Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hXwd8jXr7tFvHQkN6

 BEFORE MY START: My 6th race of 2020 was the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Stampede 5K held on Feb 1^st.  Start and finish location was on Alamo Street in downtown San Antonio near HemisFair Park. San Antonio’s  annual Rodeo and Stock Show Days are always in February, and the event raises a whole lot of money for local student scholarships, so it supports a good cause.  Nice turn-out for this event with 344 finishers.  The race started at 9:30 am., so a late start, got to sleep in a bit, and then was followed by a parade atarting at 11 a.m., in which cowboys  had a ‘cattle drive’ and herded some Longhorns and other cattle right down Alamo Street, which was a sight to see.  I arrived at the start location with about 45 minutes to go to start time so before the start I wandered around and got a few pre-start photos.

ON THE COURSE:  This course gave us some nice views of things in downtown San Antonio. We literally started and finished the race in a corral, lol. With a view of the Tower of the Americas to our right.  After passing Hemisfair, it was down Alamo Street, passing in front of The Alamo and then a left turn onto Houston Street.  We went down Houston Street, getting a view of San Antonio’s newest skyline feature, the modernly built Frost Tower.  Due to some ongoing construction, we did a short loop-around, coming back to Houston Street, and then proceeding back to Alamo Street.  We then went back toward HemisFair.  A short ways up from the finish line we turned into HemisFair, going onto the pedestrian walkways.  We then did a little jaunt by the Gonzalez Convention Center to a turn-round point, then back to the main walkway in the park. Our last little jaunt was going up to the Tower of the Americas, circling around that, and then back down the walkway to Alamo Street, where we turned left and then went straight back to the corral to cross over the finish mat.   Given all the construction and activity going on downtown, pretty nicely laid-out course by the iaap race management folks with what they had to work with.  Well done!   As for how I did, well, my first mile was way too fast – 10:23 – shoot, I didn’t even know I could still do a 10:23 mile, lol; I guess my pacemaker is finally letting me ‘gear up’ a bit – and I paid for that with a slower time for 2-miles; but then from mile 2 to the finish, did a negative spit for that mile – and from Mile 1.6 to the finish, I did run nonstop all the way –  and ended up with a finish time of 34:42, averaging 11:10 per mile.  I was happy with that, and felt pretty good.

After My Finish:  Right after I finished, got a few photo of some other finishers coming in.   After that, back into the pre-and-post race activity area, where I found the food and water. Relaxed a bit, enjoying a sausage wrap and my water, and then went to find the beer and get some after photos.

EPILOGUE:   This is the 2^nd time I have done this event.  I did it last year and the participation was way lower than this year.  I guess word got around how nice this event was, and what a nice course we had.  Also, lots of post-race goodies, finisher medal to all – nicely designed with steer horns and a cowboy hat – and we even had a band on the premises, providing live music for all of us to enjoy.  We also got a really nice quality long-sleeved tech-tee race shirt – orange too, my favorite color, and very comfortable wearing – which I think will become one of my favorite shirts.  The goodie bag was also jam-packed with stuff, including passes for the San Antonio Rodeo, various food coupons for local eateries, and even some Longhorn Horns that you saw some people wearing in the photos that I took.   Definitely will be doing this one again and would certainly recommend it to others.  Early registration is recommended though; this is a popular event and as you get closer to race day the entry fee does go up quite a bit.

MUCHO GRACIAS to all the people that made this one happen for we participants:   San Antonio Livestock and Exposition (SALE), the folks that oversee all this; all the stock show and rodeo folks;  all volunteers; police officers that were out there for us; iaap for the timing, results, etc; and, of course, all the sponsors and vendors that contributed to help pay for all the services, goodies, etc.   Also, thanks to anyone else involved that I may not have mentioned here.