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%2050%20Winter%20In%20July%205K?sort=2

BEFORE MY START

My 50^th race of 2018 was Winter In July 5K, an inaugural race held on July 7^th in Universal City Veterans Park, located just a few miles from Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio.  This race benefited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a special cause of mine.  Many many  MANY years ago, back in my young Air Force days, I was a volunteer for this hospital. I tell you what, you think you have problems… and then you interact with some of these kids – some of the most courageous people I’ve ever met – who have so much on their plate and you walk out of there thinking “I have absolutely nothing to complain about.”

Race start time: 8 a.m.  From home to park was about a 20-minute drive for me, arriving with about an hour to go to start time.  Having already picked up my race stuff the day before  I wandered around after I arrived chatting with friends and taking some pre-start photos.

Race shirt

With friend Terry

With friends Joe and Yet The Wonder Dog

With friend Karen

Bouncy Castle for the kiddies there

Athlete Guild folks - timing, results, etc.

Various Participants, etc.

With friend Don. This was his 58th race of the year.

ON THE COURSE

Temp around 77 degrees, with some dark clouds threatening rain which never happened, and quite humid, but we did have a bit of a breeze blowing.   In the 24 years I have lived in San Antonio, I have never been to this park, so this was a ‘new’ course for me.  We started out on a concrete trail near the entrance of the park, which went downhill.  Since this was an out-and-back course, this meant we would do an uphill right before the finish.  The concrete soon gave way to off-road dirt-and-rock trails, with some patches of concrete at various points, but mostly dirt-and-rock, and some gravelly areas.  The course was what race directors euphemistically like to call “gently rolling.”  Well, some of it was gentle, and some parts were challenging; nothing really super steep, but some pretty darn good uphill  parts along the way; and a pretty long uphill climb – again, not real steep, but fairly long – just before we did the turn-round to go back to the finish.  The turn-round trail was the hardest for my old-man legs, what with several loose rocks, a few roots, etc, along the way up to the turn-round.  I had to slow down a bit here and I think a few others did too.  After making the turn-round I had a walk break and after that ran nonstop back to the finish. Since I train once a week on hills on paved roads, that last uphill part of the course on the concrete hill right before the finish was the easiest part of the course for me, lol.  I pushed it a little on that hill and ended up finishing in 35:36 chip time.

Here comes the 1st place guy, heading back to the finish.

Near the turn-round point.  Bernadette heading to the finish.

AFTER MY FINISH

Got some water, got one of the iced-down towels handed out at the finish line, then sat down in some shade with the iced towel on my head and sipped some water slowly and just relaxed for about 10 minutes.  Ahhh…so much better!  After that, went wandering around getting some after photos of the happy finishers, volunteers, supporters, and a few people coming into the finish line.

My friend, Albert, 75 and still going strong

Friend Ernie coming into the finish.  He was last one to finish...but is first in many hearts.   All around great guy.

This guy pushed that stroller along that off-road course

With Bernadette

My favoritist runner and longest-known running friend 

At San Antonio Rock n Roll Half last year, Stephanie was my partner in the half-marathon relay

With friend Carolyn, who took advantage of post-race free massage

With our lovely Race Director.  Great job on this inaugural event.

EPILOGUE

For an inaugural event, this was organized very well and seemed to go off without a hitch.  A nice venue for the race, and a very nice course that is somewhat challenging - at least for me anyway, lol; the guy that came in first did it in 18 minutes and something…can’t imagine doing that on a rocky course like this. Really nice quality tech-tee race shirts and finisher medals at the end.  I think they had some last-minute race day registrations which shot the participation numbers up, so I passed on getting a medal – as many races as I do, I have plenty of medals – so someone else would be able to get one.  Post-race goodies included various fruits, water, watermelon slices, and some other stuff.   Very nicely done and an event I will certainly do again and would recommend to others.

Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants:  Our race director, Rebecca; all the volunteers and sponsors; Athlete Guild for doing the timing, results, course setup, etc.; friend Erik for doing an excellent job with the MC duties and everything else he did out there; and anyone else I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you for all you did so we participants could have this event.