Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/ncfEF2PbtQFVtV9J6

Before The Start:    On Saturday, Nov 11, 2023, Veterans Day, I did my 63^rd race of 2023. Steps4Vets 5K, put on by Soler Sports, supports the Endeavor Center/Endeavors Veteran Wellness Center.  The center supports veterans and their families through a wide array of various programs that include family housing, homelessness, veteran suicide awareness and counseling, and much more. The event included a 4-mile run/walk, and a 1-mile untimed walk. The 4-miler had 71 total finishers. Race start time of 8 a.m., with the event being held at HemisFair in downtown San Antonio.  I arrived on site with about 45 minutes until start time and got a few pre-start photos.

 On the Course:  We started in HemisFair Park just down from the Tower of the Americas. After crossing the start line, we wound a short way through the park, and then exited it going onto South Alamo Street for a bit, then South Presa and South St. Mary’s, and then made our way onto the San Antonio Riverwalk heading in the direction of Pioneer Flour Mill. The course was out-and-back with the majority of the course on the Riverwalk.  This is a nice, quiet part of the Riverwalk, as the majority of the tourists, visitors, etc., usually are on the side of the Riverwalk where The Pearl area and other businesses are located.  We did start on one side of the Riverwalk then crossed over a bridge and resumed on the other side of the Riverwalk.  I never felt crowded during this event; we all had plenty of maneuvering room; especially me, lol, at my slow pace. There were non-participant runners and walkers along the way and also a few cyclists, and they were all pretty patient with us. I did my usual 8-min-run/2-min-walk thing and took photos during my walk breaks.  I also made additional stops to hand out doggie treats – with its human’s permission, of course – when I encountered a dog, so this pretty much killed my time too, but what the heck; not like I was going to win anything, lol, and I enjoy this and had a lot of fun with this one.  The course was very well marked with directional arrow signs, a blessing for directionally challenged me, lol. Right before I hit the 2-mile marker, I stopped to treat and dog and was chatting with its human and stupidly stopped my garmin. After I got started again, I was like, oh shoot, why did I do that, now my Garmin time won’t match what my actual chip time is, duhh.  Well, it is what it is, so I pressed on.  About a half-mile after making the turn-round, a cyclist came up beside me and we started chatting. It turned out he was a veteran also and now worked as a medic. He kept me company – and probably killed his calf muscles, lol, cycling at that slow pace to stay beside me.  Very nice guy, though, and enjoyed chatting with him as I went along; before I knew it, I was at Mile 3, yay.  At this point a young lady child runner, with her mom, tripped and fell on the concrete, so we both stopped to check on her.  She seemed okay, just had banged her knee a bit, if I remember correctly My new friend told me to keep going, he’d keep them company, so I did. I pretty much ran nonstop from Mile 3 to Mile 4 – one short photo stop – and ended up with a chip time of 55:04, averaging 13:46 per mile; really surprised that I finished under an hour – and Mile 3 was my slowest mile.    Cycle Guy – he told me his name, but it went right out of my head – soon showed up and told me the little girl was fine. She certainly was; I saw her a little later coming full-blast to the finish line and got a photo of her.

After My Finish:  I got some water and did a short cool-down walk and then did my usual thing of getting some after-photos. There was then a post-race ceremony in which the colors were presented by an Air Force Color Guard from JBSA-Lackland; and an Air Force lady beautifully sang The National Anthem. We then heard from retired Major General Alfred Flowers, the longest-serving airman in Air Force history – 45 year career!  If I remember correctly, he is one of the Endeavor board members. He spoke to us about Endeavor’s mission, encouraging us to all support it.  He kindly allowed me to have a photo with him, post race. After that, the awards ceremony was done, Top 3 in each age group, and then the overall male and female.  Selected winners – I am assuming the overall winners – were also invited to ride on the Endeavor Float for the San Antonio Veterans Day parade today, very cool. 

Epilogue:   This is a smaller event, but a really good one. Lisa and her volunteers definitely did a great job in getting this all organized. There were also vendor booths pre-and-post race, and a few of them had some freebie things. Timing done by one of the guys from iaap.  Very nicely laid out course, with a water station along the way.  Very nice quality race shirt and also a very nice small towel in the goodie bag too. There was also a very nice finisher medal given to all finishers.  Even the race bib was nicely done in  a colorful yellow. I will definitely do this one again and certainly would recommend it to others.  Nice event for a great cause. Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us, all the sponsors/vendors, Soler Sports, the police officers out there for us on the road parts of the course, our MC, the Air Force Color Guard folks there for us, iaap for the timing and results, and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  See you next year!