Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/EZ9joX2puUfuVRwB8

Before The Start:  On Saturday, October 21, 2023 I completed my 59^th race of the year, the Paloween Hustle 5K at Palo Alto College (PAC), one of the community college members of the Alamo Colleges District.  There was also a 10K.   I believe this was the inaugural event, done in honor and remembrance of Samantha Tapia, a young lady Palo Alto runner who had, in the words of the event description, “a passion for running.”  During a PAC cross-country meet a few years back, against Trinity University, she collapsed on the course due to a medical situation and, sadly, passed away a few days later at Santa Rosa Hospital. In the words of a PAC press release, “Proceeds from the Paloween Hustle 5k/10k will be used to establish a scholarship endowment dedicated to supporting student-athletes in their pursuit of higher education. In keeping with Tapia’s passion for running and dedication to academic excellence, this scholarship will provide deserving athletes with the financial assistance they need to achieve their dreams.”   Race start time of 8 a.m. for both the 5K and the 10K.  I registered early and picked up my packet the day before the race. Arriving early on race day, I enjoyed chatting with other participants, supporters, running friends that were there, and my friends from iaap who did the course setup, timing, and results.

 On the Course:  The event started right on time, with the 5K and 10K participants all starting together.  The 5K was one loop around the campus, the 10K was two loops. I did my usual 8-min-run/2-minute walk thing and took course photos during my walk breaks. The majority of the course was done on fairly flat paved roads, with a couple of short inclines – nothing you could really call a hill – and also included an off-road stint on a running/walking trail on the campus, an unpaved route consisting of mostly dirt-and-gravel terrain, with a couple of small rocky parts along the way. Me being a Class-A Klutz, lol, with some spinal arthritis, this was the hardest part of the course for me, trying to just maintain a steady pace and not fall on my keister; thankfully, everything went well. Once back on the paved roads again, I picked up the pace, ending up running just about all of Mile 3 nonstop. I was a bit shocked and pleasantly surprised to find out I had finished first in my 60-69 5K males age group with a chip time of 43:24 chip time; everyone else in my age group must have been walkers, lol.  One funny thing…this very young lad was in front of me as we both saw the finish line and went for it.  He kept turning around to see where I was behind him, and I said to him “Don’t look back or I might catch you, just run for the finish.”  He did too, and handily beat me in, lol. Good for him!

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.  All finishers got a finisher medal, and age group awardees got a second medal.  There were several various vendors/sponsors there – thanks to one of them who kindly gave me a post-race banana, that hit the spot – and post-race water (no beer 😉 ) and other things like nutrition bars and so forth. Epilogue:  For an inaugural race, this was a really well-done event, from my perspective. It’s a very nicely laid out course on roads wide enough to accommodate all participants.  This is also a dog-friendly event, and stroller friendly too. The race shirt is nice quality and finisher medals for all finishers is always a plus; participants love their medals, lol.  Nice turn-out too; per iaap results, there were 176 5K finishers and 24 finishers who decided to do the 2-loop 10K course.  200 finishers is not a bad turn-out for an inaugural event.  I certainly will do this one again in the future and definitely would recommend it to others. Much thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us; all the Palo Alto staff, students, etc., who helped out – including the college President who was also out there for us, nice. Thanks to my friends from iaap who did the course set up, packet pickup, results, took some on-course photos – and even had a drone flying over us at times; and thanks to all the vendors, sponsors, campus police staff members out there for our safety, and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here…thank you all SO much.  This event is a keeper and I hope it grows. See you next year!