Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FHionYPSGQbioSmc6

Before The Start:  My 24^th race of 2022 and my second race of the May 14 – 15 weekend, was the Spring Thing 5K held on Sunday, May 16 at San Antonio State Mental Hospital. This event benefits “the Volunteer Services Council of the San Antonio State Hospital (SASH). The Council’s primary mission is to improve the quality of life and enhance the well-being of patients receiving treatment at the San Antonio State Hospital by providing goods and services not funded through traditional state funding.”  Start time of 8 a.m. Nice turn-out for this one, with 194 finishers, runners and walkers. Weather was semi-cooperative. May is usually one of our cooler months in San Antonio but this year, the temps have been much higher.  Sunshine, very little wind, temp of 72 degrees at start time, but humidity was a tad lower than the past few days, which was a blessing.  I arrived with just under an hour to go to start time, got my race packet, and then got a few pre-start photos.

On The Course: Paved roads on the SASH campus. The out-and-back course had a mix of a bit of everything.  We started on flat roads, went down a short incline, then flat a bit more, then went up a hill, evened out for a bit more, then up a longer hill which took us to a very short non-paved dirt-and-stones part of the course. We then proceeded down another hill that turned us onto the road that took us to the 5K turn-round point.  We then proceeded back to the finish line on the same route, making all those uphills now downhills for us, with our last hill being a climb up that incline we had come down after our start.  After that, it was flat all the way to the finish.  I had planned to take it easy for this one after my 5K on Saturday, but felt okay, so decided maybe I could run normally;  well, what is normal for me, lol.  Did not quite work out that way.  After I made the first turn from the start line, my MP3 player – yeah, I’m old school, lol, still have a SANS Disk – fell out of my pocket – guess I did not secure it enough, and the back opened and I lost my battery.  Good thing I carry an extra when I run.  So stopped, got my player back together, input fresh battery, and was off-and-running again, way at the back of the pack area with mostly walkers.  I had brought my angel Bernadette with me – a button photo of her and me together after a race – so I took this as a sign from her, lol, that I was to behave myself today and just take it easy and enjoy myself and the heck with the time.. So I did. It was kind of fun at the back of the pack, running and walking with friends I don’t normally interact with on the course – even got to feed a doggie – and just relaxing and taking a few more photos than I usually do.  Hit Mile 1 at 15:08 versus my usual 12 -13 minute miles.  My speedy walking friend Patrick was even ahead of me for most of this 5K and that does not happen very often. I eventually did catch up to him and got to chat with him. Feeling fairly good and actually ended up with negative splits. Mile 2 in 14:23 and Mile 3 in 13:20, per my Garmin. My garmin had my finish time at 44:20, while the chip results showed 44:14 chip-time finish. My friend, Patrick the Walker King, finished 43 seconds behind me, nice.

After My Finish:  First, got some water and did a cool-down walk-about and ate a banana..  Chatted with the local EMT that was there – very nice guy – and he took my BP and heart rate (I keep a long for my cardiology appointments, since I have a pacemaker) and he told me everything was looking good.  Awards were only given to overall winners, so I had plenty of time to chat with friends, volunteers, etc., and get some post-race photos.

Epilogue: I’ve done this event a couple of times before, so was familiar with the course, how the awards went, and so forth Very nice quality race shirt, nice course, good facilities for the participants – indoor restroom, nice – massage therapy for those that wanted it before or after –   I got ‘rolled out’ after I was done and it felt great – and post race goodies that included various fruits, coffee, water, and even donut holes, and more. This is a very nice location for an event.  The campus is quite large with a few scenic views along the way – especially when you’re atop some of those hills, lol – and the course is well laid out to take a lot of the campus in. Dog-friendly event. The SASH campus is normally closed to the public but opens yearly for this event, so a nice way to see it. The event supports a good cause too; I think all of us probably know someone, whether family or friends, who has dealt with mental issues for whatever reason and/or maybe dealt with them ourselves. When I was growing up – I am a baby boomer era kid – this was not really talked about all that publicly, but thank goodness times have changed and mental health issues are now getting more public attention and is not the ‘family secret to keep quiet’ as much as it once was, the stigma of it starting to slowly go away as people realize mental issues can be quite common and there IS help for it.   This event has continued to grow over the years bit by bit, and hope it stays that way, very good cause to support. I will do this one again and would recommend it to others.     Thank you to all the people who made this one happen for us:  SASH, sponsors, volunteers, iaap, police officers and EMT out there for us, and any others I may not have mentioned here