Photos are here:       https://photos.app.goo.gl/B6o5NrUBK4x1UbU89

Before The Start:  My 19^th race of 2026 was the Rewind 5k held on April 11 at Martin Luther King Park, starting at 9 a.m.  It got a nice turn-out with a total of 310 finishers. This was a themed event based on the 1980s, with participants encouraged to wear their best 80’s-style clothing and there was also a costume contest post-race. The course set-up and timing was done by the excellent race-management company, my friends with iaap. I arrived a little after 8 a.m., got my packet, and then wandered around checking things out and getting a few pre-start photos as I chatted with friends, other participants, volunteers, and supporters and sponsors. The event went all out with this one; there were video-game machines that actually worked where you could play Pac-Man and other video games; several people were in some pretty interesting costumes that included Chuck Norris, Michael Jackson, and several other well-knowns of the 80s.  Some kids also had a paleta cart with paleta (ice pops) they were selling to raise funds too.  This is also a dog friendly event so, having dog treats with me, I was soon very popular with the dogs, lol.

On The Course:   The course is an out-and back done on the park’s paved greenway trails. We had some nice weather for this one; when I left home to go to the park it was raining pretty good in my neighborhood but by the time I got to the park the rain was done and it never did rain on us for the whole event; no wind, and we had temps of 69 to 70 degrees, so not too bad at all. I did my usual thing of run-8-minutes/walk-2-minutes and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks. This was a fairly flat course, with just a couple of long inclines here-and-there, but nothing you could really call a major hill, although we did cross over one bridge, and with several people on the bridge, the darn thing shakes, lol.  I felt pretty good the whole way and after reaching the turn-round pretty much ran almost non-stop back to the finish line, with just a couple of quickie stops to toss a dog a treat and after getting back to the bridge I got a photo of the waterway flowing through the park and also one of the two volunteers at one of our water stations along the way; we participants go to the finish and then enjoy the after-party; the race course volunteers have to be out there until the very last person passes by, so I always try and take a photo of them to thank them for being out there for us. After that photo, I continued on non-stop to the finish. My chip-time ended up being 41:30, which was good enough for 2^nd place in my 70 – 99 males age group, as there were only 3 in my age group, lol; so we all placed.

After My finish: I stood back from the timing mat and got some photos of others finishing, cheering in my personal friends when I saw them coming in. I also saw one of the dogs coming in with its human and when it saw me standing there, he came right toward me, lol, remembering the treat I’d given him before the start; and yes, he did get a finish line treat too.  After that, I went and enjoyed a banana and some water – there was also lots of other drinks, including beer, tea, some sodas, etc. – and once more became “The Wanderer” – and if you know that song, you’re probably as old as I am, lol – going here-and-there, chatting with lots of people, getting some after photos and, of course, handing out some more doggie treats.  There was also an 80s-character costume contest post-race with participants being judged by applause. The guy costumed as Teen Wolf was the winner. There was also a raffle for some retro 80 items on a table;  I won nada, darn the luck. 

Epilogue:  This is a really nicely done event with a good course and lots of fun-stuff before the start and after the finish. The many vendors/sponsors there had all kinds of things, including fresh fruits, coffee, tea, lots of water of course, various types of snacks and more. There was a nice backdrop for photo ops; and our music-and-sound guy was rockin’ us with some 80s oldies. Our MC, my friend Anthony Zamora, did his usual great job for us, as did our Race Director, my friend Liz.  Everyone was supposed to get a nice finisher medal, but they were held up at customs for some reason, so we got these small plastic finisher medals temporarily until the actual medals finally arrive – and they did arrive finally in the late afternoon, and Liz sent out info to participants on how we will get those finisher medals, nice.  I would definitely do this event again and would recommend it to others; it really is a fun event.  Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants: iaap for the course setup, timing and results; our Race Director Liz; our MC, Anthony; all the many vendors/sponsors that supported the event; all the volunteers that were out there for us as race-day and pre-race day packet pickup volunteers; course marshals, water station volunteers; the bike lead guy who had to pedal like crazy, lol, to keep ahead of that very speedy first guy finisher; and the law enforcement officers that were out there for our safety; the official race photographer; our music-and-sound guy; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank all of you so much!

Whatever your passion is, may you always enjoy it safely and have much success. If you’re a fellow runner/race participant and see me at an event, give me a shout-out; love chatting with my fellow runners, and if you are so inclined, we can get a photo together for my race report I do for each of my events I sign up for. Stay safe, stay happy, and enjoy what you do. Cheers.