https://photos.app.goo.gl/g4XV3zMxYQB875zb7

Photos are at the link above.

BEFORE MY START:   On Feb 27, I did my 5^th live race of 2021, the Chocoholic Frolic 5K held at River City Community Church in Selma, TX.  Start time of 9 a.m.  The church location is pretty nice, with ample parking, very large indoor restroom facilities, and lots of booths for the volunteers, etc., to set up their areas. Weather was a bit humid, with a 62 degree or so temp and very overcast, looking like it was going to rain on us, but it never did.  I felt pretty comfortable the whole way; but then, unlike most runners, I prefer warm weather running to cooler weather running.  I’m an old dog, lol, and I seem to feel the cold more as I get older.  Nice turn-out for this one, especially considering there was another popular 5K going on the same day/same start time, right down the road from where this event was location.  Doncha hate it when 2 really good events are scheduled on the same day at the same time? Anyway…arrived with about 40 minutes to go to start time and got a few pre-start photos. 

ON THE COURSE: I’ve done 5Ks here before and usually the route takes us into a nearby neighborhood where we do an out-and-back and then head back to the finish.  This year, however, with the pandemic, etc., the route did not go into that area. Instead, the route was all on church-owned grounds. From the start, we went down a short hill and exited the main gate of the church grounds.  We then ran on the access roads and parking lot areas.  We’d get to certain points and went along one of the main parking areas, got to a set of cones, did a turn-round and went back the way we had come, only on the other side of the asphalt pavement.  This was done in 2 places on the course. Put into words, it sounds kind of boring, but it actually was not. It is a pretty well-thought-out course given what the race director had to work with.  Also, as I did my run/walk and took my walk breaks to get photos, I noticed at the out-and-back locations the participants, as they went by each other, coming-and-going, cheered on friends/family they saw, some stopping to get their own photos, and generally everyone just encouraging each other along.  After we passed the water stop on the course, we then went around the perimeter of another parking lot and then exited that into another lot that we went just about directly across.  This took us back to the road we had started on, which took us back to the finish.  I ended up with a finish time of 36:42, averaging 12:27 per mile. I also had negative splits, nice.  Mile 1: 12:49, Mile 2, 12:03, and Mile 3 I managed to get under 12-minute miles with 11:52.  My pacemaker behaved itself nicely.  😊

AFTER MY FINISH:  After I finished, I stood near the finish line and got a few photos of others coming into the finish line. Then went and got some water and a banana and relaxed for a few minutes.  After that, wandered around and took some various photos of some of the Happy Finishers, volunteers, and supporters that were there for their “personal runners/walkers.”

Epilogue: Very nicely done event.  Unique finisher medal and nice quality race shirt, made of really nice material.  Unfortunately for me, the race shirt has an attached hoodie. I am not a fan of hoodies, just have never liked them, so knew I would never wear it.  But no worries, my wife was happy to claim it from me, lol.  They had some Chocoholic Frolic event shirts on sale after the race, very reasonably priced at $10, so I ended up getting a really nice long sleeved pullover event shirt, collared and with a small zip-up on the front.  Very nice quality and very comfortable.  The course this year was different, but nice.  This used to be done at Morgan’s Wonderland, but in talking post-race with some of the participants, most of them were in favor of this course over Morgan’s.  Just more room to spread out.  So this course is probably a keeper for this event in the future.  Had lots of fun, saw lots of friends, very enjoyable. Definitely would do this again, and would recommend it to others.  TONS of goodies post-race, including not only the finisher medal to all participants, but also a small box of chocolates.  My wife got that too, lol. But that’s okay; she is the one who has to put up with me 24/7 so she deserves her treats.  :p

MUCHO THANKS TO: All the volunteers that were out there for us, and who were at packet pickup too; and all the sponsors supporting this one; thanks to Ed, our bike-lead guy and to Race Director Tony, who also laid out the course; our music man out there for us, as well as the 2 medical-staff people there for us; and anyone else I may not have mentioned here that was involved.  And of course, thanks to River City Community Church for the use of the grounds. Thank you all!