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%2046%20San%20Antonio%20Youth%20Series?sort=2

Before My Start

My 46th race of 2018 was Race 2 of the Summer Series 5Ks, held on June 23 at Rodriguez Park, a very nice local park in the San Antonio area.  This series benefits Run SA Youth, introducing and encourging kids to get out and be active and get to know running and/or walking. There are a series of 4 events over June and July and at the last event, awards are given out for the series.  Race start time of 8 a.m.  I arrived with about an hour to go and got a few pre-start photos.  This race was fairly small, maybe about 300 or so participants, so not a whole lot of photos for this report.

First, some old-guy photos...  

Various participants et al...

On The Course

Already near 80 degrees when we started - gotta love Texas summer, lol.  Rodriguez Park is fairly small compared to other local area parks, but large enough for us to get a 5K loop done on some concrete paved park trails that went along a pretty nicely shaded area, and for a little bit of the course, the river to our right. It's a pretty little park, not really well known to most of the San Antonio community as it is near Lackland Air Force Base, so quite a drive for some people.  When we started I lined up pretty far back in the start crowd.  The day before this one I had done the Texas Tough 5k with some brutal hills, so I just wanted to give my legs an easy run today.   By the halfway point my legs were feeling 'loose' again and I managed to pick up a bit of speed - for my pace anyway, lol - and ended up finishing in 33 minutes and change. Not too bad, and felt pretty good.

In the start crowd.  We started on natural grass, then went onto a dirt trail and then onto the concrete paved trails.  We finished up back on the grass.

About a half mile done at this point.   My unofficial photographer self also got a photo of the official photographer doing his thing

I am a tad past the halfway point know. Lots of shade along this part of the course, nice, and the river was to our right.

This was the only 'hill' on the course, thank goodness...made my legs happy, lol.

After that last photo, nonstop running back to the finish.

After the Finish

Got some water and sipped some Gatorade, then just cooled down for a while as that was a pretty warm run/walk.  N  Anyway, i did okay, and after cooling down went and got a few after photos of the happy finishers, volunteers, supporters, etc.

This little lady on the right kicked my butt at the finish, lol.  She was running with her dad and she'd go ahead of me, then I'd go ahead of her and then the last 1/4 mile, she just whipped right on by me and got to the finish before me quite handily.  She did great.

Those iced-down towels were nice after the race.

With my speedy friend, Leticia.  She did the Texas Tough 10-miler the day before in 1:36 and still managed to do this one pretty quick too.

With Co-Race Director Erik.  Good job, buddy!

Oooo la la!  With one of my favorite running ladies, Bernadette!

Thank you, iaap and crew for results, timing, course setup, etc.

Epilogue

Never do understand why, during Texas summer, race directors don't start the events around 7 a.m. instead of 8 and later.  Even that little bit would help, lol.  Well, it is what it is, and for the parks, I think it may be that some of the parks don't open before daylight, so the organizers would not even be able to get into the gate in time to set up for an 8 a.m. start.  This was a well organized event, with local race management company iaap doing their usual good job with course setup timing, results, etc.  Nice course in a nice local, nice tech tee race shirts and some nice post-race goodies that included watermelon slices and other stuff.   This series is designed with the kids in mind and watching them on the course is always fun and sometimes downright inspiring, seeing how some of them really put their hearts into it.  Some of those kids are darn speedy too, lol.  Lots of them beat my slow-old-man self, fer sher.  Did this one last year and would certainly do it again in the future and recommend it.

Mucho thanks to all the sponsors, vendors, park police watching for us the one cross-over park road we had to cross, and everyone else who made this one happen.  Honorable mention to my friends Kristine and Eric Burciaga - Dragons Den Productions - who are quite involved with this series each year, with doing up the shirts, acting as race directors at times, and so forth, they do a great job with this series.  Their company also puts on some pretty darn good races too during the year.