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

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. And for a few, when I asked someone to take a photo for me, I forgot to tell him/her how to focus the camera, duhhh..   All in all though, 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.  Here is yet another of my photo reports.

Full report below.    Sorry about some of the ‘shadowy’ photos. This event was primarily done in early morning darkness and my camera is not a great camera for night-time or dark-time photos.

Link to photos only:

http://s166.photobucket.com/user/scottydog69/slideshow/2018%20Race%20Reports/2018%20Race%20No%2010%20Health%20In%20Action%205K?sort=2

BEFORE MY START

My 10th race of 2018 was Health In Action 5K on February 8.  This was kind of a spur-of-the-moment event for me as I found out that my friends at local race management company Purnell Racing were putting on this event at a Thursday morning.  The primary participants were some people here in San Antonio for a convention, business meeting, or whatever, and they requested the 5K, but also let the public join too, which I thought was nice of them.  Start time was 0600 on Thursday morning and the temp was a bit brisk, 37 degrees at start time with a feels like of about 35 with the wind factor. Venue was Sunset Station in downtown San Antonio, a very nice locale for meetings, events, etc.  There were maybe about 100 or so participants, fairly small event.  Since I had only registered the day before I had to be there early - 5 a.m. - to get my stuff.  BRRRR!  I made sure to be layered up.  Got my bib and then got a few photos.

Welcome to Sunset Station.  this place is right near The Alamodome, where the San Antonio Spurs used to play, and across from the Tower of the Americas and HemisFair Park in San Antonio.

Kinda blurry. Tower of the Americas across the way

Thank you volunteers

Center stage

Our MC, Mark (left) who did his usual great job.

Yeah, it's a little chilly

This singlet guy is not from San Antonio.  He told me this was a little warm for him.

Getting ready to start

ON THE COURSE

Started and finished at Sunset Station, so basically an out-and-back.  Flat roads except for a climb on historic Hays Street Bridge, on which we went up one side, down the other, turned around and came back.  Then a return to the finish line the way we had come out. Pretty dark for my camera, so not great photos.  As for running, the streets were pretty well lit for that purpose and I did not see anyone tripping, etc.

I ended up with a finish time of 34: 45.  Awards were given only to the top 3 overall male and female finishers.  The guy who was first did it in like 17-something.

On Hays Street Bridge

After that, ran nonstop down that side of the bridge and back to the finish.

AFTER MY FINISH

It was chilly standing around after the finish, so everyone was ready to head out, get warm, get some breakfast, etc., so I just got a few photos and then I was out of there too.  Hot hot hot shower felt great after this event.

Getting ready to do awards

first two photos of this group were really blurry.  This one is a bit blurry too, but lots better than the other.  My camera just does not like the dark, lol.

Got lucky with this group, camera behaved better.

EPILOGUE

This was a nice little 'no-frills' morning 5K run in the downtown area, good way to get the day started.  Nice course, lots of friendly people.  Love runners cuz even if everyone is strangers, we all still connect because of what we do.  Post-race goodies was just water, which was fine, I really don't think anyone expected this to be like a 'regular' race with all the bells-and-whistles.  If they did, they sure came to the wrong race, lol.  Everyone seemed pretty upbeat after, lots of smiles, conversation, etc. Everything seemed to go smoothly and our organizers got us out of there pretty quick to get us out of the cold, so thanks for that.  I think we were all pretty much heading out by 6:45 or so.  Definitely would do this one again though and would recommend it - but next time going to take the day off, so I can go home and go back to bed instead of going to work, lol.

Mucho thanks to all the volunteers out there for us, the law enforcement controlling the intersections for us, any sponsors, etc.