Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/MaoSSUe4SjhHoNTa8

Before The Start:     On Saturday, Sep 23, 2023, I did my 53rd 5K of the year. Head For The Cure 5K is an annual event held at Providence Catholic School on St. Mary’s Street in downtown San Antonio.  This was the 10^th anniversary race of this event being held.  I’ve done 9 of them.  I missed the one in 2021 due to ongoing prostate cancer treatment at that time.  Head For The Cure, to quote the race website “raise funds, awareness, and hope for the San Antonio brain tumor community.”  During the week before this event a friend of mine told me that she had a friend who has a young daughter who is currently being treated for brain cancer and had a surgery this past week. I asked her to ask her friend if it would be okay for me to run this one in honor of her daughter, and that permission was kindly given; so I ran this one for Cece and wrote  “For Cece!” on my race bib after I picked up my packet. No child should ever have to go through this, so hopefully one day events like this will have raised enough funds that perhaps a cure will be eventually found.  Race start time of 8 a.m., and there was also Kid’s Race.  I got there fairly early, around  6:45 a.m, so found some nice parking, and then went around pre-start, chatting with friends other participants, race volunteers, and race sponsors and vendors, getting some pre-start photos.  This is a dog-friendly event too, so the doggies got treats from me. KSAT-12 TV news was also there – saw Steve Spreister, who remembered me and gave me a hello, nice of him; he also walked the course – and they did a short interview with me prior to the start.  Not sure if it will be aired, and hopefully my dogface-mug did not make their camera go awry, lol.  Before we started, a short opening prayer, and then the National Anthem was sung, and then we lined up to get going, right on time.

 On the Course: We started on the campus grounds, went down a short inclined driveway and turned left onto St. Mary’s Street in front of the school.  The course took us down to Camden, where we made a left turn.  We went all the way down Camden until coming to Lexington Street, where we made a left turn.  We then proceeded down to St. Mary’s Street and turned left.  This took us back to a point where we passed in front of the school and then made a turn-round near where we had started out from the school. After the turn-round, we then went back the way we had come out, finishing back at the school by going up the short incline to cross the finish line.  My garmin showed 2.9 miles done, so I thought maybe somehow I had inadvertently missed something on the course, but others told me the distance on their garmins, apple watches, etc., also showed 2.9, the course was just a tad short, which did not bother me at all, lol.  I ended up with my Garmin showing a finish time of 2.94 miles in 39:31, averaging 13:27 per mile, and I had a negative split for the last mile, nice. I was 4^th in my age group.

After My Finish: Enjoyed some of the post-race goodies, which included breakfast tacos, a variety of offerings from some of the vendors, all kinds of snacks and various goodies, drinks, etc., and wandered around getting some post-race photos. There was also this “Bubbles machine” thing that blew out a mountain of suds, which a lot of the kids and some adults were enjoying playing in. There were also some professional dancers putting on a show, and a band providing us with some pretty good live music.

Epilogue:  Head For The Cure 5K, held at various dates at several cities around the US, is for a great cause. The survival rate for brain cancer, unfortunately, is pretty low for all ages – higher for people that are younger – but it can be survived and this event’s mission is to try to make that happen for everyone with this illness. I made a point, when I encountered a brain cancer survivor at this event of shaking his/her hand and giving them my utmost admiration, since beating brain cancer is one heck of an accomplishment. Head For The Cure San Antonio is a very well organized event; from my point of view from all the times I’ve done this one it has pretty much gone on without any glitches; very nice quality race shirts – and survivor shirts for those who are brain cancer survivors – nice finisher medals, and a very nice post-race atmosphere. Finisher medals for all, and awards to the age-group placers.  Also, on a personal note, let me tell you how nice these organizers are:  after I was done, when I told them I was doing this race for Cece, they went and got me a medal to give her, and also gave me two kid shirts, to give to her, a survivor shirt and a regular race shirt. I thought this was so nice and kind of them.  These people really do care.  I heartily recommend this race to others and I will certainly continue to do it in the future as long as I am able.    Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for us:  Head For The Cure national and local office staff; all the many volunteers, vendors, and sponsors; Providence School folks for their hospitality in allowing us use of their grounds; all the police officers out there on the course for us, doing traffic control; the dancers and the band; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!  The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, see you next year!