Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rVECXa5vNvMffGdb6

Before The Start:    On Sunday, September 17, 2023, I did my 52^nd 5K of the year, the Zero Prostate Cancer 5K held at Missions County Park #1 in San Antonio.  Put on by zerocancer.org, this event is held on various dates at several cities.   Per the website “The money raised by each event “helps drive free prostate cancer testing throughout the country as well as in the communities of each Run/Walk location.  We are proud to award grants in select communities where we can have the most impact on new programs, patient support, early detection, and awareness efforts.”  This is an untimed event which started at 9 a.m.  Prior to the 9 a.m. start,  there was a ceremony recognizing survivors who were present, and awards were given to the various largest fundraisers for this specific event, individuals, teams, etc. There was also a kid’s run prior to the main event. I arrived for race-day only packet pickup, got my shirt, and filled out a bib with the names of the survivors I was running in honor of.  I also got a few pre-start photos and enjoyed chatting with my friends, fellow survivor Bill Doc Byrd  and with Keyes  Hudson.  It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, so it was very nice seeing them again in person and, of course, as we are all veterans, sharing some war stories with each other. Bill is, of course, younger than me, and one thing I found out was that when I was active-duty military in the Philippines, Bill was going to high school at Clark Air Base during the time I was assigned there.  Small world!  Before the start, I also saw my friend Ralph and his son, Ryan, and each of their “honorarium” bibs had my name. I was very touched by that.

 On the Course:  We started from the Mission County Park outside plaza and then went onto  part of the Mission Reach San Antonio Riverwalk.  Unlike my El Grito 5K last week, for this one, we made a right turn after exiting the plaza, so did not have the El Grito route with those long-and-steep hills. We went down a long downhill, then had a flat bit for a while.  We did not cross the bridge we came to but kept going straight, which took us up another hill.  Once up that, we then proceeded onto a paved trail parallel with Padre Drive. After going along this trail, we veered left, going down a short but fairly steep downhill, which took us onto a trail parallel with Pyron Drive. On this trail, we crossed over two wooden bridges – which swayed a bit, with all those participants crossing over them – and this trail took us down to our 5K turn-round point.  We then went in reverse back to the finish on the paths we had come out on – crossing those swaying bridges again, lol. It was a nicely thought-out course, able to be accessed without too much difficulty by all participants, that included kids, senior citizens, those with possibly some physical limitations, and so forth. If we’d don that steeper-and-hillier El Grito course I think a few of the participants would have had a really hard time in completing it. So this course was a wise choice.  I did my usual 8-min-run/2 minute walk thing, taking some photos during my walk breaks and also ran just about all of Mile 2 to the finish non-stop – but did stop to get a photo of a our course water station volunteers  and with a ½ mile to go, stopped to get a photo of the nice view we had of the river on the way to the finish – and ended up with a finish time of 43:16, averaging a 13:47 pace per mile. My strong runner friend, Bill, finished about 3 or 4 minutes ahead of me. Friend Keyes walked the course and, being a strong walker, did not finish far behind me.  Ralph and his son, Ryan, both very strong runners, finished way ahead of me. 

After My Finish:  As noted, no timed results and no place awards, leaving the funds raised to go to the cause instead of for age-group awards and that was fine with me. If prostate cancer can someday be eradicated because of these funds raised, that is award enough for me.  Post-race I enjoyed a couple breakfast tacos and chatting with Bill and Keyes for a while and then getting some photos of, and chatting with, some of the happy finishers. 

Epilogue: This is a very nicely done event and also a ‘streak’ race for me; I’ve done this one ever since it was first started, way back by Dr. Rapier and his wife. Prior to having prostate cancer, I always did have prostate problems as an adult – even as a young guy – so this one is very personal for me, and I will continue to do it for as long as I am able. It is a very well-organized event that included a DJ – my friend, Paul, lol; small world, because he was also our music-and-sound guy for the Scallywompus race I did the day before this one. There was also available both pre-and-post race Krispy Kreme donuts, Taco Cabana breakfast tacos – I enjoyed 2 of those post-race – and various non-alcoholic drinks, water, coffee I think, and a couple of the volunteers offered me some post-race Gatorade, which hit the spot.  The park also has 2 pavilions, a very large one with a large stage, which is where the opening ceremonies took place; and two smaller covered ones with lots of picnic-table seating and shade, so  nice places to relax a bit post-race; also a very nice quality race shirt; and no porta-potties needed, ample indoor restroom facilities at this park – Lady Bird Johnson Park should take a lesson from this, lol. Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen: all the many sponsors and vendors; the Zero Prostate organization; all the volunteers out there for we participants; the law enforcement folks on site for us; DJ Paul; our MC who did a great job for us; all the people who raised funds for this cause; and any others involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much! See you next year!