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 commentary report below.     

Photos Slideshow is here: 

https://s166.photobucket.com/user/scottydog69/slideshow/2019%2520Race%2520Reports/2019%2520Race%2520Number%252059%2520Para%2520Mi%25205K?sort=2

BEFORE MY START

My 59^th race of 2019 was the Para Mi 5K supporting CentroMed, a local nonprofit health organization.  Held on Nov 2 in downtown San Antonio, starting and finishing right near the Frost Tower of Frost Bank.  Race start time was an early 7:30 a.m, with free parking for all participants at a nearby parking garage.  I arrived with about 45 minutes to go to start time.  It was still a bit dark when I arrived and the way the buildings are downtown, the streets made for a nice ‘wind tunnel’, with the wind blowing pretty good and the temp at a chilly 44 degrees.  This is considered ‘winter’ for we South Texans, lol, so several people were bundled up pretty good.  This is a stroller friendly course, and also a dog friendly one, so my doggie treats emptied out of my pockets pretty quickly as I got some pre-start photos.

the start line, with Frost Tower behind it

Hampton Inn folks kindly let me use their indoor restroom...and this guy was in their lobby

iaap crew - timing, course set up, results

Our sound guy and MC

Race Day Volunteers

Various participants, supporters, etc

In the start crowd

Randy Beamer getting ready to start us off

And the countdown...

ON THE COURSE

We started on Flores Street, went down to S. Alamo Street, where we made a left turn, and then went up to the Blue Star area, where we accessed onto the part of the San Antonio Riverwalk there.  We were on the Riverwalk for a while, exiting onto Nueva Street.  Left turn on Nueva and then down to a right turn back onto Flores, which took us to the finish line.  A very flat route, good PR route for those shooting for a PR.  There were really no hills at all, only inclines, one small down incline as we entered the River Walk at Blue Star, and one smaller incline as we exited the River Walk at Nueva.  I ended up with a 36:31 time and was 5^th in my 60 – 69 age group.  If they had ben 5 year age groups, I would have been first in my 65 – 69 age group – so from that, since I am not speedy at all, you can tell this was a fairly smaller event, with maybe 100 – 150 or so participants.  Some of these age group winners were pretty speedy too. The overall guy did it in 20-something and the guy who won my 60 – 69 age group averaged 7:59 per mile.

Going down Flores Street

Crossing over this road to get to the Blue Star area

From the Riverwalk trail in the Blue Star Brewery area

On the Riverwalk as we head toward Nueva Street

When you gotta go, you gotta go

Water stop volunteers.  No beer, bummer.  

Just down from the King William District historic area

Near the Riverwalk Canoe Club area

This part of the Riverwalk goes behind what used to be the old San Antonio Armory and is now HQ for local H-E-B company

After those last two blurry photos, nonstop back to the finish.

After My Finish

Age group awards to the Top 3 in all age groups, presented by Randy Beamer, news anchor for local NBC affiliate-TV Channel WOAI News.  Since I didn’t place, I had the luxury of just being able to wander around and take a few post-race photos before I finally started getting a little chilled – that darn wind was still blowing -  and headed back to the car and then home to get warmed up again.

Happy Finishers, et al...

EPILOGUE

Post-race goodies were pretty simple fare of various fruits, nutrition bars, water, Gatorade, but simple was okay as the entry free for this event was only $15, a pretty nice deal for a 5K with a really good course, free parking for all participants, and a pretty nice quality race tee thrown in too – all for $15. So if they had to budget a bit on the post-race food, that is fine with me, it was worth it for all the other stuff you got.    Definitely would do this one again and would recommend it to others.

Thanks to all the folks who made this event happen for we participants: iaapweb staff, who did the course setup, timing, and results; all the sponsors and volunteers;  Randy Beamer and WOAI for being out there for this event; , all the and there were lots of local police officers out there at each intersection keeping us safe – and there are a lot of intersections going down Flores – so thanks to them and also to anyone else I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much for doing what you do, so we participants can have this event.