Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WuNiTCPXo9uiQvZY7

Before The Start: My 49^th race of 2026 was the Little Comets 5K, held in Castroville, Texas on Saturday, August 22, starting and finishing in a parking area across from St. Louis Catholic School and near a very large Catholic church.  I’m not sure how many participants there were, as this was a pretty-laid back event, self-timed, with no results posted and no post-race awards, although all participants did get a pretty nice quality race shirt. Scheduled start time of 8 a.m. Since I live about 5 or 6 miles from the San Antonio Airport, this was quite a long drive to Castroville; and, of course, me being directionally challenged, lol, I actually passed the race site and had to turn around and come back.  I saw that my friend, Ralph, was doing this one too. After getting my race shirt, I wandered around chatting with other people and taking a few a few pre-start photos.  When race start time came around, the crowd had grown quite a bit, so I guess-timate that there were about 200 or so total participants. There was a pre-start prayer; then the National Anthem was played, and we got started after that.

 On The Course:  The course took us through a very nice residential area with very wide roads, lots of nice homes, and lots of shade trees on several parts of the course, which was nice, as it was very sunny, with a temp In the upper 70s, and the humidity was around 83%.  Also nice was several of the volunteers and organizers of this event were driving up-and-down the course in jeeps, 4-wheelers, etc., and they had lots of water with them, offeriing water to anyone on the course who wanted it; so a few mobile water statons for we participants, lol.  There were also several dogs in their yards along the way, some of whom actually growled at me…until they got a treat from me and then they were soooo friendly, lol. I did my usual thing of 8-minute-run/2-minutes walk and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks.  After hitting Mile 2, I pretty much ran almost non-stop the last mile to the finish, with a couple of quick stops to throw treats to a couple more dogs.  My garmin showed my finish time as 45:56, averaging a 14:41 pace. Mile 1: 14:18. Mile 2 – which had the long uphill before we got to Mile 2 – 15:17; and Mile 3: 14:33.

After My Finish: I got a few photos of some other participants coming into the finish and photos of other finishers. After that I did a short cool-down walk and then went to my car and sat in the a/c for a few minutes as I rehydrated with some iced down water and gatorade I had brought with me.  After that, I was out-and-about again, chatting with participants and supporters while getting a few after-photos. Finally, it was time of the long drive home; but, as retired military, I have access to the military bases, so I stopped at JBSA Lackland first – it did not take long at all to get there, going straight up 90 East – to take a shower and get into some dry clothes; very convenient. Two of the gym staff members are friends and fellow runners, so I chatted with him and her for a while, and then it was back to home where I pretty much spent most of the day being pretty lazy, lol.

Epilogue:  This is a very nicely done event, with lots of good people and a very good route.  After I was done, I texted Gail that I was done – and tired from that very long drive and probably would not do this one again….but, of course, that was my ‘tired talk” coming out; I probably would do this one again in the sometime future.  Meanwhile, for now, as most of you know, I will be starting my appointments for the skin cancer I was found to have; my doctor gave me a very good prognosis about that, and told me also he defintely wanted me to keep on running, as the better shape I’m in the better I’ll be able to fight it; makes sense to me; so you will probably continue to see me at races.  Hey, I’ve beaten my cancers (3 types) 4 times before and I am confident I will beat this one too.

Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participants:  All the school staff members out there for us; the race sponsors; all the volunteers helping with the event; our mobile water-station guys; and I saw a couple of law enforcement folks driving around the course too, so thanks to them for watching out for us; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all! Whatever your passion is, may you always enjoy it and may you have much success at it and always stay safe doing it!    If you are a fellow race participant and see me at an event, give me a shout-out. I’d be happy to get a photo with you