Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/GMvjrufrYb47SP1b7

Before The Start:    Held on Saturday, August 5, 2023 at Ladybird Johnson Park in San Antonio, The Alamo Beer 5K was my 43^rd race of 2023.  This was the first race in a series of 4 races for The Alamo Beer Series of races put on by running company Scallywompus.  There events for this first race in the series:  half marathon; half marathon relay; 10K; 5K; and 5K competitive walk.  The half folks started at 6:30 a.m., followed by the 10K at 7:15 a.m. and then the 5K at 7:55 a.m. I arrived at the park shortly after 6:15 a.m, in time to see the half marathoners start and get a few pre-start photos before all the starts.  Their course took them to McAllister Park, then brought them back to LBJ park to do a turn-round in this park, and then back to the finish. The 10K also went to McAllister Park and did a turn-round there and then came back to LBJ to finish.  After the half and 10K folks left, I chatted with some of the 5K participants, got a few photos, and slowly sipped some water so I’d be hydrated for the event.  Texas in August is pretty darn warm – especially this year.  At the 7:55 start time, we had a temp in the upper 70s and the humidity was way up there too.

On the Course:  We started right on time, in 2 waves, with the faster participants leading out about 3 – 5 minutes before the other participants. Then the slower-paced runners – that’s me, lol – started after therm.  The course was on paved trails in the park. No real hills to speak of, just a couple of up inclines and down inclines. I did my usual 8-min-run/2-min-walk thing and  took some photos during my walk breaks. The course took us from the park’s main area, down an incline and then onto the trails. Once on the trails, we proceeded to the Los Patios area, where we had a turn-round just before the 410-frontage road. On the way back to the finish, I saw my friend Irene and thought, what the heck, I thought she was doing the half. Well, she was.  She told me their course had them go to McAllister Park and then do a turn-round there, the come back to LBJ Park, and then the went to the same turn-round that we did. So on the way to their turn-round, these half folks had to intermingle with the 5K folks who were still on the course.   One of my very speedy friends doing half – who is usually way out in front of the pack – told me after she just could not run her normal pace because the slower 5K folks impeded her progress at various points on the course, so this cost her some time. I don’t get why the half folks, like the 10K folks, did not have their turn round in McAllister Park too, but I guess the race folks had a reason; heard some complaints though, post-race, about it from some of the half folks. Meanwhile, I just plugged along at my usual pace for the 5K. Toward the end I was still feeling pretty good, so forwent my last couple of walk breaks and just ran non-stop to the finish, accompanied by a very nice other runner I’d been chatting with. I ended up with a chip time of 41:09 chip time, finishing 5^th out of 6 in my age group. I was quite pleased with this, as I usually have a finish time of 43 to 45 minutes, with my photo-taking and walk breaks,

After My Finish:  Got some Gatorade to help rehydrate as I did a short cool-down walk. Overall, I was feeling pretty good.  Ate one of the bananas of my fruity friend Gilbert – he always provides a great selection of various fruits for the races he supports – and also started taking some post-race photos, as well as chatting with friends, other participants, supporters, and sponsors.  There is a very nice finisher medal too, but apparently there were more finishers than finisher medals, so I gave mine to my friend Woody, who had done the half and had really earned that medal with that course.

Epilogue:   Scallywompus races are very popular events, and well-done. They offer a variety of ‘series’ races over the year of various distances, as well as some other individual events that are also very well done. Just from the amount of participants this year – the 5k alone had 469 finishers – you can tell how popular these events are. The 10K had 222 finishers, and the half had 58 finishers. The 5K walk had 10, and there was a wheelchair division with 2 people and the half relay had 2 people, for a whopping 763 finishers with recorded times.  Scallywompus motto is ”Come for the race. Stay for the party.” They are not kidding.  Post-race Kiolbassa sausage, Alamo beer, bloody mary’s, margaritas, massages/stretching pros there, and more.  There were also nonalcoholic drinks like Force Water, Gatorade, and others. Race awards went 5 deep for each category that had at least that many in them – 5-year age groups – and unique placement awards for the recipients. Very nice quality race shirt and, as mentioned, finisher medals to participants.  This is also a dog-friendly event, so I soon ran out of dog treats that I carry to hand out to my canine pals.  All-in-all, a very nicely done event, with the good folks of Pushbutton Photography taking some great event photos – much better, lol, than my unskilled ones.