Last week was the celebration of Cinco De Mayo. The reason it had some meaning to me is in 1979 the Cinco De Mayo 10K race was held. I am not familiar with any races prior to 1973, but for my records this was the first road race held in San Marcos. This was the first year of the Capital 10K in Austin, and I thought of hosting a road race here in San Marcos. I talked with Warren Leddick, the Parks and Recreation Director, about putting on a race here in San Marcos. Warren was also a track and field race director, so he had expertise in putting the event together. The first celebration to be scheduled was the Cinco De Mayo, and we thought that would be a good race date.
It was decided to have a 10K distance and start at the Hays County Civic Center. It was a different landscape in 1979 for running. We circled the Civic Center and headed out onto the access road to Redwood Road. From Redwood Road (now Wonder World Drive) the runners turned again on highway 123 and came back to the Civic Center on the road that went to businesses on that road. The roads were all two lanes and with minimal traffic back then.
The reason I think it was the first race in San Marcos is the articles and coverage in the Daily Record before the race. Comments about “hitting the wall” and training tips for such a long distance. I wrote several articles and some responses to the letter to the editor column to answer questions that appeared in previous issues. The first tee shirt was white with red collar and sleeve borders. The main design was a Mexican runner with a yellow sombrero, red scarf, green tank top and red shorts. A pencil moustache was included on the runner. Since there was not a lot of information about running at that time the race details were a little off. Big red letters across the top for “Cinco De Mayo” and underneath was printed “Hill Country 10 Kilo.” A kilo is a weight measure and a kilometer is a distance measure, but not many runners noticed the error. The race was sponsored by “75 years of service – Hays County Citizen.” I can’t remember how many runners we had, but it was around 200 or more. We handed out the standard victory trophies to the overall winners and age group winners up to the age of 40 and over. The thought was nobody over the age of 40 would run 6.2 miles.
The race became a yearly event and eventually moved to the Court House Square downtown. Manuel and Gloria Gonzales were members of the San Marcos Runners Club and helped organize the race. The overall winners received a colorful serape with the embroidery stitched to show they were the champions. The winners also received a big sombrero to wear. The race grew to over 400 runners during that time. Award winners were given the awards on a flat bed trailer on San Antonio Street. We also moved the age group up to 60 years and over.
I have the original tee shirt from the race (I also ran the race). You might ask why I would have a tee shirt that is over 45 years old. I imagine there are less than half a dozen of those tee shirts still around. Who keeps tee shirts for 45 years? Since it was, in my time here in San Marcos, the first road race I kept the shirt. I very seldom wear it, so it is still in good shape.
The race “died out” some years later when a new race director was appointed to head up the race. Going by previous years entrants they ordered several hundred race shirts. I got a phone call about helping with the race and asked the race director when the race was going to be held. He said it was that weekend. Since there was no advance publicity, less than 50 runners showed up. The cost of the shirts almost broke the sponsoring organization. It has never recovered to the past glory days, and only a few Cinco De Mayo races have been held since.
