Light the Night 5k @ Sea World

Entrance to Sea World - Decorated for Christmas 

Yesterday evening Leta drove me to Sea World from Fredericksburg, we left in drizzle and cold temperatures and ran into fog shortly after we left.  After we came down from the hill country and headed into San Antonio we then ran into ....traffic at the I-10 / 1604 loop interchange.  For a few stressful moments, we thought we might be late for the race.  We did make it ok, and met up with Erica and Tom.  Here they are pre-race

Love Erica's Crown! 

We warmed up by an Olympian Race Walker (who later won his age division in the 5k) and soon the race was started.  We began the race about as expected running through the pathways in the park, and past neat decorations, such as the candy tree forest .

Soon though, we headed out and into the parking lot.  We ran a long way out and back into the parking lot, and then back into the park proper, but not on the same paths.  The course wound around quite a bit and also was a bit hillier than I expected.  Also it seemed to me, that the run around in the parking lot was no where near half way into the race, but rather more like 1/3 of the way, but I assumed it was the halfway point.  So I became a bit demoralized on the way back to the finish line!  But I did finish after 34:14 officially.  This is my second fastest time for a 5k race, with only the Wild Flower run being faster.

After the race, we picked up the goody bags, and headed over to the 'chow line' and picnic area.  The menu include 3 bean salad, potato salad, coleslaw, hot dogs, sausage, pulled pork and cookies!

After dinner, we wandered over to the arena and watched a great show with the "shamu" family of whales.  It was corney and very funny and moving all at the same time!

The race was a fund raiser for the Prevention of Blindness and had over 850 participants (both walkers and runners), Erica's team (UIW) had 89 team members (and they provided the tshirt).  The group that sponcered the race, gave vision screenings/exams to over 5,000 low income/unisured people in Bexar County last year and referred over 500 for follow up care.

Next years race will be  Friday December 7,2012, and I can't wait!

Still smiling after the race, and yes those are live flamingos!