Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/dheg3D4c9QhUYnAX6  

Before The Start:   On January 1, 2024, I began my race count for the year with my first 2024 event, La Cruda 5K, held in Helotes, Texas, with a start time of 10 a.m.  La Cruda 5K, begun by Race Director Tony Garcia, is a popular New Year’s Day event, usually drawing quite a large turnout.  This year was no exception, with 597 finishers. This is one of my ‘streak’ races; I’ve done this one every year since it first started.  I arrived at race site around 8:30 a.m, getting some nice parking pretty close to the start/finish and then wandered around chatting with friends/other participants/supporters/vendors/sponsors, and getting a few pre-start photos.  This is also a dog-friendly event, so I handed out a few doggie treats too.  The weather was fairly chilly on this race morning, in the mid-40s when I first arrived, with a pretty good wind blowing. Mother Nature was kind, though, and gave us lots of sunshine. By the 10 a.m. start time, the wind had died down a bit and the temp had risen to hovering between 48 – 51 degrees, so not too bad at all.

 On the Course:  The course is a double-loop course, beginning behind the building that used to be the old Roger Soler Sports in Helotes.  I did my usual 8-minutes run/2 minutes-walk thing, taking photos during my walk breaks. We proceeded from the start line out to the paved road in front of the start/finish area.  We then made a right turn on Old Bandera Road, going past the small Helotes traffic circle and making a right onto Riggs Road.  We did an out-and-back on Riggs Road. When we got back to the traffic circle, we made a right turn and headed down a road adjacent to the highway on our left.  This was another out-and-back for us. Once we got back to the traffic circle, we then proceeded straight ahead. This took us past where the start/finish area was. We went down an incline, passing by the shoppes on this road, and then up an incline – nothing you could really call a hill – and then proceeded back past the start/finish line area, and repeated this loop for a second time. For our second time on Old Bandera Road, after making that last turn-round, we then proceeded back to the finish line.  I was feeling pretty good so went ahead and ran most of the last mile non-stop.  I ended up 19^th out of 26 in my 60-69 males age group with a chip time of 39:12, averaging 12:37 per mile, nice; haven’t seen that time for a while; feeling stronger every day as my cancer side effects are finally starting to lessen more.

After My Finish:   First, changed into a dry bottom-layer shirt that I had brought with me and felt much more comfortable after that; then it was off to mingle in the finish area crowd, get some more photos, and enjoy some of the post-race goodies that included sausage-on-a-stick, menudo (personal yuk for me on that, lol) and post-race beverages which included beer, bloody mary’s, water, fresh fruits, and some other drink concoctions. La Cruda throws a very nice after-party. 

Epilogue:   This is a very popular annual event and sells out pretty quickly.  I already registered for the 2025 event as there was a 1-day only special registration price of $25, so I took advantage of that.  The event has a really nice-quality race shirt, and finisher medals for all finishers.  The course is very nicely done.  The double-loop course is pretty popular since  participants pass by each other quite a bit, coming and going, so it’s a cheer fest of support as people shout out encouragement to each other as we all go along; fun stuff.   The course is well thought-out with nothing really too difficult, like going up-and-down those super-steep hills that are located in various areas in Helotes.  It’s just one big happy event to start out happy for a Happy New Year – and I hope everyone will have a happy new year this year. Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us, including all the many race volunteers; the sponsors and vendors; the law enforcement and medical folks out there for us, as well as the professional Pushbutton Photography folks; our music-and-sound guy Paul, and our MC, Anthony and Race Director Tony; the crew that had to be there really early to get going with grilling all those tasty sausages; the patience and courtesy of the Helotes residents, as well as that of the few drivers we encountered on the race roads; and to iaap for the course setup, timing, results, etc. and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all and see you at the event next year!