Photos are here:     https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ab8T4kwdEQaQPwfi8   

Before the Start:   My 11^th  5K of 2025 was the Kick Cancer Pep Rally 5K held on March 1^st at Pickrell Park, a 17-acre park in Schertz, Texas.  Formerly the Wilenchik Walk for Life, this event, to quote, “invites the community to come together to rally in support of the many cancer research programs of the UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center (Mays Cancer Center).”  As a University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) staff member, and with UT Health in the process of merging with UTSA, I came out to support our ‘sister university” UT Health, as well as its excellent cancer center. Additionally, as a cancer survivor myself, I try over the year to do as many cancer-related events as I can.  The 5K start time was 9:15 a.m. with a kid’s race before the main event. I arrived at Pickrell Park with just over an hour to start time, got my race bib and my race shirt – a children’s small, which I gave back to the organizers, asking them to donate it for me to a child currently fighting cancer. After that, I wandered here-and-there, chatting with participants, volunteers, supporters, etc., and getting a few pre-start photos.

On the course:  The weather cooperated nicely, with a sunny day, blue skies, no cloud cover, and temp of 61 degrees at the 9:15 start time; my kind of weather, lol. I much prefer running in warm weather than cooler weather.  Before the main event started, there was a kid’s run. The routes for the kid’s run and the main event were both done completely on park grounds, with the kids doing a one-lap course and the 5K participants doing a 3-lap course. I am not a fan of doing laps, lol, but this course was laid out in such a way that you actually did not feel like you were doing laps. We started just up from the park’s main pavilion and then went off-road onto a grass-and-dirt part of the course.  This took us to a trail/sidewalk in the park, upon which we passed a smaller pavilion where volunteers were manning a water station and cheering everyone on.  After passing the water station, we went down more sidewalk and then veered left across a short, grassy area.  This brought onto Aero Street, which was blocked off at both ends for this event.  We made a left turn off the grassy area, went toward Main Street, rounded some cones, and then went back toward the start finish area. After a short distance, we then turned back into the pavilion area, heading for the start/finish line, went over the timing mats once more, and then proceeded to do this same route twice more. I did my usual 8-minues running/2-minutes walking and got some on-course photos during my walk breaks. On my 3^rd lap, I pretty much ran that one non-stop, getting to the finish with a chip-time of 33:18, averaging 10:43 per mile, WHAT?  I knew something was wrong here since I usually do 12 – 14 minute miles, and saw that my garmin had the course distance at 2.5 miles, so the course was short.  In talking with the Race Director after I finished, I found out we were supposed to have gone all the way up Aero Street to the other blocked end and then come back down, before making the turn to where the start/finish line was; apparently some instructions were misunderstood by the volunteer working with Athlete Guild – my friends who did the timing and results for this race – so the result was the course being a bit short. Lester, my friend with Athlete Guild doing the timing, told me yeah, he had gotten questions from several participants about the end-time, lol, with some of them thinking their timing devices were off;  not; the course was a bit short, which Lester confirmed to them.  As for moi, not like I was going to win anything at my slow pace so I was just happy to have met my two primary goals when I do a race:  finish standing up, and no ambulance waiting for me, lol. Anything I get after that is a bonus.

After My Finish:  Despite the short course, this really is a very well-organized event, with, as noted As usual for me, post-race, I wandered here-and-there again, chatting with a lot of people and getting some post-race photos.  There was a nice awards ceremony, with the top 3 in each age group getting an additional medal. They started with the younger folks first; I jokingly told one of the organizers they need to start with we older participants first (I’m 71), so we can get home and get our nap.  There was no 70-and-up age group, so I ended up 6^th in the 60-99 males age group, which is okay.  At my two paces – slow and slower – I don’t expect to get an award anyway, so it’s always a nice surprise when I do get one.

Epilogue:  There were 379 finishers for this one: 173 male and 206 female. A really nicely-done course; very nice quality race tees; finisher medals to all; and a whole lot of goodies and giveaways from the organizers and the sponsors.  They were even giving away bags of apples and oranges to those who wanted them; there was also these ‘clapping hands” thingys (yes, “thingys” is a word, lol) that made a noise when you shook it; and all kinds of food-and-drink items from both the organizers and sponsors such as sports drinks, nutrition bars, water, of course, small hand towels, and lots more.  As usual, I had a pocket full of dog treats, so the doggies there that got them from me – with permission from their humans, of course – soon knew who I was, lol. I was very popular with them.   I enjoyed this event very much and would recommend it to others.  Mucho thanks to all the people who made this one happen for us, e.g.,  Race Director; all the many, many volunteers; the school band musicians that were out there for us; the EMT folks and the police officers in the area for our safety;  also the firefighters there who ran the course in their gear, wow; all the sponsors, of course, who help pay for all this; Athlete Guild for their usual great job of timing and results – which you can find on their Athlete Guild website.  Thank you, and to all, happy-and-safe running, walking,  cycling, or whatever activity is your passion. Next up for me: Active 5K on March 8 at Mission County Park in San Antonio.