Photos are here:    https://photos.app.goo.gl/2aWXtfCpR2H4hawaA

Before the start:   My 19^th race of 2024 was Give Cancer The Boot Survivorship 5K. There was also a 1-mile walk.  This event, held on Saturday, April 6, allows family and friends to celebrate, remember, and honor those they know who are battling cancer, have survived cancer, or lost their battle to cancer.  The event was held at the Mays Cancer Center, which has a mission to decrease the burden of cancer in San Antonio, Texas, and beyond. .  Race proceeds benefit Patient and Family Services. Race start time was 9 a.m., with a pre-start ceremony around 8 a.m.  Parking was graciously provided by UT-Health San Antonio in the parking garage and some adjacent parking lots on the campus.   I had picked up my race packet the day before, so when I arrived around 7:15 a.m., I went wandering around, chatting with participants, volunteers, supporters, sponsors, and some of the law enforcement officers there for our safety, and getting a few pre-start photos.  I also handed out treats to the doggies there, as this is a dog-friendly event. My friends from race management company Athlete Guild were doing the course setup, timing, and results, so I enjoyed chatting with them also pre-start.  The weather was fairly cooperative, with an overcast day, a temperature of around 62 degrees at the start time, and it was fairly humid. Mother Nature did spit a little rain on us before the start and on the course, but nothing really major, and it didn’t last very long.

On the course: We started near the parking garage and proceeded on a loop course that took us on both paved and off-road trails on the campus.  For the first part of the course, we  were on sidewalks, going adjacent to Floyd Curl Drive on our right, and then veered away from the street and went up a paved hill.  This took us to the off-road part of the course  on a dirt/gravel trail.  Pretty much most of the rest of the course was on this trail, which had a couple of pretty good uphill climbs, so I am so glad I do weekly hill training, lol. We stayed on this trail until we got to an empty parking lot that we went onto. This took us back onto pavement, passing buildings on our left and woods on our right. This part of the course got us to the 2-mile mark.    Shortly after that, we went onto another trail, with woods on our left and right.  From this trail, I could hear cheering, so knew we were pretty close to the finish.  The trail took us up to a paved road, where we passed by the large parking lot where many of the sponsors companies had booths set up. We made a left turn in front of that parking lot, and then I could see the finish line. Down this short road, then a quick right turn and there was the finish line, yay.  I ended up running most of the last mile non-stop, with just one quick break for a photo, and ended up with a finish time of 38:40, 4^th in my 70-79 age group, 1 minute and 28 seconds behind the guy who was 3^rd.  Guess I should not have stopped for that last photo, lol.  It’s all good though, enjoyed myself.

 After my finish:  Got my finisher medal, got some water, did a short cool-down walk, got some post-race water and then did my usual thing of getting some post-race photos, Including getting some photos of friends and other participants as they finished.  As I did all this, I wandered here-and-there, chatting with a lot of people and handed-out more doggie treats. I was very popular with the dogs, lol.

Epilogue: This is a very nicely done event, with sponsors giving out all kinds of items; finisher medal to all finishers; very nicely done course – not an out-and-back course for a change, which I loved; loop courses are my favorite type of course; really nice quality race shirt; and the goody bag even included a pair of “eclipse sun-glasses” in it, which my wife appropriated from me, lol, which is all good. I will definitely do this one again, and would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all who made the one happen for we participants, e.g., UT-Health San Antonio; all the sponsors; law enforcement out there for us; all the many volunteers; our music-and-sound guy who also did MC duties; Athlete Guild for the course setup, timing, and results; and any others involved not have mentioned here.  Thank you all!