Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/wQoCPD6mSgxSbXZU8  

Before the Start:  My 58^th race of 2024 was the Cleftstrong 5K held on October 13^th at Eisenhower Park, with a start time of 8:30 a.m.  This event raises funds for research and for oral cleft patient care.  I donned my running gear, which included purple shirt and purple socks – purple is the color for cleft awareness – and then headed out to Eisenhower Park, arriving about an hour before the start time. I had already picked up my packet the day before, so arrived about an hour before the listed 8:30 a.m. start time.  The start/finish area was in a fenced in part of the park, where the park pavilion was, with restrooms, water fountains, a storage unit, etc. Prior to the start, I enjoyed getting some pre-start photos and chatting with participants, volunteers, vendors, etc.  This is also a dog-friendly event too, so I handed out some treats to the doggies there.  I was taking some photos, when I noticed around 8:15 a.m., people were already crossing the start line, what the heck?  I found out the organizer had decided to start at 8:15 instead of 8:30.  Wel, shoot. I quickly got myself together, set my Garmin and then crossed the start line too, and got going.

On the course:   Since I started about 5 minutes after everyone else, I found myself weaving around the walkers in front of me; They were very polite about it, as I called out when I came on them and nicely made a path for me to get through, but it took a while. The course started from the pavilion area, then took us onto a paved trail that went past the trail that goes up an observation tower at the park. We exited the park with the parking lot on our left side and then went onto a very wide concrete trail and here the hills began. We went downhill for a bit, rounded a curve and the TRUE hills really began, and these were no baby hills either, lol.  I ‘smelled’ the hand of Rafa, my iaap friend, in setting out this course for us, lol.  This is one very hilly course, with long climbs, both up and down.  At least we had a nice day for it – sunny, but temps in the upper 60s, and fairly low humidity – and we did have several shady areas along the way. I did my usual 8-minutes run/2 minutes-walk and took some photos during my walk breaks.  I also made a few quick stops to get some additional photos. I wasn’t even to Mile 1 when I saw some speedy kid already heading back to the finish; checked my watch and wow, this kid was doing 6-something minute miles, good grief, and good for him.  I caught up to my friend Deborah, who was walking the course and wished her luck.  This course was kind of like a stationary roller coaster track, lol; we went up, we went down, we went all around.  I kept thinking, where is that darn turn-round, is this course going to turn out to be long? I knew better than that, though, since iaap did the timing, they are always very accurate.  The part of the  course just before the turn-round was all downhill so, of course, after we did make the turn-round, we had to go up to get back; oh yay, lol.

There were two guys at the turn-round in a 4-wheeler vehicle, making sure everyone did turn round, and I asked them “What, you didn’t bring any beer?”  lol Then it was turn around and head for the finish now.  The crowd had definitely thinned out by now so, for the most part, I was doing my run/walk with only a few people near me at any given time – especially at my pace, lol – and had plenty of room.  Along the way on the course, there were also some pretty nice views; at certain points you could see from these hills off in the distance the countryside laid out and even got a distant view of the 1604 highway, the Rim area and some of the La Cantera area.  After I finally reached Mile 2, I told myself ok, I am ready to be done, so for the last mile I pretty much ran to the finish nonstop, which gave me a negative split for that mile.  I ended up with a chip time of 43:19, averaging 13:57 per mile, with all my photo stops, which was good enough for first in my 70-99 males age group.

After My Finish:   First, get some water and then do a cool-down walk and then just sit for about 10 minutes doing nothing at all, lol.  Then it was off to mingle around again and get some after-photos of the happy finishers, supporters, etc.  There was an awards ceremony, which started with the younger age groups first so, at my age, I was waiting a while for them to get to me, lol, so I took advantage of the waiting time by handing out more doggie treats and getting a few more photos.  Friend Deborah did well too.  The overall winners got a really nice trophy for their places, and the age group winners got a nicely-designed medal.

Epilogue:  I’ve done this event in the past and will continue to do it in the future.  It is a really nicely done event with a well-thought-out course; hilly as all get-out, but well thought-out.  Very nice quality race shirt – I asked them to give mine to one of their cleft-strong patient kids – and lots of various post-race goodies too. Music played by our sound guy there, and two “official’ photographers taking photos for the event. This is an event for a really good cause. I will continue to do this one as long as I’m able.  Much thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants, e.g.,  the CleftStrong folks; all the many volunteers; the police officer on duty there for our safety; our sound-and-music guy; iaap, of course, for everything they did for us, e.g., course setup, timing, results, etc.; all the sponsors and vendors, of course, who help make this one happen for us; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all.  Hope to see you next year, the Lord willing.