INTRO  48th race of 2017: Texas Too Hot 5K and 15K

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%2048%20Too%20Hot%20Too%20Handle%205K%20and%2015k

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

My 48^th race of 2017 and my third race of the July 8 – 9 weekend was the Texas Too Hot To Handle 5K and 15K – I did the 5K - put on by local race management, shoe stores, and run/race training company iRun Texas, my personal favorite running store.  Held at Boerne Lake City Park on July 9^th, with a nice early start time of 7:30 a.m.  It was still pretty warm though, in the upper 70s, with humidity in the 80 percentile.  A very scenic location though, with nice views of Boerne Lake, and lots of shade trees lining the lake’s banks, so we could stand in the shade a bit before and after the event, which was pretty nice.  I arrived with maybe about 45 minutes to go to start time and got in a few pre-start photos before we were all called to the start line.

Welcome to Boerne Lake

Various participants

Am I a shining star now?

Maybe not....

With my longest running friend/pal, Bernadette

Me with all-around great guy, Race Director and co-owner of iRun, Mitch

Announcer Mark Purnell

Here we go....

ON THE COURSE

This one is pretty hilly.  Right after we go across the start mat, we went up a hill to a pretty rocky off-road trail area, where you have to watch your footing, making sure not to trip over loose stones and protruding rocks, and can’t really do your normal running pace – when I got to the 5K turn-around I noticed I was about 2 minutes behind from when I usually get to a 5K turn-around – and probably doing 2 races the day before didn’t help either, lol, my legs were feeling that a bit – then there was a downhill, still off-road, than a slight uphill that took us to pavement; go on the pavement to a nearby road – which was still open to traffic – stay to the right and climb up to the turn-around point – the 15K folks kept going past this point – and then back the way we’d come.  I ended up with a finish time of 35:43, 10^th in my age group of 60-64 male – I think my age group at this 5K for whatever reason, was the largest one, go figure – and as this was my 3^rd race of the weekend, I was pretty satisfied with that; knowing what this course is like from doing it before several times, I really had thought before the start that I’d end up with 12 – 13 minute miles, so 35-and change was very pleasant.  And I’d felt pretty good out there, all things considered, and ran in the last 1.4 miles pretty much nonstop, with 1 brief halt of about 15 seconds to take one last on-course photo.  My back half of the course was negative split, nice.

That cone was turn-around for 5K.  15K people kept on going straight

road still open to traffic, so we watched out for each other

brief stop before I headed to the finish.  Back on the trail, one more short hill to climb before heading to the finish.

AFTER MY FINISH

Iced down bottles of water RIGHT past the finish in wading pools, no having to go look for water, nice!  Wish EVERY race would do this, have the water right at the finish. Race Director Mitch knows his stuff!  Also iced down small towels – nice! – which felt very refreshing after that course.  Put the towel on the back of my neck, drank my water, wandered around cooling down, and then off to get some photos…and a very cold beer, courtesy of my friends at Phoenix Rising community group, who were setting up for an after-race picnic and grilling some really tasty-looking food.

free cryotherapy post-race

and/or you could take a dip in the lake..

or sit on the dock and dip your legs in

Project Phoenix community group picnic area....looks tasty!  And thanks for the beer, guys!

Back to the main area...

very bright out here...

My friend John did the 15K, and he did the same evening run the night before this race that I did

Mitch has a mean streak, lol; after all those hills - especially for the 15K folks - making the winners step up onto these barrels, lol.

See......

EPILOGUE

One of my favorite races of the year; tough course, but always enjoy doing this one, and always a nice party afterwards. Raffle prizes, beer, great post-race food, beer, nice awards, lots of fun people, cooling off in the lake availability..and did I mention beer? Definitely will continue doing this one and definitely would recommend it to friends and fellow runners/walkers.

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:  all the folks at iRun, all the sponsors and vendors, my friend Mark Purnell who did his usual great job as announcer, et al.  Without all of you doing what you do, there would be no races for us participants, so thank you very much for what you do!