I'm all about running races in new towns. Saturday, I traveled from the greater Houston area to Rockport, which is just due north of Corpus Christi to run the 28th annual Whooping Crane Strut 10K which is produced by the City of Rockport's Parks and Recreation Department. It was the 113th Texas city or town that I've raced in and North American city #250.

Working with many different race production teams as a race announcer, there's not one thing that I could think of to be critical of about this event.

I would guess that there might have been about 250 runners who did either the one-loop 5K or two-loop 10K, which started and finished in Rockport's Memorial Park.

The races - with a dual start for both events (and included a two-mile walk too) - started on-time, included a pre-race briefing with race director Tom Staley that displayed all of the course maps and saw athletes on courses that were very well-marked and controlled well by friendly volunteers and city staff, including a pair of policeman when you left Memorial Park to the street.

Runners did a loop inside the park as well as an out-and-back on the city's Tule Hike and Bike Trails. 10K athletes did the out-and-back on the paved trails, came back to the Park did the loop and then back to the out-and-back again. That section had two slight rises; otherwise, the entire course was flat. One water station on the back side of the loop and two on the out-and-back section of the trail.

The races were chip-timed by a professional timer, Athlete Guild out of New Braunfels. In fact, the owner of the company timed the race for the City.

Everybody got a nice t-shirt that showcased the event and the city well, but you didn't feel as if you were a walking advertisement either.

As long as you got there on time, parking in the park was plentiful and easy in-and-out with the help of the friendly volunteers and law enforcement.

The course was designed to minimize traffic difficulties. In fact we ran from the Park to the out-and-back trail section in a very-well coned off middle/turning lane of traffic that had a volunteer at every intersection that came out to the street.

You really couldn't ask for more from an event production standpoint.

Friendly folks. If you're in the Corpus Christi area for Spring Break in the future, look this race up - it is a must-do!