Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SzXkpm8m8xP1tAcv8
Before The Start: My 63rd race of 2026 was the Battle of Leon Creek 5K held on Saturday, November 14th at Tuscany Venue in San Antonio. Sometimes my friends are suprisied to see that I am still running as actively as possible, since I am currently being treated by BAMC for melanoma skin cancer, with Keytruda injections; however, my oncologist has encouraged me to stay as active as I can since the doc told me that aerobic exercise helps improve outcomes both during treatment and post-treatment, so he told me if I feel up to it, then definitely continue running. Put on by race organization Scallywompus, this event was the 4th race in the organization’s Alamo Beer series. Participants could sign up for all 4 races at once and get a nice discount, plus an additional medal for doing all 4 events; or sign up for the races individually. The events for this race included a 20-miler; a half-marathon; a 10K; and a 5K. I signed up for the 5K for this one. I had picked up my race packet the day before race day so after arriving at Tuscany Venue I wandered around getting some pre-start photos and chatting with other participants; volunteers; supporters; representatives of the sponsor organizations for this event; and many friends that I saw there. I arrived at the race site at about 0720, so the 20-milers were already gone as their start time was 0700; the half startedt at 0725; the 10K at 0745; and we 5K participants started at 0845. There was also a timed 5K walk, if I remember correctly. All he courses were out-and-back. Rain had been predicted for this day, but forecast changed a couple of days before the start. At the 5K start time, the temperature was 56 degrees with a mix of overcast skies and some sunshine, and humidity around 84 percent.
On the course: The 5K was the last to start. Because of that we encountered some of the participants from the other events making their way to their finishes. I knew several of these people and so there were lots of ‘shout-outs’ to encourage each other along our respective routes. I did my usual thing of run-8-minutes/walk 2-minutes and got some on-course photos during my walk breaks. After crossing the start timing mat, we went onto a paved road in front of the start/finish, going down a short incline. This took us to a trailhead that got us onto a paved concrete trail. We proceeded along this trail, going up fairly long-but-not-too-steep hill, and then had a bit of flat for a while, going underneath an large overpass and after that overpass, we climbed up a fairly long hill. . We then had some flat again for a while but soon came to a short downhill that got we 5K folks to our turn-round. Of course since we had come downhill to get here, we then had some fairly good climbs, both uphill and downhill on the way to the finish. After going back underneath that overpass, we had a really fairly steep and long uphill climb. After cresting that, we then had a mostly flat rest of the way back to the finish line, with the exception that once we got off the trail and back onto the paved road we’d started on, we did have to climb a short hill up to the turn-in to the Tuscany Venue area to get to the finish line. For the majority of the last mile, I pretty much ran non-stop – including that last long uphill we had to do – course plotters for these races for us sometimes have a warped sense of humor, lol. I ended up with a chip time of 45:11, averaging 14:33 per mile, ending up 4th in my age group, since Scallywompus gives awards 4-deep.
After my finish: I got some photos of others finishing, and a couple of the finish area volunteers who were handing out the finisher medals to participants after they crossed the finish line. After that, I did a short walk, getting some post-run gatorade and then resumed wandering all over the race venue getting some more photos of happy finishers and supporters and chatting with a whole variety of people.
Epilogue: Scallywompus has a motto of “Come for the race. Stay for the party.” They are not kidding either. There were all kinds of post-race goodies, including kiolbassa sausages; beer; margaritas and other adult drinks; fresh fruits; various give-away things from the sponsors and vendors, and so forth. The award for placing is a souvenir Scallywompus glass. I’ve gotten quite a few of these in the past; so many that I have no more cupboard space to put anymore, so I donated mine to one of the volunteers who was out there for us. I don’t usually sign up for each of the whole series of races that Scallywompus puts on each year, but I do sign up for a few each year that I like individually. They are very well organized with a lot of partying going on afterwards. The finisher medals and the race shirts are very nice quality; and, as noted a whole variety of post-race goodies. I will continue to sign up for various Scallyompus races and would recommend them to others….except for that one in Helotes, which has SUPER crazy hills on it. I personally hate that darn course, lol, because that is where I ended up with a stress fracture on a very steep downhill and ended up in a boot for 6 weeks; but that’s just on me, not on Scallywompus, as I can be a klutz at times when I run; most people do quite fine with it.
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 healthy enough to do them.
