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.
The second event to mention is San Marcos now has a World Record Holder in the mile run with Ino Canto. Ino was entered in the Pumpkin Dash 5K but realized he was going to run in a track meet in Marble Falls the next day and try for the World Record for runners 90 years old so he decided to rest up. The old record for the 90+ years age mile run was 10:53. Ino Canto figured he could come close to breaking that record. Talking to him about the race he said he felt good for his try at the record. He was several seconds ahead of his predicted time at the half mile mark and was still feeling strong. On the third lap he was still ahead of his time and went for the record. He finished in 10:13 for the new World’s Record. The old record was set back in 2008 so breaking a record by :40 seconds will take some major effort to break Ino’s record.
Ino Canto has been a runner most of his life and in his younger days was a runner to contend with at races. He won his share of awards at the races here in San Marcos over the years. The fact that he is still running at the age of 90 years and able to set a world record says a lot about running as a sport for all ages.
