Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/U6iBpfDLYapv87ow9     

Before the start:    My 28^th race of 2024 was the Girls On The Run (GOTR) 5K, held on May 5^th at Mission County Park in San Antonio, with a start time of 9 a.m. Originally scheduled to be held at Comanche County Park in San Antonio, this event was moved to the larger Mission Park after registration got to 1,200 participants. GOTR is a program” that inspires girl empowerment by building confidence, kindness and decision-making skills”.  It culminates with this annual run/walk, celebrating their accomplishments. The teams are made up from various local area schools. Given the number of participants this year, I left pretty early, arriving around 6:30 a.m. to get some good parking, and then took a short nap in my car, lol.  I got going around 7:30 a.m., getting some pre-start photos.  My friends from iaap, a top-notch San Antonio-based race management company were very busy setting up the start/finish line area, getting the course marked, and so forth.  I chatted with them for a few minutes and got a couple of photos. Along with all the participants, there were also a whole lot of vendors/sponsors there, offering lot of various products.  A popular one was Dutch Boy coffee, which was handing out various types of hydrating drinks, juices, and some coffee too, of course. There was also a table near them that had boxes of various fruits and snacks. I wandered around, seeing many runner and walker friends there, and getting some more photos. This is also a dog-friendly event, so I also handed out some doggie treats that I carry whenever I run. The weather was pretty overcast with predictions that storms may move in around 11 a.m. We got lucky and during race time it never did rain on us, thankfully.

On the course:  A JROTC Navy Color Guard presented the colors and then a young lady gave a very nice a cappella singing of The National Anthem, very well done. We got our instructions from my friend, Lana, one of the iaap crew, and then got started. I can’t run nonstop anymore for any major length of time, due to some spinal arthritis, so did my usual 8-min-run/2-min-walk-break thing and took some photos during my walk breaks. We were warned about a large puddle area right in front of the start/finish line.  Thankfully, there was room on either side of it to go up onto the grass on side of it or on a sidewalk on the other side, to get around it.  We proceeded out of the park’s main parking lot, made a left turn onto a sidewalk and then took a left turn onto Padre Drive, a very wide road that could accommodate all the participants; it had plenty of room for us to spread out a bit. We went past Mission County Park 2 – Padre Pavilion – and proceeded on straight by it. Just above the top of the trees on our right, we could see a small portion of the spires of one of the old-time historical Hispanic Missions in this area.    We continued on Padre Drive and then made a left turn onto Mission Parkway.  This road had a short series of uphill and downhill inclines – nothing you could really call a hill – that took us under a bridge to the 5K turn-round point right after the bridge. We then returned to the finish line the way we had come out. While on Mission Parkway, we had a brief view of the San Antonio river, which was flowing pretty good after some rain during the night before the race and on some days of the past week.  After getting back onto Padre Drive to head back to the finish, I got a few more photos, and then pretty much ran most of the last mile non-stop to the finish. I ended up with a chip time of 39:54, gun time 40:35, which was good enough for 1^st place among the 4 participants in my 70-99 males age group.

 After my finish:  I got a few photos of some others finishing, then did a short cool-down walk as I drank my Zero Gatorade and ate a banana, and then it was off to get some post-race photos. Post-race activities included some festively dressed Hispanic dancers, music played by our DJ Paul, and lots of post-race goodies of all sorts. This is a very popular annual event and there were sponsor-and-vendor tents everywhere.   I think I talked to all of them, lol. I also chatted with several other participants post- race and continued to treat the doggies I saw.  The weather still pretty much behaved itself until the awards ceremony started and then Mother Nature came in with a boom, with a pretty good downpour that even included some small pieces of hail bouncing onto the surface. There was also some thunder and then a short burst of lightning. Thankfully, this park has some really good covered pavilions, so we were all able to stay under cover. Most of the participants and families started to leave after the short storm started. It passed pretty quickly, thankfully. I got my placer medal and after that I also left.  As I was driving home, it began raining again, with some more small hail falling, and then there was a HUGE streak of lightning across the sky, followed by a booming clap of thunder, wow. Glad I was not outside when that one happened. The hail kept falling for a bit during my drive home and then it was just rain, and then, just like that, it was all done; good grief; Mother Nature sure can get crazy at times. After I got home, my wife told me there had hardly been any rain at all in our neighborhood; go figure.

Epilogue:  This 5K was very well-managed by my friend Race Director, Sally Seeker and her many volunteers who did everything just right. My friend from the iaap family, Lana, did a great job as our MC, and all the race volunteers, water station crew, race-day registration and packet pickup folks all were very efficient.  This is a nice course to run or walk on and there were several Cheer Teams along the way enthusiastically cheering everyone on the whole way. I’ll tell you what, some of these GOTR young ladies – even the very younger ones – are way faster than me. I wish I had half their energy, lol. It’s fairly obvious they have really learned something from this program. I wish all these young ladies happy running and much success in the future. Meanwhile, I will just keep plugging away like an old dog with no new tricks, happy that I am still able to be out there as much as I am. Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for we participants:  GOTR Director Minka; Race Directory Sally; all the many volunteers, sponsors, and vendors; the law enforcement officers there for our safety; iaap for the course set up, timing, and results and MC duties; all my fellow participants for being there; all the people who allowed me to take photos of them; the group of dancers who performed for us; everyone I interacted with; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much!  Hope to see you at a future race sometime.