Race photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ap9gtBnwNtkMU28R6

Before The Start: My 29^th race of 2022 was Aid The Silent 5K, held in Boerne, Texas on June 4, 2022. This event supports the organization Aid The Silent.  The organization is “a Texas-based nonprofit that helps deaf and hard-of-hearing children and teens receive equal access to opportunity by providing financial assistance to enhance communication methods; gain access to education resources; and to improve their overall health, both mental and physical.”  Race start time of 8 a.m., with start and finish at the Boerne Town Square. Weather was actually pretty nice with low humidity making the warm temperature not feel too bad at all.  Top-notch iaap race management company did the course set-up, timing and results. This event had a really nice turn-out, with 605 listed finishers, but there may have been more than that on the course, with some kid walking with their parents and so forth.  This was also a dog-friendly event but I don’t think they were counted in the results. 😉  I had picked up my packet the day before, thank goodness, so did not have to stand in line on race day. I arrived with about an hour to go to the start time, chatted with friends and other participants and supporters and also handed out doggie treats as I got some pre-start photos.  One really cool thing before the start: They did the National Anthem, playing a recording of it with someone singing the words, and during that they had these kids on the stage ‘signing’ the National Anthem in a really very cool demonstration.  It was GREAT, one of the very best National Anthem presentations I have ever seen; they rocked it.  I just about teared-up, they did it so well.

On The Course:  The 5K started right on time.  Me being a slow old dog, I had lined up pretty far back so it took me a bit to get across the start line. This was a ‘new’ course for me, one that I had not done before in Boerne, so that was nice.  We basically went straight out from the start, turned into a really nice neighborhood, then went down a hill and up a hill on the other side. We did an out-and-back in this neighborhood so had to do those two small hills twice. We then proceeded back toward the finish line, but made a left turn that took us to a hotel by the Town Square and then went onto Boerne City’s off-road paved trail, kind of similar to what the San Antonio Riverwalk is like, but on a smaller scale.  It was a bit crowded with all those runners and walkers on it but, thankfully, where I was at any given time, I never saw anyone fall.  This portion of the course was out-and-back too, so on my way out, everyone on my side of the walk had to watch out for those front-runners coming toward us as they went to the finish.  It is a pretty little course, though, with the river to our right on the way out and on our left on the way back to the finish. I did stop a few extra times to get a couple of photos.  I ended up running and chatting with a very nice lady – whose name went right out of my head just now – and then the last ½ mile or so my very speedy friend Jackie, who had already finished, came back on the course and ran with me back to the hotel, where she then dropped off as I ran to the finish line on the last bit of the course. I did better than I thought I would, with a chip-time finish of 39:28, averaging 12:24 per mile and I had negative splits, with my last mile being my fastest, nice.  Finally starting to get under 13-and-14-minute miles again as I make progress in beating my current prostate cancer, yay! 

After My Finish:  Got a few more photos near the finish line, then went back to my car, changed into a dry shirt, reloaded up on dog biscuits, and then back to the town square area to get some post-race goodies and more photos as I wandered around chatting with friends and other participants. My age group was 50 – 99 males, lol, so I already knew I was not going to place in that age group, lol.  Shoot, my friend Gary was first in our age group, and he finished in 18 minutes and change, jeez.  I was not even to Mile 2 at 18 minutes, lol.  So no pressure for me! I got to enjoy just wandering around having a good old time seeing everything, taking photos, chatting with people and handing out dog treats – to a few people too 😉 – and just having a good ole time.  Very enjoyable. I also got to meet the Aid The Silent founder, Emma, whom my wife and I met once, way back when at an event at Morgan’s Wonderland via mutual friends Angel and Dale Guillot.

Epilogue:  This is a really nice event with a lot going on before and after. As noted before, very dog-friendly event.  All kinds of post-race goodies including some really tasty popsicles – the line was pretty long for that and they went fast, but I managed to get one –  sponsors/vendors offering water, coffee, nutrition bars, various snacks like popcorn – saw two people with bags of that –  and the vendors had a variety of give-away items too.  There was a photo booth and other area with games for the kids and all kinds of other stuff. Really nice quality race shirt. Very well done event, one I will definitely do again and certainly would recommend to others.  Mucho thanks to Aid The Silent for this event and to all the supporting sponsors and volunteers. Thanks to the police officers out there for our safety; to the Boerne residents for letting a ‘horde’ of runners and walkers invade their space for a while; and to anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!