Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hs3K8cxTFXfsbh5dA
Before The Start: My 61st race of 2026 was the Trails Fur Tails 5K held at McAllister Park on Sunday, November 1st. This event supported Alamo Area Partners for Animal Welfare (AAPAW), a 100% volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit coalition founded in 2007 to support independent animal rescue groups, shelters, veterinarians, and animal welfare advocates in the greater San Antonio region. This event, naturally, is dog friendly, so of course, as usual, I had dog treats in the pockets of my running shorts. Race day packet pickup time started at 7:30 a.m, with a start time of 9 a.m. at the park’s pavilion that is across from the lower soccer fields and down from the baseball stadium of youth leagues. I got my packet and then wandered around getting some pre-start photos, handing out dog treats, and chatting with some of the race volunteers and sponsors, and with my friends from race company Athlete Guild that did the timing and results and laid out the course for us. This was a fairly smaller event with results showing 81 finishers, 42 males and 39 females, and several dogs not counted that were running or walking with their humans. The weather was pretty nice cooperative too: now wind at start time; 73 degrees and humidity around 83%.
On the course: I did my usual thing of 8-minutes running/2 miuntes walking and got some on-course photos during my walk breaks. We started right on time, heading from the start line past lower soccer fields on our right and heading toward the youth baseball stadium. The course was very flat, which was nice, and took us on some of the park’s paved trails that had a lot of trees, which provided shade for just about the whole course. After going past the youth baseball stadium, we then went down a short path and made a right turn that took us on a paved trail going alongside the back fence of the soccer fields After getting to the end of the soccer fields we curved left onto another trail that wound us around for quite a bit, eventually taking us past the police sub-station on Jones-Maltberger Road that is adjacent to the park; I could see Old Glory flying proud on the police station grounds. This part of the course took us along a wooded and brushy area on our right, with some views of a man-made floodwater retention dam and basin, created to help prevent the park from flooding during heavy rain. This was a fairly long and curving paved trail that took us out to a road just down from Becken Pavilion. We crossed over this road and continued on the off-road paved trail across the street. By this time, with my pace and with only 81 participants I was pretty much by myself on this part of the course. I could see my friend, Ralph, ahead of me for a while, but he soon got way ahead of me as I continued on. Also, for most of the course, there were chalk-marks on the trails making sure we were going in the right direction, but for some reason this last trail we were on had no directional chalk marks. Thankfully, since my neighbohood backs up to the park, I run here quite a bit, so I pretty much knew where I was going; but even so, it would have been nice to have it “chalk-mark” verified that I was still on the right course, lol. I finally came around the last curve on this trail and there was the volunteer at the first trail intersection we had passed when we turned onto the first trail we did; so I knew I had about just a half-mile left to get to the finish. I made the turn that started me heading to the finish line, passing by the youth baseball field again and the soccer fields on my left this time, and then into the finish chute. I ended up with a chip time of 47:16, averaging 15:13 per mile, finishing 3rd in my 60-99 males age group.
After my finish: I stood back from the finish line and got photos of a couiple of others finishing, and then did a short cool-down walk, as well as handing out some more treats to the doggies who were near the finish line area. I had brought a cooler with some iced down gatorade so went and got that and slowly sipped that as I began wandering around again getting some more photos and handing out more treats to the dogs. There was an awards ceremony at the pavilion with only the first in each age group getting an award and photo. I took photos of some of the awardees – including my speedy friend Nancy who was first in her age group – and then also of some the AAPAW organizers and volunteers who were conducting the awards part of the program; and, of course, lol, handing out some more treats to any dogs who were at the pavilion, and also one more dog I met on the way backto my vehicle to head home. After I got home I watched the Dallas Cowboys blow a big lead and lose; and the Washington Commanders end up winning, so it turned out to be a pretty good football day too for me.
Epilogue: A fairly small turn-out event – there were several other races today around the area also – but very nicely done by the organizers. I’ve done this one in the past – and wore my race shirt that I got from that previous event – and it is always nicely done. Many of the sponsors and vendors also had a lot of give-away stuff that included various treats like large chocolate-chip cookies, various candies, pins, and other types of souvenir things. Also nice was that there was a restroom building with “indoor” bathroom facilites, which sure beats porta-potties, lol; however, there were porta-potties just right down the road from the race site, near a large parking lot beneath the upper soccer fields at the park. This is a very nicely done event, one I will continue to do in the future and would recommend it to others. Mucho thanks to all who made this one possible for we participants: AAPAW and all the vendors and sponsors for this one; Athlete Guild for the course set-up – they actually laid out the course the day before the event; the Park Police officers out there for our safety; all the volunteers out there for us, doing course Marshal duties to keep on on the right course; and also, as this course was also still open to other users of the park not doing the race – runners, cyclists, walkers, etc – thanks for their patience with us; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all so very much!
Whatever your passion is, may you always enjoy it and may you have much success at it and always stay safe doing it! If you are a fellow race participant, race volunteer, organizer, or whomever and you see me at an event, give me a shout-out. I’d be happy to get a photo with you. God bless and may you be successful in all your endeavors and may you always stay healty enough to do them.
