Sports

I have just returned from taking a break in activities and visited some family and friends in Northeast Texas. The house we own is across the street from a park. The area around the park is roughly a quarter mile in distance and is on a slight slope. That means one side is an easy downhill and the other side is a gradual uphill. The reason for mentioning this park is that in the spring the town has a Wildflower 5K Fun Run and Walk. Last year I wanted to take some photos of the race for my article when I came back to San Marcos. On the day of the race I found out it was a point to point course with the start and the finish 3.1miles apart. There was no way I could get a photo of the start and make it back to the finish line to catch the lead runners. I am not sure what I was thinking at that time as I had not entered a race for too many years, but I walked up to the registration table and entered the race. A bus ride up to the starting line was next. There were about 150 runners and walkers entered in the race. I was not in good running shape but thought I could walk 3.1 miles. I recalled races we have here in San Marcos and a number of walkers finish in about 50 minutes to over an hour. I set my goal to finish in under one hour. One of the organizers said that it is basically a downhill course with only a few gradual uphills. I got in the back of the pack and took off at the starting gun. I needed a good pace per mile to finish under my one hour time prediction. Feeling good along the way, I tried some slow jogging a few times. This was especially true when the downhill segments were in front of me. Needless to say I did finish under an hour by several minutes and being in an upper age group – I think I was the oldest runner in the bunch – I was awarded a second place in the over 70 age group.