INTRO  

I am Scott aka Scottydog aka Scotty Dogg, runner since 1983, cancer survivor – caught very early, so I actually had a fairly easy time of it - retired Air Force, employee of University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), friend of dogs, fun-runner, and all-around punster and goofball.  In 2003 I had spinal arthritis flare up and ever since then I’ve done the run/walk method since it hurts my back too much now to run continuously with no walk breaks.  I’m on what I call my “2F Plan” which stands for Fun and Finish.  My only goals for a race these days are finish everything I start, have fun along the way, and finish standing up with no ambulance waiting for me.  At events that I now do for fun I carry my camera, chase “Great Legs” to help motivate my slow old man self to keep moving forward, and take pictures before, during, and after the race. Sometimes I even get a nice post-race sweaty hug from one of the Great Legs ladies.   I then do a pictorial race report of my events.  I also carry dog biscuits with me to treat any dogs I may meet at a run – unless it’s a mean dog; then the biscuit goes in one direction and I go in another.  Hence my nickname “Scottydog.”

And a big thanks to runningahead.com for allowing me a “home” for my many many MANY race reports and photos.  Great site, free training log; calendars; running routes; maps; conversation forums for runners; and much more

I don’t have great camera skills and take photos with a camera that is like me  - old fashioned, lol - so sorry if a photo appears a bit blurry, etc.  However, they are free to save, share, etc.

Here is yet another of my photo reports.  Full report below.     

Link to photos only:

http://s166.photobucket.com/user/scottydog69/slideshow/2018%20race%20reports/2018%20Race%20Number%2089%20UIW%20Jingle%20Bell%205K?sort=2

BEFORE MY START

My 89^th race of 2018 was the University of Incarnate Word Jingle Bell 5K held at 5 pm on Dec 15.  This was my 2^nd race of the day, after having done Run To The Pantry 5K in the morning.   This was a fairly small event with maybe 100 or so participants. I arrived with about an hour to go to start time and got my timing chip – no bibs for this one – and got a few pre-start photos.  My friend Bernadette did this one also.  This was her 103^rd race of 2018 for her.  The theme of this race was run under the Christmas Lights.  The university really goes to town during the holidays and Christmas lights are lit up in quite a lot of places on the campus. Of course we could not see them during the run since we started at 5 pm and it was still light, but we got to enjoy the lights post-race.

Where we started and finished.  It's nice that the university has a place where student can go to get engaged......ah, true love..

Three old guys

With a race volunteer

Cooking up the sausages for post-race

Santa in the house

Various participants, volunteers, etc. 

Getting ready to start

ON THE COURSE

The course was 2 laps around the campus, taking in some of the nice trails at the back of the campus.  The course was pretty well marked but apparently I don’t listen to instructions well as I did the trail part of the course twice when I was only supposed to do it once.  On my 2^nd lap I kept looking at my watch and saying to myself this is either one really long 5K or I am really getting slow, lol.  So instead of 5K, I actually got in 3.5 miles.  Still placed 2nd in my age group, with a really skewed time of 38 minutes and change, giving me something ‘officially’ like 12-minute miles, although for the distance I actually did, I was going a bit faster than that.  Oh well, it’s all good and I just laughed at myself about it and enjoyed my award and some of the post-race goodies.

On the trail part of the course

Back on the streets

Course volunteers

Bernadette finishing up her 2nd lap as I'm heading out on my 2nd lap

After that last photo, nonstop running all the way back - taking the longer route, lol. 

AFTER MY FINISH

No post-race beer for this one like my morning 5K, but they did have sausage wraps, bottle water, some ‘snack-type” stuff, and there was also a food truck present; so we also had the option to buy some food from the truck, which several people did.  I took a few post-race photos and also got a couple of photos of the Christmas lights.

Happy finishers, supporters, et al...

The age group awards were these hand-carved wood blocks

Hey, Scotty, hold your award up, dummy!

There you go....

A view of some of the Christmas lights before I left

EPILOGUE

This is a nice little event, very friendly people and a pretty nice course.  Nice post-race goodies and the age group awards are very unique.  Pretty nice quality race shirt too.  I would do this one again and would recommend it to others.

Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us:  organizers and volunteers, sponsors, vendors,  the law enforcement folks out there for us, keeping us safe, and anyone else I may not have mentioned here.  Big shout-out for what all of you do so we participants can have an event.