Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/33cpQgHvpjwh92Wz6
Before the Start: My 25th race of 2025 was Girls On The Run 5K, held on May 10th at Mission County Park. This event supports the Girls On The Run program. In a ‘nutshell” description, Girls on the Run (GOTR) provides 3rd-8th graders with a supportive environment in which girls run with their friends and coaches while learning, practicing, and applying foundational skills, such as setting goals and managing emotions. The girls have coaches that give them the guidelines, their training schedules, and so forth. I try to do this one every year, as my friend Sally, is one of the people who helped establish this program in the San Antonio area. This is a very popular annual event and for the 5K there was a total of 1,046 finishers, runners and walkers, per the listed results. I had picked up my packet before race day so after arriving I wandered around chatting with people and getting some pre-start photos, and also handed out some dog treats, as this is a dog-friendly event.
On the course: The National Anthem was nicely played – by Coast Guard trainees, if I remember correctly, but I may be mistaken on that – and then we got going. With so many participants iaap – who did the course setup, timing, and results – had erected a start finish “gateway” with barriers on either side of us, and the crowd of participants went from the start line all the way back onto part of the park near the main pavilion. I managed to get a little closer to the start mat but stayed far enough back where my slow self would not be interfering with the speedier runners. Race start time was 9 a.m, and we had a pretty warm day for it, with abundant sunshine and a temperature in the mid-70s; my kind of weather, lol; I much prefer running in warmer temps. We started in the main parking area of the park, went across the timing mat, and then made a left turn onto a sidewalk with a big field on our right, where cars were parked, and Padre Drive in front of the parking lot. At the end of the sidewalk we turned left onto Padre Drive, a very wide street able to accommodate all these participants, even though it was a bit crowded in places, but where I was at any given time, everyone seemed to take it all in stride – no pun intended, lol. We passed the 1-Mile marker and shortly after that made a left turn onto Pyron Avenue, if I remember correctly. This took us down and incline; then up another incline, followed by a second up incline. After that, it was fairly flat, and as we rounded a curve to head to the turn-round point, we had a view of the river on our left. There was a short down incline to an overpass, which we went under and the 5K turnround was there. After the turn-round we then made our way back to the finish in reverse of the way we had come out, doing those up-and-down inclines in reverse of the way we had come out. As we went up the last incline just before going back onto Padre Drive, we passed the 2-mile marker. I pretty much ran the last mile nonstop, with just a couple of photo stops, and also to “slap hands” in thanks with some of the cheer teams girls who were out there cheering us all on. When we got back onto the sidewalk that took us back toward the start/finish line, we passed the Mile 3-marker just before exiting the sidewalk with a right turn that took us to the finish. I ended up with a chip time of 40:09, averaging 12:56 per mile and my last mile per my Garmin was 12:42, which is pretty speedy for this old dog, lol, as I usually do 13 to 14 minute mile. I ended up 2nd in my males, 70-99 age group primarily, lol, because there were only 2 in my age group. I was 6 minutes behind first place.
After My Finish: I stood back from the timing mat and got a few photos of other coming in, including my friend Rick, which is a rare occurrence, me finishing before him. He is having some knee issues, so I knew it must have really been bothering him today if I finished ahead of him. I know he has been working with his docs, so I hope they get this resolved for him. After that, I went to get some water and post-race goodies and then continued wandering around getting some after-photos of participants, supporters, race sponsors, etc. Also, there were still several doggies around, so I soon got rid of all the treats I had in my pockets. I was very dog-popular, lol.
Epilogue: This is a very nicely done event by the Girls On The Run organization, with a lot going on before and after the finish. We even go entertained by dancing troupe who put on a nice display for us. Very nice ladies, too; I chatted with them a bit and got a photo of them. For the awards ceremony the H-E-B mascot, Buddy, showed up and all awardees got their photo taken with Buddy. I was curious, so I asked Buddy if, when he gets older, since he’s a grocery guy, will he get bags under his eyes. I think he laughed, lol, but Buddy doesn’t talk very much, so can’t be sure. Since we “older” folks were the last ones to get our placing awards, by the time we left most of the people had already gone, which was kind of nice, as we pretty much had a fairly empty parking area, so we were able to exit quite easily with no vehicle lines. The race shirt is very nice quality from what I saw. I did not get one, since I do so many events, I have a ton of shirts. Instead, I took advantage of an option when you register to donate your shirt to one of the girls participating in the program. The age-group medal is a nicely done small medal with “Girls on the run’ printed on it and has a pink ribbon. I usually donate my medals to either kids with cancer at San Antonio Children’s Hospitals or to the disabled kids getting treated at the Multi-Assistance Center (The MAC) at Morgan’s wonderland. I’m pretty sure one of the kids there will like this well-done medal.
Mucho thanks to all that made this one happen for we participants, including The Girls On The Run race committee; all the many sponsors and vendors that helped make this one happen; the police officers, EMTs, and bike lead volunteers, and cheer teams and water station volunteers on the course for us; our MC who, if I remember correctly was my friend, Lana of the iaap family; iaap for the course setup and timing and results; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all!
Time for me to rest now. My next 5K is the day after this one – May 11 – right back at this same park, the El Taco Run 5K, put on by Andiamo. This one will be on the Riverwalk Trail, if I remember correctly, so there will be a lot more hills than we had for Girls On The Run. Whatever your passion is – running, walking, cycling, etc. – I wish you all the success and may you always stay healthy. If you are a fellow runner, hope to see you on a course sometime in the future.
Scottydog Reports 