Saturday was a busy day, so I needed to be up early and I was. I had breakfast and then
I waited for a bus, they are meant to be every 10 minutes, but I waited about 30 minutes, one did come but said he wasn't going all the way. The bus journey was about 10-15 minutes and stopped right outside the gates. It is a big attraction the San Antonio Stock and Rodeo show. It is like an exhibition centre with various different parts. Outside there was a large area of amusements, a food centre and some shops. Inside there was an exhibition hall with lots of shops or stalls. They sold everything western including boots at $300 plus. There were no 'freebies' or sales so I didn't stay long. There was another area where you could look at horses and watch some events.
I had tickets for the rodeo which was in another part of the premises. It started at 1pm with a prayer and then the national anthem. After, that the rodeo lasted for 2 hours and was different events involving horses and steering, including Cowboys trying to stay on the bucking horses, rounding up cattle and other events. It was quite entertaining. There had a children's event where they had to see how long they could stay on a sheep, a five year old girl won.
After the rodeo was the Trace Atkins (country singer for the uneducated) and he was great. He sang for about an hour and some of my favourite as well as his new single 'Jesus and Jones.'
I needed to get a bus back to the hotel, but there didn't appear to be any coming, the traffic was very heavy and not moving due to the rodeo and parking. It was only 3 miles walk, mainly up hill in the 80 degree sun, but I did save $1.30 and in fact was only a couple of blocks from their hotel when the bus overtook me. It was worth the effort.
I had a wander around the river walk area, but after all the excitement of the rodeo, the concert and the walking felt tired so I went right back to the hotel to relax.
On Sunday I had to be up at 6am to have my breakfast so it could digest before the 10k race at 0830. 'Remember the Alamo', the famous Texan war cry from 1836 was the dominant theme of this 10K race. There was also a 1/2 marathon or 5K option. The race started from the Alamodome in San Antonio and then ran towards downtown, past the Alamo (of course) and out and around North San Antonio. The 1/2 marathon goes through the Sam Houston airforce base.
It is the first race I have seen where all the signs remind athletes they can not carry firearms (open or concealed) and it is an offence. Different I suppose from the normal no headphones at Uk events. Before the race starts there was a prayer by a local youth leader, followed by the flags of US and Texas and then the national anthem.
The start was at 0830 and it was already warm by then, late 60's although some nice cloud cover. The race was started by a historical group firing live muskets. It did stop anyone starting before the gun, as you were likely to have been shot, but I still needed to run through the smoke as I set off. It was a reasonably flat route, till mile 4 when suddenly a hill was introduced, you ran up the hill, turned round and ran back down (slightly faster), it was at this stage the 10K rejoined the 1/2 marathon route.
The finish was in the Alamodome and there was a crowd cheering you on. I finished 24th out of 564 and was the first international athlete home....another piece of bling obtained for the toilet..
I went back to the hotel, showered and changed so I could go to church. Fortunately there was one next door to the hotel. I had run past the First Baptist church, but that was several miles away and I didn't fancy running back again. The church was held in the Cameo theatre and was called Citychurch Downtown. It has four services on a Sunday, all the same content so in theory if you are late you could have the sermon followed by the music. They did mention people had trouble parking due to the running festival and the roads being closed - they could always walk, - a novel concept here I know! The music was rather loud and songs I didn't know, although good words, some were from Hillsong (As I identified when I Googgled them later). The pastor preached for about 35 minutes on tithing and I made a few notes. It lasted just over an hour and apart from the word, a few ideas that I could use.
There was a coffee bar next door linked to the church, and you can drink coffee and watch the service online, unfortunately I only found out about this afterwards!
I returned to my room for a coffee intake, haven't had any since 6am so am flagging. As its Sunday and traffic is light I went for a drive. Linda wanted a few things from Walmart so I found one. I then used Facetime for her to see the items and she could tell me what to buy. In the evening I went for a walk and a meal by the river and ended up walking more than I had run! I have run 33.2 miles and walked 34.2 according to my app.
The mission trail covers five missions from The Alamo down to Espada which is the furthest south. They did not look too far on the map, so I decided they were within running distance. Of course everything technically is within running distance, it just depends on how far you want to run.
Monday was an overcast morning, with some drizzle, but still warm. I set off just after 9am and had a gentle run towards the first one Mission Concepción, it was then I realised how far south of the city the buildings were. It was about 3 miles to the first one. The church at Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Acuñalooks much like it did in 1755 when it was first dedicated, according to the literature. I took some photos and then went to have a look at the second one. This was another 3 miles down Mission Road.
San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, the “Queen of the Missions,” is the largest mission in San Antonio, established in 1720 and completed in 1782. Spanish designers, directing workers from the local Coahuiltecan tribe, built the mission using Texas limestone and brightly colored stucco. At its height, it provided sanctuary and a social and cultural community for more than 300 Indians, and was surrounded by acres of fields and livestock herds.
I had a look round, took some photos and then decided visiting the other two Missions would mean more running south and even more running back to downtown. They would also look the same as the two I had seen. There is a trail long the river bank back to downtown, so I decided to follow that. It seemed to have a lot of slopes to run up, not as flat as I had expected. A couple of miles out the trail was blocked due to flooding from the overnight rain, so it was back to using the pavements, not as scenic!
I made it back to downtown and saw Starbucks, I needed a caffeine input so stopped. I then ran back to the hotel and discovered I had run 12 miles. I have run out of things to wear, so I spent the rest of the afternoon doing the washing and drying it in the laundry room.
I had tickets for the Monday's rodeo followed by the Alan Jackson concert. The rodeo started at 7pm, so the concert is not likely to start till after 9pm. I was more interested in the concert than the rodeo (having seen that on Saturday).
I got the bus to the rodeo and the road was not so busy this time, the rodeo was still busy. The rodeo performance was the same as on Saturday but still enjoyable, probably because I knew what to expect. The Alan Jackson concert was great, it lasted over an hour and was some of my favourite songs including 'Remember when...' He was more interactive with the crowd than Trace Atkins and perhaps more popular, although his music is probably more livelier. It was great.
This time I managed to get a bus back to the hotel. I didn't particularly want to walk in the dark and so waited for about 20 mins and the bus came.
So another tour is ending, just need to pack the case, drive back to Austin tomorrow, put my warm clothes on and then catch the evening flight home - UK here I come.