Photos are here:      https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yr2myJa84anoBt9R8

Before the Start:   My 19^th  race of 2025 was the Life is Good 5K held on April 12^th at the River City Community Church in San Antonio on Lookout Road in San Antonio.  Put on b Soler’s Sports, this event supports the Pregnancy Care Center, which assists women with such things as pregnancy tests with immediate results; counseling; free ultrasounds; community for various services, counseling, and more. The event was held at the River City Community Church on Outlook Road in Selma, Texas, which is a huge complex and is adjacent to the Retama Park Horse Racing grounds.  Long ago, this used to be a concert venue too; I recall seeing and Aerosmith concert here many years back.  There was also a kid’s run before the main event.  Start time of 8 a.m.  There was a total of 115 finishers for the 5K. There was also a Kid’s Run before the 5K started. I arrived about 45 minutes before start time and got a few pre-start photos.

On the course:  For this event, I wore bright pink. Not many people realize the ribbon color for pregnancy issues and infant loss is pink; so I wore this in support of all the ladies having issues. The event started right on time. The start and finish was near the facility auditorium, which was on our left when we all lined up.  The course was held entirely on the campus grounds, with the majority of the route on the paved parking lots of the complex.  To begin, we started on a  paved road surface going down a steep hill – which was short, thankfully – and then diverted for a short bit onto a concrete trail that took us down to the asphalt-paved parking lots area. We did two out-and-backs on these lots and then wound around another huge parking lot that took us past a few of the Retama horse-pens that were nearby. I swear, I think when I went by one of them one of the horses in there was actually snickering at my slow pace, lol. After making a big ‘square’ around this parking lot, we then turned back onto the first parking area road we had been on and headed back for the finish. Once we turned onto that, we then went around this last parking area, and that took us back to the road we had originally started on, and then the last thing we did was climb up that short hill to get to the finish. I felt pretty good the whole way and did my usual run/walk thing and took photos during my walk breaks. For the last mile, I ran just about all of that non-stop.  I ended up with a chip time of 38:48, averaging 12:29 per mile, which I was quite happy with; in training runs, I normally do 13 – 14 minute miles. I ended up 2^nd in my 70-99 males age group; primarily, lol, because there were only 2 in my age group. He first guy finished in 29:52, wow; that guy must eat a lot of Wheaties, lol.

After My Finish:  After getting my finisher medal and getting some water in me, I then wandered here and there, chatting with participants, supporters, and volunteers, and getting some post-race photos. There was also a post-race baby-crawl along a short padded mat, with the first baby to reach the finish line getting a prize. That was pretty entertaining. I joked with my friend, Sam, at my pace, I should have done this one, lol.   There were also all kinds of goodies post-race including grilled sausage wraps, some donuts, really huge bottles of water, and more.  The organizers encouraged people there to take water bottles and food home with them, as it saves the organizers a lot of time in cleaning up post-race, and a lot of people did as asked, including me; I took a couple of those bottled waters.

Epilogue:    MUCHO thanks to all who made the one happen for we participants, e.g, all the many volunteers, several of whom had to be out there pretty early to get ready for race-day packet pickup;  my friend and our Race Director, Lisa Haby Soler, owner of Soler’s Sports; she puts on quite a few good events over the year, so check out the Soler’s Sports site;  my friend Tony Garcia, who was helping lay out the course; my friend Anthony Zamora, who did his usual great job of being MC for us;  my friends from Pushbutton Photography, the official race photographers;  my friends from iaap who did the timing and provided the results;  our grillers who prepared those sausage wraps; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!  Gee, in re-reading this, I have a lot of friends in the running community; I am one lucky dog.  Whatever your passion is, may you always enjoy it and stay safe and healthy.  Happy running, walking, cycling, etc., to all!