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.    Also, i picked up my 'wrong' camera for this event, my older camera that I need to get rid of, so that contributed to some of the photos being blurry, sorry about that.  Most of them came out okay.

Here is yet another of my photo reports.  Full report below.     

Link to photos only: sorry, I got some duplicate photos in the slideshow

http://s166.photobucket.com/user/scottydog69/slideshow/2018%20Race%20Reports/2018%20Race%20Number%2038%20Police%20Firefighter%20Mem%205K?sort=2

Before The Start

My 38th race of 2018 was the Police and Firefighters Memorial 5K which supports a fund for surviving family members of fallen police and firefighters.  Held on May 26 at Heroes Stadium, and even stadium of Northeast Independent School District in San Antonio. Event was put on by Purnell Racing.  Start time of 8:30 a.m., with an opening ceremony at 8 a..m. in remembrance of the fallen, with color guard, short prayer and bagpipers playing Amazing Grace. After the ceremony, the race started.  There was also a Kids Run. Since I only live about 3 miles from the stadium I was able to sleep in a bit and arrived with about an hour to go to start time and did my usual pre-start photo thing.

Lonely start line before the event gets going

We were right outside of Heroes Stadium

Cadets

SAPD Blue Bear

Sparky

Bagpipers who did Amazing Grace for the opening ceremony

Various participants, supporters, etc

Cooking up the sausages to be ready for when everyone gets back

Getting ready to start.  In front of me and behind me

On The Course

Weather was pretty warm, 77 degrees at start time, and pretty humid.   Start was in front of the Stadium, and then two loops on the roads around the stadium, that included participants going up a long hill; it was not really steep, just a long inclined hill. Glad I do weekly hill training, so I was ready for this. After doing the hill the second time, we came down the hill, made a turn into the stadium parking lot and finished back where we had started.  I ended up with a time of 33:53, and was 8th in my age group (60-64).  The first 3 guys in my age group all finished in the 20s...some speedy old guys in my age group.

That right turn, where the speedy cadets are ahead of me, is the beginning of the hill we climbed twice on the course.  Everyone had a bib number that had the name of a fallen firefighter or police officer.  When you got to the top of the hill, if your name was a police officer, you rang a blue bell in his/her honor; the red bell if your name was a fallen firefighter.  Nice touch for the race.

On my 2nd loop now

Second time for The Hill

After that last photo, nonstop back to the finish.

After My Finish

I was quite warm as I finished. After getting a bottle of water handed to me by a finish line volunteer, I went and sat in my car for about 10 minutes with the a/c on....ahhh, very refreshing....sipping my water. Felt much better after that, so back out to take some after photos of the 'happy finishers', volunteers, supporters, etc.

My speedy friend here always carries the flag for races he does...and always places too, good grief.  I won't even tell you his pace, it makes me tired just thinking about it, lol,...but he is very speedy.

Swat guys...I asked them if they could go shoot the hill for me. 

Our MC and timing guy.  Thank you very much!

My friend on the end needed a little nap...and he didn't even run, lol

OK, he is rested up now.

My friend Albert, 75 and going strong.  He did not finish all that far behind me either.

The ladies love him too.

Clowning with my friend, Karen

My two lovely friends here both placed.

Albert got a medal too

Two good dogs at the end of the event

Epilogue

Have done this event before and John Purnell/Purnell Racing and the volunteers, etc., always put on a quality event. John Purnell  has a lot of running and coaching experience and is a well known person in the local running community.  Probably out of the local commmunity too, lol.  Good guy.  Challenging but good course.  Lots of participant camaraderie at this one too, given the cause, the presence of lots of military vets, as well as police and firefighter cadets, police officers and firefighters, and so forth.  Lots of post-race goodies too, including Kiolbassa sausages, tea and various other drinks, and even a shaved-ice food truck on site. Nice quality race tee, and nice that the age groups are 5-year age groups rather than 10-year age groups, give folks a few more chances to place.  All in all a very well done event for a great cause, one to definitely do if you are ever in San Antonio area when this one is put on.

Mucho thanks to Purnell Racing, all the volunteers, sponsors, supporters, etc., who put this one on for us. So much appreciated what all of you do for we participants so we can have do this race.  Thank you very much!

That hill looks tough--full sun. I'm always jealous of the post-race food at your races.

We Texans sure know how to eat, lol.