Photos are here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/yw6wL5i1MKycoCLVA

Before the start:  My 32^nd  race of 2024 was on May 25^th, held at the San Antonio State Hospital (SASH) just off of New Braunfels Avenue.  The SASH Spring Thing 5K “benefits the Volunteer Services Council of the San Antonio State Hospital. The Council’s primary mission is to improve the quality of life and enhance the well-being of patients receiving treatment at the San Antonio State Hospital by providing goods and services not funded by the state.”  Race start time of 8 a.m. in front of the new hospital building which was just recently completed and opened. It is a very nice-looking modernized building inside and out. It also has a huge parking lot, so no problem parking for this one. We got to go into part of it, as we had use of the indoor restrooms, which sure beats porta-potties, lol.  The event had 113 finishers.   I arrived with about 30 minutes until start time and got a few pre-start photos.

On the course:   The course was out-and-back, so this being an iaap event, of course it had hills, lol. OK, to be honest, iaap could not do anything about the hills, it’s just the way the campus is; it’s hilly in several places. It was pretty darn humid and warm too, with the temp already in the low 80s. Thankfully, Mr. Sun was hiding behind a gray sky for most of the event, and we did have just a tad of wind after we made the turn-round and headed back for the finish. The course was asphalt-paved roads. I did my usual 8-min-run/2-min-walk thing and took some photos during my walk breaks.  I felt okay, but probably should have hydrated better before the start. I had about a half-bottle of water before the start to wash down my GU energy gel.  My pace is so slow, lol, my GU usually kicks in at about the halfway point and gives me a nice little boost for the back of the course; not today though. I did okay until about the 2.5 mile mark and that last small uphill got to me a bit, so I took an extra walk break. Once I crested that hill, it was only a short ways to the finish, so I ran that in.  I ended up with a chip time of 43:09, averaging 13:53 per mile and my miles were definitely positive splits. My fastest mile was Mile 1 at 13:12, and that pace went downhill from there, literally, lol. Even so, I managed to enjoy myself, interacting with other participants on the course, and cheering friends on when I saw them.  There were only 2 in my age group, 70-99 male, so I managed to finish first in the age group.

 After my finish:  Got some water and some Gatorade and sipped those as I walked around, cooling down. After that, sat with my speedy running friend Woody for a while and then wandered around getting some after-photos.  There was also a raffle and I won a big basket of all kinds of stuff, very nice. One of the things in there was a grilling spatula that had ‘Dallas Cowboys’ on the handle, so, since I grew up in the Washington DC area, and definitely not a Cowboys fan, lol,  I pulled that out and gave it to a friend who is a Cowboys fan. She was quite pleased with it. The age group awards were only for the overall winners – which I get; this race has a tight budget, which is understandable – and wow, some of those folks are pretty speedy. The first overall male came in at 23 minutes and change, averaging 7-something minutes per mile…in this humidity and on those hills, good grief. The first overall female’s time was 26-something, jeez.  I think I could run that pace….for about 10 seconds, lol. Congrats to them. Epilogue:  I’ve done this event before, when SASH was still in the old building.  The course is pretty much similar to the old one – I can’t remember if it’s exactly the same one, but I don’t think so – but the facilities are a lot better.  It seems to me, too, that on this course we had wider roads and more maneuvering room, but maybe that’s just my lousy memory at work, lol.  Either way, even with the hills, it’s a nicely laid-out course allowing lots of interaction between the participants, e.g., shouting out encouragement to each other, getting photos, and so forth.  The volunteers on the course were all great, especially the water station ones, I had a lot of fun interacting with them, even though they didn’t have any cold beer;  just kidding, just kidding.  Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union provided the bags that held the goodies, and they had all kinds of stuff in it. The race shirt is very nice quality and very nicely designed.  Post-race there was all kinds of food, including fresh fruits, donut holes, chicken tacos, if I remember correctly, with the chicken being grilled up right there, and other items.  The organizers really have brought this race a long way since it first started, so it is definitely a keeper on my race calendar.  Mucho thanks to all the people that made this one happen for us, including SASH staff members; the Volunteer Service Council; all the many volunteers out there for us; the many race sponsors, all listed on the back of the race shirt; Iaap for the course set-up, timing, and results; our MC who kept us in the loop about things and did the awards presentation; the SASH security folks; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here.  Thank you all so much!  Hope to see you again at this one next year.