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%2054%20Dont%20Tread%20on%20My%20Tri%205K?sort=2

BEFORE MY START

My 54^th race of 2018 was the 5K of Don’t Tread On My Tri held on July 22 in San Marcos, Texas at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, part of Texas State University  This used to be known as Aquarena Springs and previously had rides, glass bottom boat trips, and so forth  Now it is a learning and research center, but the glass bottom boat rides still do run.  For this event you could do the Tri, or do a portion of the events, such as swim-run, swim-bike, bike-run, and so forth. There was also a tri-relay in which one person swam, another biked and another did the run.  If you were just doing the run – like I was, you had a choice of 5K or 10K.  The swimmers/tri folks started before everyone else, I think their start time was around 7 a.m. or so.  The 10K folks started at 8 a.m. and we 5K folks started at 8:05 a.m.  San Marcos is about an hour’s drive from where I live so I was up early and arrived a little after 7 to see the swimmers gathering for their swim in the spring water pool.  After that I wandered around taking various photos as I waited for the 5K to start.

Swimmers getting themselves ready to go...

They swam to the end of this pool, then went onto a trail to a transition site where they went to their bike or started their run portion, depending on which event they were doing

Various participants, etc

Our MC, Tony, and one of the iaap folks who were doing the timing, results, etc.

With friend Don who did the 5K - his 61st race of the year

My friend Gilbert was slicing watermelon too at the race I did the day before this one.  He gets around.

Friend George and his daughter.  George was a bike lead for participants and is one of the people who laid out our crazy course.  i heard his name taken in vain along the course a couple of times, lol.

61st race of the year for my friend Bernadette

Our music man, Paul

Friend Fernando did the 5K too

10K folks, almost time for them to start

Thanks, volunteers!

One of the early starters for another event

One of the bike leaders/pacers for the runners

Transition area for the runners and swimmers doing the other events

ON THE COURSE

The 5K and 10K were the smallest events being done in number of participants. If I remember correctly I think the 10K has about 18 people and only 2 of them were guys; and the 5K had a whopping 22 people.   So instead of doing age groups, they just grouped each event together and the top 3 finishers in the 10K and in the 5K got awards.  We 5K participants did a single loop while the 10K folks did 2 loops.  This was a really tough course too in the middle of the course.  We started out on paved roads, then went on natural grass, then onto some of the roads in San Marcos.  Right before the first water stop on the course we made a right turn onto a street, went a bit in…and then began to climb….oh my did we climb!  These hills are not crazy ones like in San Francisco, etc., but golly, they were steep enough for we “low-country” Texans, lol.  After the event someone told me the hills we did were something like 720-feet elevation, if I heard right.   Whatever it was, sometimes I felt like I was going straight up, lol.   I did this event last year too and after the first hill I thought okay, pick up the pace again…but I had forgotten about that darn SECOND hill after we went around another road.  This one was shorter but just about straight up.  Killed my time, lol.  I made it up, running, stopping once briefly to take a photo.

After that hill we did a route through a very nice neighborhood that took us to a nice off-road downhill trail.  It was a very gradual downhill too, which was nice because I hate downhills as, with my spine arthritis, downhills pound my back much more than uphills.  I think mentally this was the hardest part of the course, lol, because  you knew what once you got off this trail and hit the pavement again, the finish line was right around the corner.  It was not very far down, but mentally it seemed to take forever to get to that pavement, lol.  I finally did get there, rounded the corner on the pavement and got to the finish line, done in 37:18, about 3 – 4 minutes longer than it usually takes me to do a 5K.  I had done a hilly 5K on July 21, the day before this one, on paved trails and that one I finished in 34-something.  I think maybe for this event my legs were feeling that 5K a bit too.

Oh well, it is what it is, and I did manage to enjoy myself out there, interacting with other participants, taking photos, and just running how I felt.  Challenging course in places, but it is a nice one.  I also thought it was funny that, with my old-man pace, as I was heading down that trail, I actually got lapped by some of the faster 5K folks doing their second loop, lol.  Some of those folks were quite speedy.  I think some of the runners I saw were also those who were doing the run portion of their mixed events.  I made sure to listen for people coming up behind me and moved over to give them right-of-way, did not want to impede anyone.  All in all, yeah, I did a little bit of taking the course planner’s name in vain at times, lol, but I did also have fun.

Our first  course water view, lol, a bit after we 5K folks started

On the roads

Friend Robert was one of the cyclists out there checking up on us

The first hill.....pant pant pant pant...

Looking behind me where I'd just been

A bit more to go...

Another hill around this curve ahead

Uphill 2...shorter but steep

I made it to the top, Ma!  

Behind me...

Nice route through a nice neighborhood on fairly flat roads, thank goodness, and then down the trail we went, heading towards the finish

AFTER MY FINISH

First thing I did was find some iced down bottles of water and a bottle of Gatorade and then found some shade and sipped those slowly to rehydrate and just chill out.  Also ate a banana, just relaxing and enjoying watching everything going on around me, and chatting with friends.   Felt much better after that, so it was Brewski time with my favorite, Alamo Beer, and wandering around taking some after-photos of the various participants, sponsors, vendors, volunteers, supporters, etc.

Yeah, buddy, we made it.

Even the MC gets to enjoy a beer

People finishing their various events.  Nice tree-shaded area to the finish line.

More happy finishers, et al.....

Bernadette finished in 31-something.  Lynn finished in 33-something

Scottydog and....Scottie Dog   

Cheers!  Thanks, Alamo Beer!  The guy on the right is wearing the race shirt.

They both placed and got their award glasses

Before I left, went down to the Springs and relaxed, dipping my feet and legs in and got a couple photos.  Water was very cool and refreshing

Glass-bottom boat tours on the water.....very peaceful by the springs, very relaxing...

EPILOGUE

Nicely done event put on by Scallywompus - www.scallywompus.com/ - whose motto for its event is “Come for the race. Stay for the party.”  And they aren’t kidding.  All KINDS of stuff going on after this event, and all kinds of goodies – beer and other adult beverages, watermelon slices, and other fruits, energy drinks available if wanted, sausage wraps – or maybe it was breakfast tacos – and the vendors were also giving out all kinds of stuff.  REALLY nice quality tech tee race shirt.  Everyone got a unique Scallywompus finisher medal too that was not only a medal but also a bottle opener, cool.  Awards for the overall and division winners in the events were various types of glasses.  Because the 5K and 10K was so small, all the participants got glasses, nice.  The locale was pretty nice too, lots of grassy areas and shade trees post-race and some nice benches by the poo under big shade trees where you could just relax for a while and enjoy the view.  I just love Scallywompus events – already signed up for their upcoming Alamo Beer series of races – and would definitely recommend them to others.   Give one or two of their events a try – or should I say ‘tri” - – I bet you will not regret it.

Mucho thanks to all who made this event happen for we participants – especially the volunteers who had to be up there the day before the event for course setup, getting the transition areas ready, and so forth – and the Saturday they did that the temp soared to a brutal 104 degree high.  Thank you so much, volunteers!!!  Thanks to all the sponsors, including Alamo Beer for the great ice-cold post-race beer, and to all the vendors for all the goodies they provided, plus allowing we participants to be in the shade of their tents and pavilions for a while, that was a blessing post-race.  Thanks to the police officers out there for us and to Texas State University for letting us invade their space for a while – for a fee, I am guessing, but even so, nice locale - and everyone else I may not have mentioned.

700 feet is a lot of elevation gain for a 5k, unless it's a trail race. I think the party after is to make you forget the pain.