Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/A9mUUDjKR3Ycrpu7A    

 Before the Start:  My 53^rd race of 2024 was Head For The Cure 5K held in San Antonio on September 28^th at Providence Catholic School on St. Mary’s Street. This 5K raises funds for brain cancer research to find a cure and also is an event for families and friends to recognize, honor, and remember those they personally know who are fighting the disease, or who passed away from it.   The Head For The Cure Foundation organization has its headquarters in Kansas City and several of these events are held over the year at various locations in the US. Local TV station KSAT-12 is a big supporter of this cause, as one of their former staff members passed away from this disease. They usually have a film crew on site and chat with various participants, race officials, and so forth. Race start time was 8 a.m. There was also a kids run about 15 minutes before the main event started. I arrived fairly early, got myself parked, and then wandered around chatting with race volunteers, the MC, packet pickup people and some of the sponsors/vendors there, getting a few photos before the start.  Right before we started, the colors were presented, and a choral group of the school beautifully sang The National Anthem for us.

On the course:  We started right on time. The course had us exit the school grounds and make a left turn onto St. Mary’s Street.  We then made our way down to an intersection and turned left onto North St. Mary’s Street, a fairly long street intersecting with several other streets.  The local police officers were out in force for our safety at each of these intersections to stop traffic for us.  At Camden Street, we made a left turn and proceeded down this street, which brought to the far end of St. Mary’s Street. After making a left turn here, we then went up to a turn-round point – passing by the school on our way – and then proceeded back the way we had come out. Technically, it was an out-and-back but didn’t really feel that way with the way the course was laid out. The planners did a good job with this course. Plenty of room for everyone and, since we passed by participants coming and going, lots of cheering each other on and supporting shout-outs.  I did my usual run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes, and took some photos during my walk breaks. I took my last walk break on Camden on the way back to the finish, and then ran non-stop to the finish, ignoring, lol, my watch beeping to take my last walk break.  Normally, it takes me about 40 – 42 minutes to do a 5K with my run/walk but this time I did it in 38 minutes and change, ending up 2^nd in my 70-74 males age group, nice.

 After My Finish: I stood near the finish line getting a few photos of others coming in – making sure to stay out of the way of the official race photographer – and then went and got some water and a banana and just relaxed for a bit. After that, I was up-and-about again, chatting with participants, supporters, volunteers, etc. and getting some after photos. A couple of the KSAT-TV people also interviewed me post-race, which was pretty cool.  I’m not the most photogenic person, so I hope I didn’t break their camera, lol.  There was also a couple there that performed a dance for us post-race; I don’t recall the type of dance it was, a traditional Hispanic cultural one and it was truly grand to observe; I wish I had their flexibility, lol.

Epilogue: This is truly a very nicely done event, and also a popular one. This year’s event had 750 participants between runners and walkers.  Finisher medals were given to all finishers, and there were also age-group medals for the top 3 in each age group.  Lots of fun things post-race too; there waw a soapy bubble machine which was quite popular; quite a few people were playing in that post-race; lots of goodies from various sponsors, including Dunkin Donuts that was on site very early with coffee, and more; Force Water; University Health, and lots more, so many I can’t remember them all.  This is also a dog-friendly event; since I carry dog treats with me when I run or do a race I was very popular with the dogs there, lol.  Very nice quality race shirt too. I do so many races in a year that I’ve got a ton of shirts, and hardly room for any more, so I usually donate mine and this race was no exception.  I got a Youth Small and asked one of the race folks to give it to a child who perhaps had a family member fighting brain cancer, and the child could wear it in support of that family member. The Head For The Cure folks kindly accommodated me, telling me they could do that for me; thank you.  I will certainly keep doing this event as long as I am able to, and I most definitely would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all the people involved that made this one happen for us; all the sponsors, the many volunteers, our timers, the police and EMT folks out there for us; our MCs and the DJ guy; Providence Catholic School for the use of their grounds every year for this event; KSAT-13; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all so much!  The Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I will continue to do this one as long as I am able.