Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/rVcF4UhAxzAfcWYK9

Before the start:   My 30^th race of 2024 was Gabriella’s 5K Cupcake Run, held at Bluebonnet Palace in Selma, Texas, on May 18^th, 2024.  The Gabriella Smile Foundation puts this one on every year in honor and memory of Gabriella Elise Torres, who was 5 years old when she battled a rare form of pediatric brain cancer which most children diagnosed with it not usually surviving. Sadly, she passed away in 2016, shortly after her 6^th birthday.  Her family started the Gabriella’s Smile Foundation to keep her legacy alive and provide awareness about this insidious disease, as well as raising funds to help other families who have children with it. This is a very popular running/walking event that usually draws a lot of participants. I’ve done just about every one of them since it started. I think I missed one year due to my being treated at that time for my own cancer.  I am not sure how many participants there were for this year’s event, but it may have sold out; it sure looked like a “packed house” to me. I got my bib and race shirt but did not keep the shirt for very long. I do so many races I have a LOT of race shirts, so for this one I ordered a youth small and then gave it to the young daughter of a couple who were doing the 5K with the daughter in a stroller, so now all the family members had a shirt. I wandered around before the start, chatting with friends, volunteers, other participants, etc., and got a few pre-start photos.  This is a dog friendly event too, so I handed out some treats to the doggies there. I was very popular with the dogs, lol.

On the course:   I did my usual 8 minutes running/2 minutes walking routine and took photos during my walk break.  I can’t run a whole race nonstop anymore with this darn spinal arthritis and degenerative disk disease, but I still manage to do okay. The event had a fairly late start for Texas Spring of 8:30 a.m. We began on the road to the side of Blue Bonnet Palace – Schertz Parkway, if I remember correctly – and then went down to Lookout Road, making a right turn onto that.  This took us down to Doerr Lane, where we made a left turn and then went out on that road…and out some more…and out some more, lol; this was a long haul that included a fairly long hill – not that steep, but it was a long up climb – before we got to the turn-round. This was an out-and-back course, so I could see other runners on the other side of the road already heading for the finish.  I finally got up the hill and then made the turn-round and headed for the finish. I was feeling pretty good overall so decided to push it a little and ended up running the last 1.5 miles non stop to the finish, sweet.  I ended up first in my 70+ males age group – I think I may have been the only one it in, lol- with 39 minutes and change and had negative splits too, with my last mile being 12:26, per my garmin.

 After my finish:  Got some water and did a short cool-down walk, and then wondered around chatting with finishers and supporters and getting a few photos of what I call the “Happy Finisher” photos since more people seem to be smiling after they are done than  before and during, lol. I also continued to hand out some dog treats that I had left. One young lady was having a birthday party there, post-race, so I got a photo of her and her family and then gave her my finisher medal as a birthday present to her.   Several of her family members had done the race, so they all had finisher medals too. I got my Old Geezer 1^st place prize, which was a hand-painted drawing of a cupcake. After the awards ceremony, our MC introduced a young lady, with her family. who was currently fighting her rare form of cancer, and she had also done the run/walk. Well, shoot then, she may not have placed but she deserved something, so I gave her my placer drawing. I also had extra “Never Give Up” cancer shirts in my car, so I gave her one of those too. I got a photo of her and family and of her with the drawing.  May God bless her; rooting for her to win her battle!

Epilogue:   This is an excellently done event, with a good course that has plenty of room for both participants and traffic, as the roads are still open for this one; the majority of drivers were pretty patient about it all, so thanks to them.  Of course, there were a ton of cupcakes post-race.  The place was, of course, packed with cupcakes; all kinds of cupcakes.  The volunteers and cupcake makers must have spent hours getting all those set up in place.  One volunteer told me she’d been there since 5:30 a.m. The race shirt is very nice quality – the little girl I gave mine to seemed to like it quite a bit, lol – and the finisher medals are very nicely done too.  Considering Texas has crazy weather that seems to change hour-by-hour, we ended up having a pretty good morning for it, with some sunshine, a temp in the mid-60s and though it was fairly humid, still it did not feel too bad at all. The event also included a guitar-man playing some music for us; a DJ playing some tunes for us; and some prizes for various things; they had a largest team contest, and other things, and somebody, or maybe a team,  also won a $150 gift from iRun Texas, a local running store, nice. This is definitely a keeper event on the race calendar. Much thanks to all the ones who made this event happen for all we participants, e.g., Gabriella’s Smile Foundation; iRun/Split Second Timing for the course setup, timing, and results;  all the many, many volunteers out there for us – known as Gabriella’s Cupcake Squad; our MC and DJ, the music and sound guys; our Race Director; Blue Bonnet Palace for use of the grounds; the law enforcement folks out there for our safety; the volunteer folks out there in Super Hero costumes –  it had to be warm in those things! – and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here;  thank you all!  Hope to see you at this one next year! Give me a shout-out if you see me, I am pretty easy to recognize.