Photos are here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z5ynpjhJcSaMzA9Y8

Before The Start: My 44^th race of 2022 was the CBC (Community Bible Church) 5K held on Saturday, Sep 10, starting and finishing at the CBC campus, which is a huge place. This event raised fund for Child Advocates San Antonio (CASA) and the Harlandale Alumni Basketball Fund Scholarship. Lots of CBC members were volunteers, course marshals, etc.  Start time of 8 a.m. I arrived about 6:45. Even though it was early, the place was already humming, with lots of volunteers setting things up, doing race day registration and packet pickup and sponsors/vendors also getting their areas set up.  There was also a firefighter truck with crane, that was there flying Old Glory. There were quite a few flags posted around the area too, flying at half-staff, in remembrance of the late Queen Elizabeth. Events included a 1-mile walk, the 5K, and a 5K ‘ruck’ , in which participants carried a pack as they went along the course.  Split Second Productions, affiliated with the great local running store iRun Texas, did the course setup and the timing and results for this one. I had pre-registered and already picked up my race packet a few days before race day, so when I arrived on site I got a few “before the start” photos.

On The Course: Challenging, but well thought-out and well laid out.  I suspect my friend Mitch from iRun had a hand in this, lol, giving us not one hill to climb, but two. We started in one of the campus parking lots and then proceeded to make almost a full loop around the CBC building.  This brought us onto one of the CBC ‘access roads’ for entry and exit from the CBC campus. As we passed an intersection road on the campus, the Mile 1 participants went left to do a 2^nd loop around the building.  5K folks went straight, coming to our first hill, a road that led up to East Sonterra Blvd.  After reaching the top of the hill, we turned right onto East Sonterra and went to Ridgewood Parkway, which was a loooooong downhill on the way to the turn-round. This took us to Dry Creek Way, where we made a right and then proceeded to the turn-round – which was 1.7 miles, not 1.6.  I thought maybe my Garmin was off, but 2 other folks there who also had garmins told me no, they had 1.7 also.  Darn Mitch, giving us “extra course”.  He really does like to challenge us, lol. All good though.  After the turn-round, we went back to the finish the way we had come out, for the most part. Of course, this meant that long downhill on Ridgewood Parkway was a long uphill on the way back.  East Sonterra was flat going back to the campus, and then we went downhill on the campus access road. To finish up, we made a a right turn onto an access road that goes in front of the CBC Building, and then made a right turn to head to the finish line, with 3.4 miles done.  Per my garmin, I ended up with a finish time of 44:14 chip time, 16 in my age group. I actually had positive splits, with Mile 1 being my fastest and Mile 3 my slowest. I am no speedster, lol, and I met my two primary race goals:  Finish Standing Up and No Ambulance waiting specifically for me at the finish.  Good goals, lol, especially as I am being treated right now for prostate cancer, and am doing very well too, thank the Lord – and thanks to my lovely wife too, my #1 support crew person who helps me keep focused.

 After My Finish: First thing: water and a banana!  Sat at one of the picnic tables in the recreation area of the campus, drank my water, ate my banana, and just rested a bit.  After that, I enjoyed walking around the finish are chatting with friends of mine who were there, and also other participants, volunteers, etc, and got a few post-race photos. I think I was one of the very last people to finally leave, but it’s all good, I enjoy the post-race activities.

Epilogue:   This is the first time I’ve done this event but certainly will not be the last.  This is really a well-thought-out event with a very good route – challenging, as noted before, but with lots of room for everyone to maneuver around.  The course marshals and course volunteers were all awesome, cheering everyone on, providing water/Gatorade – what, no beer? 😉  just kidding – at 2 water stops on the course, ringing bells, showing funny signs and so forth. Mitch and the iRun crew did their usual awesome job with course setup, timing, results, etc. The two MCs – I talked to them for a bit – were lots of fun.  Pretty nice quality race shirt and nice medals for the age-group placers – not me, at my pace, lol.    All kinds of vendors and sponsors with a whole lot of different services and some free give-away stuff. Kid friendly event too.  Some of those kids run really fast too, a lot of them left me in their dust, lol.  This is most definitely an event I will do again and would recommend to others.  Thanks to CBC for putting on this event; Split Second Productions/iRun Texas for their usual great job; all those many many many volunteers that had to be out there WAY early, I am sure, to get everything ready; the San Antono Police Honor Guard for the presentation of the colors, and the lady who so beautifully sang The National Anthem; our two MCs; the medical staff people that were there for us; the police officers along the course for our safety – I chatted briefly with one of them on the course; as you can tell from that, I am really concerned about what my finish time will be; not! lol – and of course all the sponsors that made this one happen for we participants.  Apologies if I missed anyone.  Thank you all! See you next year, God willing.