INTRO

I am Scott aka Scottydog, 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.

SHORT VERSION REPORT

This was my 24th race of 2014, held April 13, 2014,  and my 2nd of the weekend, after doing the Helotes Beer Garden Run on Saturday, April 12.  Event was held in Shavano Park, a small city surrounded by the city limit boundaries of San Antonio.  The race supported local Clarkson High School students, hence the name of the race.  Small event, maybe about 100 or so folks.  Cloudy, overcast day, temp about 68 at the 8 a.m. start time, and pretty humid as we had rain threatening.  The rain never developed but the humidity stuck around. I ended up with a finish time of 35:10, which was still good enough for first place in my age group (60 - 99), and I won a nice $20 gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods.

LONG VERSION WITH PHOTOS

For some reason I had it in my head that this event started at 8:30 a.m.  Good thing while I was having breakfast I checked the website again.  8 a.m. start.  Uh oh.  It was already 7:15.  Luckily, I live pretty close by the race location, so hopped in the car and took the newly completed section of our local Wurzbach Parkway - very convenient, no stoplights, and a very straight shot nearly all the way to the race location - and got there with 20 minutes to go till start time.

Before The Start

Race Banner

The name of the high school team is "Cougars" and I got a photo with the Cougarette mascot that was there.

My speedy friend Bernadette - she got 1st place in her age group - with Cougarette

Roadrunner in front of the Shavano Park city hall.  The REAL state bird of Texas.    OK, the actual state bird of Texas is the Northern Mockingbird, but since I am a UTSA RoadRunner, the roadrunner will always be the state bird for me.

A few of the folks there pre-start

The lady in this photo, 3rd from the left and kinda behind everyone, was our Race Director/Organizer.  Very sweet lady, one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.

This gentleman - who is a teacher at the school if I remember correctly, or maybe one of the administrative personnel - I ended up being in close proximity with for most of the course.

I had a nice chat with this lovely young lady.   Turns out she has arthritis too, sadly, but seems to be doing well.  She also has allergies and the pollen count has been really high in San Antonio lately so this poor young lady was suffering today.  Even so, she still managed to finish ahead of me quite handily.   I think she won her age group, but wasn't around for the awards, I think she went straight home after she finished since she was not feeling so well.   Very nice young lady, hope she feels better!

On The Course

Shavano Park is a very pretty city with friendly residents, wide roads, and beautiful houses.  There are not many 'real' hills in Shavano Park but there are several large uphill inclines in various places and I think our RD managed to find them all for this course, lol.  After my 5K on Saturday with REAL hills in Helotes, my legs felt these inclines a bit.  Even so, it was a very nicely laid out course.  Usually the 5Ks done in Shavano Park are n the neighborhood across the street from City Hall.  This one stayed on the City Hall side, making for a nice change of scenery from the usual 5K route and giving us a nice look at some different and very pretty neighborhoods.    The University where I work - UTSA - is only  a few miles from Shavano Park so sometimes on the way home from work I park in the City Hall parking lot and then run the Shavano Park area.  So I've run these streets before and pretty much knew where I was the whole time.   Very friendly folks living here and even the dogs are friendly.  I stopped  once on the 5K route to give a doggie treat to a very nice dog I encountered along the way - he was out taking his human for a walk.

On the last road now, heading for the finish line

After The Finish

Lots of nice goodies!  Including some really good oatmeal raisin cookies - my favorite! -  from Pandera, a very good local eatery.  I indulged in 2 cookies.

This guy did the whole route barefoot

More Happy Finishers, et al....

The gentleman on the far right is the school principal

Another gentleman with whom I was near for most of the course.

Little brother and his two big 'sisters' ..I think the one in the middle is the Team Captain of the Cheerleaders...

EPILOG

A small but very nice event, I really enjoyed doing this one.  Very smart that it was done on Sunday morning too, had very little competition from other local races - I think there was only one other local race that day, which was done downtown right near some major construction going on, and who wants to deal with all that on the roads?  So I'm glad I opted for this one.  Very nice locale, good course, very friendly people, and a $20 certificate is a nice 1st place AG prize, especially for a small event.  Kudos to all the folks who got this organized, and thanks to all the volunteers who were there for us, and the sponsors who supported this one, and to Redemption company for doing the timing and results.    It was a Funday Sunday!  Definitely would do this one again!

Another day; another race for Scotty!   Great job!   I always love looking at all the pics you take.   I know it takes a lot of work to get all the pics in your RRs so thank you for putting in the extra time - I, for one, definitely benefit because you take the time!

 

What's next on the schedule?

Luckenbach, Texas 5K on April 19th.   The RD comped my entry for that one if I'd come up and do a photo report on that.  Hey, I'm good with that!  Luckenback is about an 80-minute drive from San Antonio.  I expect there will be hills cuz the town is up in ACTUAL Texas Hill Country.

Congratulations on the AG win - a gift certificate is always useful.  Looks like a very pretty neighborhood to run in.  Your food shots made me very hungry.

Congratulations on your 24th race of the year!   I sure like that cougar mascot, how cute.  This sure was a pretty area for a race.

Well done, Scotty! I always enjoy seeing Bernadette at your races. What a woman! Thanks for the RR and the pics!

Yeah, Bernadette is my 'running crush", lol.  You think I do a lot of races each year?  She did EIGHTY  last year.  And she RACES hers.