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

My 32nd race of 2014, held on May 24, 2014 at Retama Park at 8:30 PM.  My 2nd 5K of the day as that same morning I did the Police and Firefighters Memorial 5K (report and photos here: https://www.runningahead.com/groups/BF_and_Beyond/forum/8a9848ed235b4a5384e88646d97dac32/resume#focus )  The Get Up and Glow 5K supports Aerial Athletics,  a gymnastic club for kids of all ages to develop their potential.   The event location was at Retama Park in San Antonio, a professional horse-racing venue.   Nice turn-out for this event, I'm guesstamating maybe about 400 to 500 or so runners and walkers. For this event the humans were doing the running for once instead of the horses.   My legs were feeling my morning 5K a bit - which I finished in 34:24 -  so I ended up with a bit of a slower time for this night-time 5K, finish time 35:58.

Long Version With Photos

Before The Start

I arrived onsite around 7:40 pm, got my packet and it was still fairly light, so I got some pre-start photos

Retama Park building

Some of the horse stables, with the building behind them

Nice and cold popsicles, etc, for everyone after the finish

Me with a few of the other participants

Participants et al.... the 'glow in the dark' green shirts are the goody bag shirts.  Several folks also had glow in the dark glasses, headgear, bracelets, necklaces etc.

The official photographer - whose photos are probably a lot better than my amateur ones, I'm sure - and the Music Man who kept the music going for us, and was also our event announcer

Our Race Director (with microphone), one of the nicest ladies you'd ever want to meet, giving us course information before we get started.

This little lady with the big voice sang our National Anthem just beautifully

And then it was time to go!

On The Course

This was my 3rd year in a row doing this event.  The course this year changed from the past courses I'd done.  The course has always been two loops, but I liked this course MUCH better than the previous course. In the past, we'd run down the road by the Retama Parking lot, get to a dead-end, run back up, and then do it all over again.  The course this year took us down the same road as previous years, but then we ran across some grass, then onto a dirt trail that went by the stables, then went around and in front of Retama Park building, then back to our 'start' road...and then repeated.  The loops, of course, did not change in distance from previous years, but MENTALLY this loop did not feel so much like you were a hamster running on a wheel (repeat, repeat!) so it was much better, in my opinion.  Plus, you got to see more of the Retama Park area.   So I hope they keep this course for future events.

My inexpensive camera is not the best for night-shots, so the photos are  'so-so' but you can still kind of make out the figures in them and see some of the glow stuff.  Not only were there water stations on the course, but also 'glow stations' where volunteers handed out these 'glow-in-the-dark' items to you as you passed along.  The kids, of course, loved this, and I saw many a kid wearing armfuls and a neckfulls of glowing bracelets, necklaces, and so forth.  There were also carry glowsticks. I guess some people got handfuls because I saw several dropped along the course - and kids coming along picking them up from the ground like they were all having a contest to see who could get the most.   They were having a lot of fun and made me smile when I saw their antics.  Race time?  Who cares?  Have fun, run like a kid.

Spooky eyes in the camera-flash dark...

Glow lights coming up from behind me..

One of the volunteers on the course handing out glow bracelets

After the Finish

I had a nice chat with these very friendly folks...probably drove them crazy with my babbling, lol...

Epilog

This is one fun event that remains on my race calendar each year, even though the start time is 8:30 and that's pretty close to bedtime for an old man like me, since I turned 60 this year.      But somehow I manage to stay awake and get out to enjoy this one.    Lots of great folks there, lots of nice give-away stuff, a nice venue - especially now that the course has been changed for the better - and we also had pretty good weather this year, as we had some rain earlier and it gave us a bit of 'cool' for this year - around 78 degrees, a nice breeze blowing, low humidity, sweet.   This one is definitely a keeper!

Looks fun, Scotty! I'll have to try one of those sometime.

Looks like a fun event.  I'm glad they had such a good turnout.

Cool pics, Scotty.

Did you have a popsicle?  Maybe the colors on the cart are a bit washed out, but some of the flavors I envisioned were Asphalt, Watermelon Rind, and PVC.

Just read both reports.  Sounds like you had a fun day, Scotty!  Sausages, cookies, beer, ice cream...burn 800 calories running and consume 3000 recovering.  My kind of day.