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%2065%20El%20Grito%205K?sort=2

BEFORE MY START

My 65^th race of 2018 was El Grito 5K on Sep 15, held at Mission County Park in San Antonio.  Put on by Andiamo Race Productions, this is one of a series of races they hold throughout the year.  Due to some fallout from Hurricane Florence, it was pouring pretty good when I got to the park.  Thankfully this park has a large covered pavilion and other excellent facilities, so participants were able to stay out of the rain for a while.  Start time was supposed to be 7:30 but it was a little bit after that as the race folks kept checking the course for runner safety.  I arrived with about 45 minutes to go until the original start time and got a few pre-start photos before we went splashing around on the course.

I have arrived.   This is the shirt that I wore during the race, thinking it might be a bit more windy with the weather.  Actually it as pretty darn humid, so probably should have worn my singlet.

These mustache give-aways were available to wear during the event

Inside the main pavilion where the majority of pre-and-post race events took place.  Sorry it's dark, I forgot to turn on my flash.

With my speedy friend, Woody.  And wearing my "Sombrero Doggie" socks for this event.

Various participants, volunteers, etc.

This red tech tee being modeled here is the race shirt participants got

ON THE COURSE

The route was along the San Antonio Riverwalk in the Mission Reach area, where all the old 17^th century Spanish Missions are located.  The usual course for this 5K takes us over a footbridge but, since that bridge was flooded from all the rain we’ve had, we went in the opposite direction along the Riverwalk.  This course had a few more hills and inclines on it, so we were mostly on wet but fairly dry concrete trails, with a few puddles along the way and quite a large pool of water around the Mile 1 marker, which was situated at the bottom of two inclines and right next to the river, so we had to forge carefully through that spot.  Other than that, pretty nicely though out course for the weather conditions we had for this event.  The rain actually did stop before we got started and other than a few spotty sprinkles at times, I never really did get rained on during the whole time I was on the course.  I did my usual run/walk thing and took some photos along the way – including one last photo right before I finished.  As I did this some guy passed me and I ‘chased’ him into the finish.   We finished pretty closely together.  When results were posted, I found he was in my age group, finishing 3^rd, and I had finished 10 seconds behind him for 4^th.  Guess I should not have stopped for that last photo, lol.  Oh well, I had fun.

My speedy friend Woody already heading back to the finish line.

At this point I had just made the turn-round and was heading back.  San Antonio River to my left on the way back.  This is usally a peaceful meandering river, but when we get lots of rain, it gets quite high and rolling

Looking back toward the turn-round point

Looking ahead again.....selfie lady... I'm glad she did not run off the path and right into the river..

My last on-course photo; water moving pretty fast under the bridge....usually the water is not this high.

AFTER MY FINISH

Thankfully, having done events here before in the rain, I knew what to expect so I had brought a towel to dry off with and a dry shirt to change into.  I got a few of the post-race goodies and relaxed a bit, and then wandered around getting some post-race photos of wet but happy participants, and some of the volunteers, vendors, etc.  Everyone for this event did get a finisher medal.

Ahhh, toweled off and dry shirt and with my lovely friend

I don't even want to tell you how far ahead of me my speedy friend here finished, lol.

Ole!  Beer, sombrero, and good friend

San Antonio Running Company folks - very nice local store that puts on training runs, training events, etc, and has lots of nice goodies for sale too.  Paul, in the green jacket, was the lead bike for the race.

Post-race entertainment

A big thank you to our MCs, who did an excellent job for us.

EPILOGUE

Andiamo has been around for quite a few years now and their events are quite popular and get a nice turnout.  Someone told me this race had sold out but with the weather the way it was, I don’t think everyone showed up, we might have had 200 – 300  participants there who braved the weather for this one.  All good, just more goodies for the rest of us.   I have done, and will continue to do, Andiamo races.   Nice tech tee race shirts, usually very nicely selected courses, and lots of post-race goodies, live entertainment, and nice age-group award medals – which I missed out on by 10 seconds, lol.  Definitely would recommend their events as some to do, you just might like it a whole lot.

Big Thank You to all the people that made this one happen for we participants, including Andiamo Productions, all the volunteers, vendors, and sponsors, the race management company there for us (I think it was iaap, a very good local race management company, but I wasn’t paying attention) and to all others whom I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much!