come out – which meant that very long downill we came out on was now a very long uphill.  I’ve been practicing in my training runs doing the last mile of a 5K non-stop, so pretty much ran the majorty of the course back to the finish with just a few ‘quickie” stops to get a couple of photos. The water station folks were still out there for us so I made a quick stop to get a photo of them and then proceeded on up that long hill.  After cresting that, since the way out had been mostly uphill, we now had to negotiate a very long downhill before finally turning back onto the theater entrance/exit road. We had a very slight uphill on this, and then the last ¼ mile or so was all flat back to the finish as we passed back through the theater “gate” area.   I ended up with a chip time of 46:20, averaging 15:55 per mile and my garmin showed I had a negative split for Mile 3, nice. I ended up 3^rd in my 70-74 males age group. There were only 4 in my age group, lol; even so, I’ll take it.

After My Finish:  I did a short cool-down walk, then got some water and then just sat for a while with my friend, Alan, as we just relaxed and rehydrated a bit. After that, I wandered here-and-there, chatting with other partcicipants, supporters, volunteers, etc., and got some after-photos.  This is also a dog-friendly event and there were a few dogs there, so I handed out some dog-treats to them, with permission of their humans.  The theater staff also offered free hamburger, fries and soda to all race particpants; umm, a bit too early for my old-man system to digest that stuff, lol, so I passed on that and just took in some Gatorade and water.  I also got a couple of photos of the theater’s staff members to thank them for being out there for us and told them where my blog is, so thy could save their photos if they wanted to. They are all very nice people, enjoyed chatting with them for just a few quick minutes as they were very busy preparing and handing out all the goodies to the runners who did want that free burger, fries, and drink.

Epilogue:  This is a very nicely done event, put on by Athlete Guild.  The course is hilly – not as hilly as those hills at The Rim or in Helotes, Texas or at Eisenhower Park, but still gives you a pretty good workout, so I’m glad I do hillwork at least once a week to help me with courses like this. The event is very nicely done and all the people out there for us did a great job – Athlete Guild Team; all the race-day packet pickup folks; the theater staff members; the water station volunteers; Mark Purnell doing his usual great job for us as MC;  all the law enforcement officer out there for our safety; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. One very nice thing too that the organizers let us know: in our race packets was a thing to scan when we got home and for July 18 and 19, we would get a major discount on the registration price for this event if we registered on these days for the 2027 event, which I took advantage of; the total registration price, with taxes, fees, etc. turned out to be just a little over $17, wow, nice.  So I am registered for this one next year, especially now that I’ve figured out how to get to the race site, lol.

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.