Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/o5trWrevEGrmFXcP6

Before the Start:   My 15^th 5K of 2025 was the Helotes Beer Garden Run, held at the Helotes Festival Grounds on Saturday, March 22^nd , with Soler’s Sports – owned and operated by my friend, Lisa Soler –  organizing and overseeing this event. Sports This is a very popular event, proved by the 647 finishers for the 5K, wow. This event supports Hope Hits Harder, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children diagnosed with cancer. As a cancer survivor myself, I try to do as many cancer-related events as possible, especially those supporting children’s cancer. No kid should ever have to go through that; they should just be able to enjoy being a kid, doing kid things; hopefully, someday that will happen for all of them. In addition to the 5K, there was also a 1K walk and 1-mile walk, if remember correctly.  Because of the number of participants there was a ‘wave start” with the speedier folks starting Wave 1 at 8:15 a.m. and the rest of us, Wave 2,  starting at 9 a.m.  The speedier Wave 1 participants had yellow bibs and we Wave 2 participants had red bibs.  I arrived with plenty of time before the start, got my packet and then wandered around chatting with participants, sponsors, supporters, etc., and getting a few pre-start photos.

On the course:  We had really nice weather for this one; abundant sunshine, blue skies, a temperature in the mid to upper 50s, and no wind.  The course was a mix of paved road; off-road on natural grass; one part where there was a bit of gravel; and pavement in the fair grounds and on the street adjacent to the Fairgrounds. The 5K course was 2 laps around.   Each wave started right on time.  By the time Wave 2 started, the speedier front-runners in Wave 1 had pretty much already finished. Because this was partly off-road on some uneven ground, I had to check with my Physical Therapist that it was ok for me to do this one, as I had just recently completed 5 weeks of physical therapy for a small stress fracture just underneath my right ankle; it’s healed now, but I did not want to relapse. He told me just to take it easy go slow when I had to. No worries there, I only have two paces, slow and slower, lol.  I did my usual thing of run 8-minutes-running, 2-minutes-walking, and got some on-course photos during my walk breaks. I felt pretty good overall and had no issues with the course. For what they had to work with at the Fairgrounds, the organizers did a pretty good job laying out the course; for the most part it was pretty flat, with just a slight downhill on a paved street, and a longer up-incline on gravel right before we got to the Mile 1 marker; that gravel part was tough, but I found by staying over to the outer edge near the adjacent grass, it actually was pretty smooth and worn down pretty well, so I didn’t have any problems with it.  The second lap I actually felt even better, so ended up talking 1 walk-break and then running the last ½ mile to the finish nonstop.  I did the first loop in 20:14 and the 2^nd loop in 18:59, finishing with a chip time of 29:13, averaging 12:38 per mile, which I thought was pretty good for this old dog, lol; I was quite happy with my result.  In my 70-99 males age group, I finished 6^th out of 9 participants.

After My Finish:   I got a few photos of other coming in and then wandered here-and-there, chatting with other participants, vendors, volunteers, supporters, etc. and even enjoyed a small cup of beer post-race. It is the Beer 5K, after all, so there were several breweries represented, with all kinds of different types of beer products.   There was also grilled sausage wraps post-race, as well as a lot of other goodies too from the various vendors. We also had a sound guy playing some music, and there were games for the kiddies, and all kinds of backdrops everywhere for photo ops, as well as many types of treats and eats and, of course, plenty of water.

Epilogue:   I have done this one a few times in the past and would do it again; and I would recommend it to others.  Yes, the course is sort of odd in places, but overall, with what they had to work with, the organizers did a pretty darn good job of laying it out. The race shirt is very nice quality, and the post-race party is very good with lots of offerings for everyone. The festival grounds also has play areas for the kiddie and this event is also dog-friendly; I handed out quite a few dog-treats to the doggies there and was soon very popular with them, lol..  Nice indoor restrooms too, which sure beats porta-potties, lol.

Mucho thanks to all who made this happen for we participants, including Soler’s Sports, the primary sponsors Gold’s Gym, and  Stout House, which also hosted the pre-race-day packet pick-up: Junk King San Antonio; 7-to-7 Dental; Attorney Roland Gonzales; Frost; New American Funding; Gehring Realty; Prestige Emergency Room, and the EMTs there for us, just in case; Elite Chiropractic & Rehab; Alaka’Ina Foundation; Taco Palenque; Renewal by Anderson; SZ, a construction company; and, of course, all those great beer companies for providing us all that post-race beer and much more; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!  Next up for me is the Scallywompus Wandfest 5K on March 29^th in Fredericksburg.  See you there if you are signed up.  Meanwhile, I wish to all  happy and safe running, walking, cycling, or whatever your exercise passion is.