Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/TJVfVw2wwgxrVHFV6

Before The Start:   My 39^th race of 2023 was the Freedom 5K held at Joint Base Fort Sam Houston on July 15^th.  This is a free-entry event for military-associated people – active duty, retired, civil service, family members of military people, and so forth. For a fairly small event it had a pretty nice turn-out with around maybe 40 people or so, maybe a bit more.  5K start time of 7 a.m., with people showing up at the Jimmy Brought Fitness Center beginning at 6 a.m. to sign up.  This is a non-competitive fun-run, so no awards, medals, etc. I got to the gym around 6:45 a.m., got signed up, and then just relaxed a bit in the gym before the start. With about 15 minutes to go before start time, headed to the start/finish area, which was in a parking lot that was between the fitness center and the base post office.  The National Anthem was played and then I had enough time to get a few photos before we all started, and even gave out a couple of treats to dogs that where there – this is a dog-friendly event.

 On the Course:  We got our instructions from the Fitness Center staff members that had volunteers to help with this event and then, right on time we were on our way. I did my usual thing of 8-minutes running/2 minutes walking and during my walk breaks, took a few on-course photos.  Actually, I took a few extra photo-stops along the way, which did not help my pace time any, lol.  From the parking lot, we made a left turn, went down a short incline and crossed over Wilson Street. We did a sort of winding route through this area, finally taking a route that had a few uphill and downhill inclines that took us to Hood Street, with family housing on our left, and fairly decent, but short hill to go up.  Hood Street took us out to New Braunfels Avenue, where we turned right, and had views on our left of the Fort Sam Houston museum  – with the original walls of the old-time Fort Sam Houston still there. New Braunfels took us back to Wilson Street, farther down from where we started – right across from the Military Police office, so glad I was not speeding, lol.   After a left turn on Wilson, we then went down to a road that started around the Fort Sam Houston Quadrangle, the museum on our left and a display of helicopters and tanks on our right.  We went nearly all the way around the Quadrangle, passing by some old historic homes of Fort Sam, really nice homes too, most of them with the American flag displayed in front. Upon reaching Stanley Road, we turned left, going down a fairly long, but not too steep, downhill.  This took us across Wilson Street a 3^rd time, and then we had a bit of a climb on Stanley as we passed by administrative offices on our right and a large parking lot on our left. When we got to New Braunfels again, we continued straight on Stanley – with yet another hill to climb, lol – glad I do hill training once a week, it sure helped! – and then we went past the front entrance of the Post Office and turned into the parking lot between the gym and the back of the post office. After a short route through this parking lot area, could finally see the finish line, yay!  I ended up doing my usual two running paces – Slow and Slower, lol – and finished with a time of 43:04, averaging 13:35 per mile.  It’s all good.  After finishing 15 months of prostate cancer treatment in December 2021 and then a year of hormone therapy  – one injection every 3 months – to keep my testosterone low to kill off the cancer cells, I am just happy I can stlll do any running at all – even though it’s tough sometimes with no testosterone to keep up an energy level – my testosterone level is ‘undetectable’ which is good, means I am now prostate cancer free – but I manage – very slowly, lol – but I get to where I want to go and, in all my 40 years of running – 2023 is my 40^th anniversary of being a runner – I have never once been DNF in any race I’ve ever done, even when I had my first bout of cancer (colon) when I was 29 years old. I am pretty proud of that.  Does that make me not ‘humble’, lol? 

After My Finish:  First, got some water and then did a short cool-down walk. Then I enjoyed some post-race ‘special’ water that the fitness center staff had available for us – there was choices of this cucumber water – the one I enjoyed – and some with some cinnamon and other things in it and this other kind of ‘mint’ water. Very nice and all designed to help rehydrate after an outing on a humid day. I then enjoyed some post-race chatting with some of the fitness staff and the other participants, and got a few post-run photos.

Epilogue:   The Fitness Centers staff did a really nice job with this one. It is a very well-organized event on a very nice course – challenging in a few places, lol, but nice – and on-course volunteers acting as Course Marshals, so we really good not get lost at all; not even the ‘directionally challenged” me, lol. Some very nice post-run refreshments – they even had treats for the dogs – and because it is a Fitness Center event, nice to be able to go back to the gym and take a shower and change clothes, so one does not have to drive home all wet and sweaty.  I would definitely do this one again – as a matter of fact there is another one of these events coming up in August, and one in October.  If you have not done these before, give it a try, it really is a very nice outing with a really good course.  Mucho thanks to the Fitness Center staff that were out there for us, as well as the course marshals on the roads, and anyone else involved. These events could not happen without all of you, so big thanks for that! Also, thanks to all the participants I interacted with, both on-and-off-course; the camaraderie out there between the participants is one thing that certainly helps keep me going, so thank you!  Hope to see you sometime at a future event!