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

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

Link to photos only:  http://s166.photobucket.com/user/scottydog69/slideshow/2017%20Race%20Reports/2017%20Race%20No%2052%20S%20A%20Youth%20Series%20Race%204%205K

A couple of the photos may not have come out so well; sorry about that.   Plus, at times post-race I forgot to wipe my sweaty lens - duhhhh - so there might be a smudge or two on some of them.     All in all, I think they came out fairly well.  I am certainly no professional photographer with skills; but at least all the photos are free to save.  J

BEFORE MY START

Run S. A. Youth Series 5K, Race #4 on July 30 was my 52nd race of 2017.  This is a summer series of 4 races that assists and encourages our local youth to get involved in running and walking. The races are held at various locations.

The one I did was held at Rodriguez Park, which is one of the parks that is part  of San Antonio's 'greenway system' of parks that provides trails for hiking, biking, running, walking, etc.   I had never been to this park before so a couple days before the race went 'exploring' and found the place.  Pretty nice park, will probably go back on my own to do some future running here.   8 a.m. start time.  I arrived around 7 a.m., got my bib and timing chip and

took some pre-start photos.

I have arrived at race location..and I did not get lost!

Me and friend Scott Wood, co-owner of Athlete Guild, another really good local area race management company

Race Director Erik (right) making the other guy do all the work 

Our Music Man getting set up...thanks for all the tunes you played for us

iaap getting ready to do their thing (timing, results, etc), and some of the iaap team members were running too

Street2Feet participants and supporters...Street2Feet is a program that works with the homeless, etc. to help give them direction, confidence, support, etc. through a running program that culminates each year in one of the best local San Antonio events of the year, the Street2Feet 5K.

Various participants, volunteers, etc

This lady beautifully sang The National Anthem

And then this lovely lady, one of our MCs, directed us to head for the start line..

Empty now, but we are on the way there to get started..

My very speedy friend, Jim, was one of the first to get in there...at his pace he needed to be sure to be near the front of the pack.

Not quite as speedy as Jim, but they are pretty darn quick too..my friends Terry and Irene

ON THE COURSE

Temp already near 80 as we lined up.  Bright sunny day, very little cloud cover, but there was some shade along the route thankfully, after we got onto the greenway trails. We started on a patch of grass, proceeded onto a dirt-and-gravel trail and then it was a loop through the park on the concrete trailway system trails, which brought us back to pretty near how we had started out and then we all finished up going back on the dirt-and-gravel trail and patch of grass.  The route was fairly flat for the most part with a few uphill thrown in...nothing I personally would call a 'hill'; more like up 'inclines.'  Pretty nicely designed course and as my personal preference at a race is loop courses over out-and-back courses, I really enjoyed this course. A bit crowded on the dirt-and-gravel part after the start, but after we got onto the wide greenway trails, plenty of room for everyone to do their own thing, very nice.  I ended up with a chip-time finish of 32:57, which was good enough for 3rd for me in my age group. I was feeling pretty good the back half of the course too and noticed by my watch I had done negative splits, nice.

And here we go.....

Pretty bright out there in places, even with the trees around

I am a bit past the halfway point now...

Water to the right of us.  Not sure which creek it is, but with the lack of rain and the heat we've been having it was not moving very much at all, so I figured I had better not take a dip in it to cool off, lol.

Ran and walked with these 3 off-and-on.  They were pretty consistent and kept on moving and finished in good order.

After that last photo...nonstop all the way back to the finish.

AFTER MY FINISH

Warm day, so the finish line towels  that had been soaking in ice water were very welcomed as you got handed one after crossing the line.  I think I drank one bottle of water straight down - bad dog, bad dog! - and then did a cool down walk, slowly sipping another one, getting some hydration back into me.  I think the temp had gone up about 5 degrees just in that 30-something minutes it took me to do the course.  The course marshals and the volunteers at the finish line were really good about watching people and encouraging them to get some liquids in them to keep hydrated.  I did not see anyone fall out, thank goodness.  After my cooldown, it was off to wander around getting some after photos.

If you know who "Mutt and Jeff" is...obviously I am Mutt here, lol...

Thanks for the tacos, ladies!

Street2Feet folks...happy finishers, etc.  Kudos to my friend Lana, who does a great job overseeing this program.

3rd place in my age group...with my speedy friends Ed and Jim who finished way before me

Ed's  "Life Guide" - the smart one in the family my friend Terry also placed in her age group

Making myself look good, being next to lovely ladies...

With my friend, Stephanie (on my right) cracking me up, lol

Erik now doing MC duties

With a little help...

Of course, Kristine was there to make sure Erik did everything right  

EPILOGUE

If I am not mistaken I think this may be the first year for the series and from what I saw it seems quite popular.  I only did one of the 4 events in this series, but I may do more next year.  Quite a fun event with lots of friendly people and the post-race goodies included breakfast tacos, gatorade, water, fresh cut watermelon, and other stuff. pretty nice.  Now they just need to add some cold beer for the adults who do these..    Kudos to Erik and Kristin Burciaga who served as the Race Directors for this series and did a heck of a job.

MUCHO thanks to all the people who did all the hard work to make this one happen for we participants and were out there for us: iaap for timing, results, etc., Scott Wood of Athlete Guild for helping with the 'points system' for this series of events, Erik and Kristine for ramrodding all this and bringing it all together; and, of course all the volunteers who are out there for all the participants, and all the sponsors who help support these events.     Without all of you doing what you do, there would be no events for us participants, so thank you very much for what you do!