Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/YfA2D6eMmFvNDi9U6

Before The Start:    On Saturday, October 14^th, 2023, I completed my 58^th 5K of the year, the Paint The Parkway Pink 5K. held at Cornerstone Christian School in San Antonio, which had a start time of 9:15 a.m. Put on by Thrivewell Cancer Foundation, this event raises funds for helping to find a cure for breast cancer. Thrivewell Cancer Foundation is “dedicated to finding a cure for cancer by funding cancer research, providing patient support and offering programs to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.”  I’ve done several events over the years for which ThriveWell was a represented sponsor and they always do a great job. Their people are efficient, caring, and compassionate. The event included a kid’s run, a 1-mile walk, and the 5K.  This is a very popular event for a good cause, ending up with a total of 419 finishers for the 5K.  I arrived about 90 minutes before start time, got my packet and then got a few pre-start photos.  The vendor area was quite busy with a lot of sponsors/vendors booths, tables, etc. There was a very nice opening ceremony recognizing survivors, and then the Kid’s Run. Just prior to our start, a lady beautifully sang The National Anthem, and then we all got lined up.  I did this one in honor of 4 ladies I have the greatest respect for, all breast cancer survivors and friends – my supervisor at UTSA, where I work, Sarah; and my friends Sally R., Amy W., and LaChandra aka “Candy”.  I wrote their names on my bib and carried them with me on the route.

 On the Course:  The last time I did this race, a couple of years back, the course had been on the streets in the Stone Oak Parkway, so this was my first time doing this course that was new to me. This was a very colorful course, naturally, brightened with pink everywhere.  The course is  as definitely “unique”, as my survivor friend Deborah told me it would be.   We started on the school track, then exited the grounds via one of the school gates, turning right onto NW Military Highway, heading in the direction of Camp Bullis.  We climbed up a short hill, then turned right onto Shavano Ranch Road, which took us past a residential area on our left, school grounds on our right. On the first part of this road we were up high enough where we had a nice view below us of the track where we had started and would finish. This road took us up to a turn where we went back onto school grounds, and then did a route behind some of the school buildings.  This took us out another school gate and then we repeated the NW Military Highway to Shavano Ranch Road route.  On this second loop,  as we passed above the track again and had a nice view of it, I could see the speedier runners were already finishing and heard on the loudspeaker that the first woman runner was coming in.  For this loop, when we turned back into the school grounds, this time we went left through a parking area, and then behind some other school buildings on an access road. This course eventually took us to a school building which we entered. Once inside the building, we ran down a school hallway – never got to do that when I was in school before, lol – and this took us to a flight of stairs, and we began climbing; yep, the course had us climbing flights of stairs. We’d got to the top of the stairs, go down parts of more hallways, and then climb more stairs; I think we had four up-flights in all, if I remember correctly. Once at the top we then, of course, had to go back down – which took me longer than the up, lol; down is harder for me with my spinal arthritis, so I took it fairly slowly.  After my slow-dog self finally got to the bottom, we then exited the building and proceeded onto a track that went around the baseball field. This was a very weird track, lol, because it was all “cushioned” in green, so felt like we were running on very cushy carpet. We did  a short loop around this and exited via a gate that took us back onto the track where we had started. We then did about a ¾ lap around this track that took us back to the finish.  As I rounded the track, a very nice young lady I had met before the start  – speedy lady, lol, who had already finished – came out to cheer me on and ran with me into the finish, which I though was very nice.  She picked up the pace a bit too, lol, so I did also, determined to stick right with her. Another participant was running with me too and she edged this old dog out at the finish, lol.  Good for her!  We both had a strong finish.  Whew! I ended up with a chip time of 41:06, averaging, 13:14 per mile, and was the 227^th finisher.  I thought that was not too bad at all for hills, stairs, carpeted track, etc., lol. Fun course.

After My Finish:  After a bit of a cool-down walk, and got some water, I then enjoyed interacting with other participants and also got some “Happy Finisher” photos – I call them that because more people seem to be smiling after they are done than before and during, lol – and photos with their supporters, and some more of the organizers, volunteers, vendors, etc. There were no age group awards – which is fine with me, I get it, keeps the costs down, which means more money for the cause – but there were awards for the overall placers.  Some of those people are pretty speedy.

Epilogue:   The course was just a tad short, but no complaints at all. ThriveWell always puts on a quality event and this one certainly was that. Lots of goings-on before, during, and after the event, very entertaining. Very nice quality race shirt and a really nicely designed large medal to all finishers.  Even the race bib is nicely designed. This is also a dog-friendly event.  I saw several walkers with their dogs and a couple of runners with their dogs; the dogs doing the run both beat me in, lol. This is a really fun event to do, but also an emotional one, as you hear some of the cancer stories of these survivors about their own battles, about lost loved ones, about their victories when they win their fight, and so forth;  and since this event usually has a great turn-out, there are a lot of stories; it really gets to you, especially if you’ve lived through that yourself via either being a cancer survivor or being a support person for someone with cancer. It can be a very bonding experience. It was nice to see old friends here and make new ones. I will definitely be doing this one again and most certainly would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all the ones who made this one happen for us, including all the sponsors and vendors, especially Cornerstone School, and ThriveWell; all the many volunteers; the law enforcement /security officers out there for our safety; the lady who sang The National Anthem for us; and any others involved I may not have mentioned here; also thanks to the patience of the residents of the housing area we passed by; and the courtesy of the drivers on that public road we ran on, which was still open to traffic; and to anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!  See you next year, I hope!