Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/mDCMho83RKyDW9Up9

Before The Start:    My 54^th race of 2022 was the Now You See Me Foundation Monster Dash 5K Run, Walk or Wheelchair.  This was my second event of this weekend after doing the Harp & Shamrock 5K the day before. Events for the Monster Dash included a 10K and a 1-mile event.  held on Sunday, October 30 at Eisenhower Park in San Antonio, this event raises funds for critically injured athletes and spinal cord research. I chose this one to as I can somewhat relate to being disabled. I was born a March of Dimes baby with dislocated hips wearing braces on my legs for a short time and then a pair of shoes held together with a bar in-between them. I lived a pretty normal life – even did 24 years in the Air Force – but can never sit or stand perfectly straight due to a curvature in my spine from all this.  When I was in my 50s, my spinal arthritis flared up – arthritis and spinal disc disease at 6 levels in my back – so per my doc’s recommendation, I began to use the run/walk method, which has worked very well for me. Of course, I have nowhere near the damage a critically injured athlete has, but I can empathize maybe a tad with what they may deal with. Also, I am a cancer survivor twice over, colon area and currently prostate cancer.  So when I choose my races to do, ones that support funding for cancers and disabilities are high on my priority list.  This event had a late morning start time of 9:30 a.m., so got to sleep in a bit. Weather was perfect.  Sunny skies, but not hot at at all, with a nice temp in the 50s, very low humidity, and no wind. I arrived with about an hour to go to start time and got a few pre-race photos.

On The Course:  The course started and finished at a small compound at the park that included a pavilion, several other structures, and some supply sheds and so forth. After we exited the compound, we proceeded on asphalt trails near the parking lot area and then onto the nearby concrete Greenway trails.  All courses were out-and-back and, no matter what distance you were doing, all participants started together. The paved trails inside the park were fairly flat. Once we hit the greenway trails, the hills began.  These were no baby hills either; we climbed and climbed for most of the way, both uphill and downhill.  My friend Jose from iaap was the one who laid out this course. As I went along, I kept thinking “After I finish, I don’t know if I should kiss Jose for giving me a really good workout; or kick him in the butt for all these darn hills!” lol. And I only did the 5K; my friends who did the 10K had even more hills, as they went out almost to The Rim area nearby before their turn-round. Well, I was out here now so just had to get it done. I plodded along at my two paces of slow and slower and took some photos during my walk breaks. As I was heading back to the finish, the speedier 10K folks started passing me, good grief; their 10K time is better than my 5K time, lol.  I finally did finish, chip time 42:25, 4^th out of 6 In my 5K 60-69 males age group, averaging 13:39 per mile. I ran most of mile 3 nonstop, so had a negative split for that one, nice.  My walking friend, Patrick, was 4^th in our age group.  He walks almost as fast as I run, lol.

After My Finish: Lots going on post-race. There was a costume contest for the female kids and then the male kids; and a costume contest for the women and the men. There was also a raffle  – I won Nada, but my friend Carolyn got a prize – and all kinds of post-race goodies including water, breakfast tacos, lots of types of fruits, and more.  Lots of places to relax post-race after that hilly route; the pavilion had a whole lot of seating. I got some water and  banana, relaxed and rehydrated and sat for a while, just chatting with other participants. After that, I was out-an-about getting what I call “Happy Finisher Photos” since more people seem to be smiling after they are done than before and during, lol. 

Epilogue:  Total of 168 finisher for the 5K and 71 for the 10K, per iaap results. This one is a keeper, and it is nice that it’s done on Sunday morning, giving it just about no other race competition for the day, as most of the local races are done on Saturdays – this weekend there were TWELVE total races in the local area on Saturday, good grief. This event is very well organized and very well done, with nice facilities; a course that is wide enough to accommodate all; very good quality tech tee race shirt; finisher medal to all finishers; and the goody bag was nice too, with coupons for free stuff from sponsor Chik-Fil-A, and other various sundries. Challenging course, but it really was a good one, well thought out for what iaap had to work with, as Eisenhower Park is not one of the largest parks in San Antonio. DJ playing music for us, and our MC, Jason – a friend of mine – was his usual crazy and entertaining self, doing a great job for us.  I would definitely do this one again – hills and all, lol – and would recommend it to others.  Much thanks to Now You See Me Foundation for giving us this event; and thanks to all the sponsors, vendors, park police out there for our safety, the many volunteers doing things for us (packet pickups, water stop, etc); iaap for the course setup, timing, and results; and anyone  else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much!