Our local triathlon in the far north greater Houston area for today, April 30, 2016, was cancelled mid afternoon yesterday due to impending, potential storms; therefore, at around 2 p.m. at work, I started looking where to run today.

The first priority was it a Texas town that I had not run in before and the Fredericksburg Wildflower Run 10K and 5K fit the bill. Located about 90 minutes west of Austin out Highway 290, the town was founded in 1846 by German settlers and has many Germanic references in and around the city.

Race day registration was just $25. Hard to beat these days. Participants received a shirt, but they needed to wait until pre-registered runners got theirs before being made available to race day runners.

The race started and finished behind the Marketplatz or The Vereins-Kirche, which is situated in the middle of town.

Pre-race announcements caused for the race to be five minutes behind its scheduled 8:30 a.m. start before the timer, who had to call their ownership to understand a software issue, added another 10 minutes to the delay.

The course was on wide, non-closed city streets, whose intersections were patrolled pretty well by local residents. Police also drove it in various places.

While the region is known as the Hill Country, the course featured most of the flatter stretches of town, but there was still once long incline in the middle of mile three for the 10K'ers that took a little out of a few runners.

The only issue is whether or not the course was the complete and accurate 10K distance or if the mile markers were set correctly. Without a USATF-certified course map to learn where the markers should be placed, it is uncertain to tell. I ran what I normally would for the last .1 of a mile of a 5K for the last .2, based on the where the 6-mile marker was ... so something was amiss.

I wouldn't discourage anybody from running it if they were making a weekend trip there to explore the region's many wineries or antique shops, but be advised.

And, of course, the entire Hill Country region is pretty well very beautiful to run in and even on the city's streets the 65%-shaded route didn't disappoint.

Just be prepared: This course is very, very hilly. I'm not talking Blue Ridge Half Marathon in Roanoke-type of hilly, but just a constant wear on your body the whole race. Once you think you're done with a hill, here comes another. And you get a steady 100+ foot climb in the first 2.5 half miles when you're trying to find a steady pace.

Rip It Events is the event producer and they put together a professionally managed race. Traffic control in a high-density suburban area was flawless with friendly, supportive law enforcement personnel managing the busiest intersections and the number of volunteers that were engaged was incredible. Kudos to Rip It for that.

However, from just before mile 3 (a turn on to Hickory Ridge) until between mile markers 6 and 7 (turning on to Cedar Lane), the course, which was completely open to traffic (although it would have been busier on a Saturday), was at times unsafe as the producer only marked a cone from the curb wide enough for only two people to run abreast - and didn't have an entire lane blocked off like they did on the other miles. A couple of times I took to the sidewalk.

The race's number of finishers in the half marathon has increased from its debut last year of 431 to 478 this year.

The number of finishers in the companion 5K nearly doubled.

If you don't like or don't train on hills, you might want to pick another race, but it is not for the fact that the event producer does a shabby job.

Otherwise, the race started on-time and the event producer has paired up with an organization that gives the opportunity to physically challenged athletes - with their guides - to participate and they showcased them well with a 2-minute head start on the rest of the field.

Even though I came in from Texas to check off another state in half marathons (#40), I get the feel that this event production company does things right. May want to check out some of their other events too!

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!

Knowing that I would be driving my daughter home from college across seven states, I went searching for a race that we could do together the morning after our overnight stop.

I came across the Dash Away 5K in McCalla, Alabama, just near Bessemer, where we planned to stay for the evening on south side of Birmingham. I learned that it was an inaugural event that started at 9 a.m. While it would put us on the road a little later than normal, it was a good interruption in the middle of 18-20 hours of driving.

The race was produced by Camp Fire Alabama and hosted at their Camp Fletcher and proceeds went to benefit the organization and the Camp's programs for children and youth. When registering you had the opportunity to chose a timed or untimed option. (Even though I'm not fast, it is always timed for me please when it is offered.)

My daughter - a college junior - wasn't able to end up running as she was injured; therefore, I took on the slightly challenging out-and-back course that was hosted on lightly traveled country roads myself.

The organizer had the course certified, which I didn't completely notice until getting ready to write this review. The certification map is here -- http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=AL15064JD (In fact, when I registered, it might not have been posted yet as the paperwork wasn't filed until the first of December.)

The course was challenging and primarily uphill on the way out as there was as an overall 61-meter climb from the lowest point, just shortly after crossing the start, to the highest, which was just past mile one. But that meant that you could hammer it on the return, which I did. My split on the back half was two minutes faster than on the front half!

Just about every local agency in the area (police and fire) was out to support the race (which is great - sometimes you don't see such friendly support and cooperation) and the Jefferson County Sheriff addressed the small gathering of runners before the start, as did the race director and the timer who went over the course.

There was one water stop at the turnaround with a couple of friendly volunteers and plenty of water and Gatorade.

The event started about ten minutes late, but the crowd didn't seem to mind. Nor did I (being in event production.) And first-year events are worthy of getting a pass on items such as this when you can see it was only to just make sure that everyone providing course support was on the same page.

Runners received a nice bag, long-sleeved event t-shirt and the bag also contained a water bottle, stress ball (which could be tossed to some testy holiday drivers this weekend) and a Starbucks coffee cup. (I'm not a coffee drinker, but my savvy daughter said that they're quite worth it.)

We left immediately after I finished so we could get on the road, but the atmosphere of the organization's cause, especially given the time of the year, was cheerful and friendly.

This is a race that is worthy of everyone's support to allow for it grow to provides more services to 11,500 children and their families annually.

Maybe it was the weather (not hot, but humid and threatening rain ... in December!) or perhaps it was the change in course (from a double loop to a single loop), but something just didn't feel right. Oh wait, maybe it was my running!

Seriously, the 11th annual Schlotzsky's Jingle Bell Run Half Marathon / 5K is a solid, well-produced event located in the heat of central Texas, Temple - situated around Interstate 35 with Waco on its north and Austin to the south.

The first nine runnings of the event in the first six years, with two races each in the inaugural year of 2008, 2009 and 2011, were by the Health & Wellness department of Scott & White Health. Last year and this year, it is produced by the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Temple.

Runners received a nice technical shirt as part of their swag, which for a $45 half marathon one week out from race day is excellent. (Race day registration was $55.)

There were about 150 finishers in the half marathon.

The event is pretty much no thrills although intersections are manned by city employees and aid stations were taken care of by enthusiastic volunteers. Runners either run in the Scott & White West Campus parking lot, a combination of sidewalks or lightly traveled roads or the Pepper Creek Trail.

It is slightly uphill out to about mile 4, rollers until about mile 9-10 and slightly downhill on the return.

On this day, the Parks and Recreation Department did not get out mile markers. A little inexcusable as you can print 13 sheets of paper, laminate them, put them on a stick and go out and pound them into the ground two hours before the race starts. (My running was that bad that day it might have discouraged me to know my pace!)

The only major difference other than the change from a two-loop to a single-loop course (which had many places that were shared) was that the medal - not that I run them for these - was slightly better under Scott & White's race direction versus the City's.

If you're in the area, want to race and have the time, this is an excellent race to challenge yourself on a not completely flat course, where you're not running with dozens of people and for a great price.