This past week there were two running events that are worth mentioning. With four races in San Marcos in the month of October it was a busy month for runners. This past Saturday the San Marcos Kiwanis Club hosted the ‘Great Pumpkin Dash 5K’. The point of mentioning this race was that it was at a new location for hosting runs. The race was held at the LaCima Development subdivision. Anytime a new course is tried there are always a few minor adjustments to make. The first attempt at finding a good 5K course had the organizers selecting the road leading into the subdivision. It was wide and had an easy turnaround point for runners. The downside was the speed limit was 40 miles per hour and even with sheriff’s deputies to control traffic it was still a possible trouble area. Looking over the course with my two co-race directors, David Alexander and Darrell Rhodes, David noticed that LaCima has very wide sidewalks next to the road. The decision to run on the sidewalk for safety reasons was worth a try. Since the race had a small number of runners this was a good trial run for the course. We were a little concerned that the runners might not like running on a sidewalk for a race.
The race started on the road leading up to the Activity Center about 200 yards from the main entrance road. This gave the runners time to spread out to single file. With some direction arrows at a few locations and some direction volunteers out on the course we started the race. Since this was the first time using the course and having the runners on a sidewalk instead of the road one of the primary points was to get some feedback from the runners on what they thought of the course. The response from the runners was that they liked the course and the fact that the sidewalks were wide made it easy to have lead runners not interfering with some of the slower runners on the return. Several runners said they enjoyed the scenery and liked the fact that they felt safer running on the sidewalk and not having to worry about traffic. The one unusual thing about the runners in this race was there were no male runners between the ages of 16 years and 30 years. That is usually the largest group of runners and for this race it had no runners. With positive feedback for the course from runners San Marcos now has another 5K course to add to its race locations. Talking with volunteers out on the course it was felt that there were a couple of locations that could use a person for direction along with a direction arrow. The Medical Explorers from Texas State were spread out along the course for any runners that may have had a problem. The San Marcos High School Key club students were also on hand to help with directions and sorting out the award categories. Hopefully next year there will be a larger turnout of runners.
The other positive thing for hosting the race at LaCima is the Activity Center has a large covered pavilion to use for registration, refreshment tables, awards ceremonies, and in case of rain a nice dry area. There was a good parking area for runners close to the registration and starting line. For a first time run at LaCima it was a good location for a race.
