INTRO AND SHORT VERSION REPORT

I am Scott aka Scottydog aka Scotty Dogg, runner since 1983, cancer survivor, retired Air Force, employee of University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), friend of dogs, fun-runner, and all-around 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.  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, hence my nickname “Scottydog.” Here is yet another of my Race Reports With Photos, and my thanks to all the people I interacted with for their graciousness and good humor in letting me take photos of them

This was Race number 22 for me for the year 2015.   Alamo Beer 5K was held on May 2 in San Antonio, starting and finishing at the recently opened Alamo Beer brewery (http://alamobeer.com/) .   This race benefited the San Antonio chapter of veteran's organization Team RWB (Red White Blue -  http://www.teamrwb.org/ ) and a lot of my fellow members were at this race in force as both participants and on-course volunteers. The 5K started and finished on the brewery grounds.  In spite of a fall during a trail run on Thursday (April 30) in which I cut my knee pretty good, it behaved itself and did okay.  I ended up finishing in 32:57 and had no discomfort at all.  My time was good enough for 4th place, as the age groups were in 10 year divisions, and in my age group (60 - 69), we have some very speedy local old men.

LONG VERSION WITH PHOTOS

This race was so fun!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and got camera-carried-away, taking nearly 100 total photos for this event.  So I will try to keep the verbiage to a minimum and let the photos do the 'talking".

Before the Start

Since this was an Alamo Beer run, for this event I wore my shirt from a past race that Alamo Beer had sponsored, and that I had gotten 'lettered" after I got it with my personal motivation message.  And my 'beer' running socks..very appropriate, huh? 

Got to the brewery grounds with about 45 minutes to start time and immediately began my pre-race photo ritual.

The party patio - not quite so busy yet

Part of the Historic Hay Bridge near the brewery

and the longer part we ran up at the start of the race

Yeah San Antonio Team RWB!

Some more of the pre-start participants, supporters, etc.

These two lovely people are wearing the tech tees participants got

Brewery owner Gene (Eugene) with the lovely Tanya, one of my many "race acquaintances" that I see at lots of local races.  I had the pleasure of chatting with Gene for a bit....super nice guy.

Getting ready to start...in the start area

On the Course

Start at Alamo Brewery, head to the history Hays Street Bridge.  Up and over that, then a bit more climbing after the bridge.  Some flat after that as we had to the turn-around point, a bit of an incline climb after the turn-around point, and back the way we came out. Across the Hays Street Bridge again and back to Alamo Beer.

Up the longer side of Hays Street Bridge

A little more climbing to do after the bridge

Ahhh, onto the flatter part of the course..

Turn-around point volunteer

A bit of an incline after the turn-around point

people on the right are coming off the turn-around point street, folks on the left will turn left to get to the turn-around

Heading back to the Hays Street Bridge..I'm on the left somewhere...folk on the right heading to the turn-round point

After that, it was nonstop running back to the brewery for me.  I was feeling pretty good and actually passed more people than passed me.

When I got to the fnish line, this good fellow - Robert "Evil" Evilsizer was calling in all the finishers.  He has been a local race announcer for many years and always does a great job.

After the Finish......PARTY! 

After the finish, there was cold water, gatorade, and food trucks from which you could purchase food, if desired.  Every participant had also gotten got 4 beer tickets with their race bib - 1 ticket for 8 oz glass of beer, 2 tickets for 16 oz - and participants got to keep the souvenir Alamo Beer 5K glass the beer came in, nice!

I got one large glass of beer and gave my other 2 tickets away, since I was driving. The souvenir glass was really nice.

After enjoying my beer, I went around and got lots of photos of the "happy finishers', supporters of the participants, and race volunteers.

The patio area was now a little busier than it was before the start

This gentleman had his beer and was wearing a Hurache Turbo shirt designed by one of my favorite people in the whole world, my friend and 'running crush" Ceci of iaapweb.com

Speedy Liza Galvan (right) who finished first overall female today in 18-something.  I think this is one of her daughters with her...but I'm old with a fuzzy memory at times, lol, so that might be incorrect on my part.   Gee, if it is her daughter, they look more like sisters to me than mother-and-daughter...and I bet her daughter loves hearing that, lol.

Santa Claus loses his winter weight for summering in Texas.     Nice people, I had a nice bit of a chat with them.

Ceci and Jose..your folks really were at work this morning! 

Ariel Galvan - Liza's husband - on the left was overall male winner - 17:07.    Their college-bound daughter is also a very speedy runner.

Speed "runs" in their family!

First place Liza with Mug award and Davy Crocket coonskin cap

Liza and Ariel, 1st place female, first place male

Liza, Alamo Beer owner Gene, and Ariel.

AG award winner John, and lovely wife.  The AG awards were these giant bottle openers with the name of the race on it.

John with AG awardee friend Lynn..two of the nicest people you could ever meet.

No award for me but in the raffle I got one of those big mugs...

EPILOG

What a fun event!  Great race venue, and a  well-thought out course - although about  30 or so minutes after I had finished, a local train did come along behind the brewery grounds and did catch some of the back-of-the-pack folks and walkers, making them hold up a bit until the train passed.  But when you run in some areas of San Antonio that sometimes happens, dealing with trains is part of life around here; I did not hear or see anyone upset about the train, some of the few folks that I talked to that did get caught just kind of laughed it off.  Now, if it had come along at the start of the race instead of near the finish, that might've been a different story - especially for the speedier 'in the race for awards" folks.   But it's all good, it all seemed to work out today.  Really nice after-party with free beer - how can you beat free beer? - some good weather for May in San Antonio - sunny, blue skies, about 64 degrees at 8 a.m. start time, no wind - and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves on the patio after the run.    Much thanks to our Alamo Beer Company hosts and all the race volunteers who made this one possible for we participants; big thanks to our law enforcement folks out there keeping us safe on the roads - and a special thanks to the one officer I saw who stopped some idiot who was backing out of his driveway and not looking right when a group of runners was just then passing by - and mucho thanks to all our other sponsors. This event is definitely a keeper on the race calender!

Nice race, and it sounds like they were pretty generous with those post-race beer tickets!  Looks like a lovely course, but tough too.  Glad the knee behaved.

Tech shirt and a pint glass....score!  And I do believe I saw a NACHO TRUCK in one of those pics!

Nacho truck and beer garden.  You can't lose.