Photos are here:       https://photos.app.goo.gl/aWq2zHqWYvmXtje48

 Before the Start:   My 52^nd ‘race’ of 2024 was the Strides Against Kids Cancer 5K, an inaugural 5K held on September 21 in Alamo Heights, a small city within the boundaries of San Antonio. This event was put on by UT-Health San Antonio and the Greehey  Cancer Research Center, on of the few institutes in the US focusing exclusively on pediatric cancer.  As a cancer survivor myself, I chose this one to do; cancer is a terrible thing for anyone, but really terrible for kids in my opinion; no kid should ever have to have his/her growing up young life interrupted by having to deal with this awful disease.  This was an untimed fund-raiser event 5K that included a 5K run, with no age-group awards but did include a finisher medal and a really nice quality race shirt; I opted to donate mine to one of the cancer kids. Start and finish area was by the Alamo Heights Swimming Pool. I arrived fairly early, got my 5K bib and then got a few pre-start photos.   Before we started a team of young ladies from a local high school – sorry, the name of the school went right out of my old-man-brain – led participants in a warm-up.   They were also at the finish, cheering in all the participants as they crossed the finish line. There was also a guy there taking photos; he looked very professional, so I’m sure his photos will be much better than the ones I take, lol, with my old-time Canon push-button camera.  The two young ladies doing the race-day packet pickup were also very efficient. They gave me my bib and kept looking through the event shirts they had, before it hit me that they were trying to find a shirt with my bib number; I had forgotten to tell them, duhhh, that I was not getting a shirt as I had donated mine. They were polite about it with this old dog.

On the course:  The runners started at 8 a.m., with the walker starting at 8:15 a.m.  If I remember correctly, there was also a 1-mile walk. Mother Nature actually gave us some pretty decent weather – decent for San Antonio at this time of year anyway – with a start temp of about 78 degrees and a mix of cloud cover and sunshine.  As this was a non-competitive 5K, I just raced against myself, lol. I did my usual thing of 8 minutes running/2-minute walk breaks and took some photos during my walk breaks.

Starting to the side of the Alamo Heights Swimming Pool, we made a right turn on Viesca and went in the direction of a nearby dog park. Another right turn took us onto Greely Street. Where we began to climb in earnest. We went around a short curve in the road, with silly me thinking we’d be done with this hill, but nope a left turn took us onto Cresent Street and then a left onto Patterson and with these turns we really began the up-and-down course hills in earnest.  These hills are not as steep as Eisenhower Park or the hills in Helotes, but even so, they had their moments, lol. Mile averaged a 702-ft elevation; Mile 2, a 764-ft elevation; up-and-down-and-all-around we went, getting a pretty nice running/walking tour of the Alamo Heights area. Mile 3 was mostly downhill, which  I did not like at all, since, with spinal arthritis, downhills are actually harder on the back than up-hills. The whole time I was out there, I was thinking, lol, Alamo Heights has to have at least one level street doesn’t it. Yes, it did, for about ¼ of a mile, lol, as we eventually came onto Normandy, which took us Alamo Heights Boulevard, where we had to do a small up incline and then turn right and to up the last incline on Viesca, the street we had started on, but went to the finish in the opposite direction from which we had started. That last .2 of the course was flat to the finish, thank you very much, Ms. Race Director, for that small blessing, lol. I ended up with a time of 46:26; Mile 1: 13:55. Mile 2: 15:56; and Mile 3, a negatives split from Mile 2 of 14:41.  Guess I was ready to be done, lol.

 After My Finish:  One of the University Health people greeted me at the finish – wow, did I look that bad, lol, that he thought I need aid – and kindly gave me a bottle of water and a small bag of ice which I put on the back of my neck and sat down and just relaxed for a few minutes.  After that, I went over to my car and sat in there with the a/c on full blast for about 5 minutes and that cooled me down quite nicely; then it was back to the pavilion area to chat with participants and supporters and get some post-race photos. Post-race they had some cold drinks, including water, some kind of cold drink with ginger in it – could not have that since I am on a blood-thinner because of my A-Fib – and some various treats, e.g., pastries, nutrition bars, etc.

Epilogue:  There were several other local area events going on, most of them competitive, with age group awards, chip timing and so forth, so this one had a fairly small turn-out compared to the other events.  Even so it is a very nicely-done event with a very nice quality race shirt, numbered bibs, and a challenging but very unique course that gives you a very nice tour of just about most of the Alamo Heights neighborhood.  The roads were all very paved and smooth and very wide.  Most of the course was open to traffic, with just a few exceptions and local police officers were at the road closure for our safety, and I also saw a couple of police vehicles going around the course route too. The residents were very patient with all of us.  As usual, I carried dog treats with me and stopped when I saw a dog to give it a treat – with its human’s permission of course. I think I made a few new life-long 4-legged friends, lol, as well as some new human friends.  Would I do this one again? Definitely so and I would recommend it also to my fellow runners.  If they get enough sponsors, I’d sure like to see this one turn into a chip-timed event with age-group awards and medals.  All of us, I am sure, know someone who has had a child with cancer, or lost a child to cancer so, with a cause like this, I’d bet they’d get a great deal of participants.  I don’t know if it’s possible, but if the race were held on a Sunday, the participant level would probably really increase as there are usually not too many Sunda races held, and we runners often look for Sunday events.  Much thanks to all who made this event happen for we participants, e.g.,  UT-Health; Greehy Cancer Center; all the many volunteers and the law enforcement people out there for us; the ‘official’ photographers – I think they were from UT-Health; the patience of all the residents and drivers as we invaded their space for a while;  the high school cheer/drill team; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all so much!  See you next year!