State #32 Texas

 Humana Rock 'n' Roll Marathon  & Half San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas

December 3, 2017

Race Results:

Finished Time: 2:04:43

Pace 9:31

Overall : 1850/10494

Division 89/945

Gender 641/6322

This was the last race of 2017 and the first to start the racing journey west of the Mississippi. 

Will add more highlight info after grading exams :)

Highlights:

Travel: There is no direct way to get to San Antonio. My route BOS-ATL- SAT. It was exciting to leave the Boston cold weather for some southern heat in December.

This was the first state that I was giving a presentation around my ongoing running research.

I stayed with my friend and colleague. Not only is he a sociologist but he grew up in San Antonio. He knows the culture, neighborhoods, politics, and understands my green book need for exploring.

 I explored San Antonio and Texas A & M at San Antonio too.

Green Book:

This was the first city that I visited that was a mostly, majority brown space. You can see it and you know it.

My colleague took me to the “black side of town” and explained the politics of the current displacement, also known as gentrification.

Normally my spaces have been a “black and white” space. In North Dakota, some spaces were “Native American Spaces.” From the places and neighborhoods that I went to, the African-American space was in the minority.

We were able to go to places such as Tuckers, which was originally African-American owned and it still has the history and legacy of African-Americans pictures on the walls.

From Tuckers to Mrs. Kitchens for some true Southern Soul Food, these were the enclaves of African-American spaces.

Side note: My colleague had to research were the African-American owned and run restaurants were in San Antonio. He found two.

In Mrs. Kitchen, I felt at home. The community of African-Americans that showed up to eat to the conversations with the waitress and the cook.

Race Highlights- Pre- Race

1.      The Rock and Roll series is always big. It such a huge affair and people are coming from all over to run

2.      First time seeing the Alamo. It is literally downtown or downtown was built around it. Knowing the history of the Alamo I was all set if I didn’t go explore it.

3.      A must- to- do, which I didn’t is a boat cruise along the rivers. You can cruise along the riverwalk, which is very lovely

4.      Being a mid-west southern, it was so different to see Christmas decorations and holiday lights when its 60 to 70 degrees out.

5.      So excited that my running buddy Tee was running the race. We stayed together the night before race day. The hotel was  5 minutes from the start of the race. It’s good to be with someone who knows the per-morning ritual of getting ready for the run.

6.      The night before we had really good Cuban food at a place called Otto. There were 3 of us “ black girls runners”. We ate early and went to bed early

7. There are a multitude of variety of Mexican food( based on regions). I had a puff taco and other local- San Antonio Mexican food.

Race Day

1.      December 3rd, 66 degrees out and muggy. On our way to the start of the race, we walked past the Alamo, no biggie

2.      There were over 10,000 at the start. Just eye balling it, I saw more Latino/a runners then I normally have. Plus I heard a lot of Spanish.

3.      With all the people and the fogginess, my Pandora music was not working. I couldn’t get a signal. I knew, once I was out of the crowd and had more space it would work. My smartness decided to delete the app. Because I couldn’t get a connection, I couldn’t even add the app again after deleting it. UGH

4. Around mile 5 it started to rain hard. There was a man next to me that slipped and fell.

5. With my time of 2:04:43- I’m super proud. I had to stop and get my music to work. I slowed down in the rain because I didn’t want to slip. I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breathe.

 6. I had trash( cup) hit me. A runner was trying to throw her cup into the trash and it me instead. She saw the look on my face and she was profusely apologizing. I told her that now I just need to run faster

7. Mile 7 was heart breaking and heart heavy.  When we ran in Brackenridge Park they had pictures on both sides of the path of fallen military men and women. The pictures just continued. Then you turned a corner and there were men and women on both sides of the path holding the US flag.

This was something that I had never seen and I kept smiling and thanking all the people. I did feel my heart stick out of my chest. Not sure if I wanted to cry or what. It was extremely emotional.

8. I did have one woman, tell me good job and keep going. Thankful that she didn’t objectify or racialize me.

9. Mile 10 is when we went through east San Antonio " the black side of town" and now the poorer- being gentrified Latino side of town.  I found it out in this brown space the race organizers  felt the need to have mariachi singers and women dancing in traditional attire on the bridge that we ended up going under

10. One community we ran through, a couple wore  sombreros as we passed their house.