Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pGS8N2yUb8hxkLDz6
Before The Start: My 58th race of 2025 was the Ima’s Run 5K held in Old Towne Helotes on Saturday, October 24th, with a start time of 8 a.m. The Ima’s Home 5K Run/Walk supports Ima’s Home, a ministry and charitable organization that provides care, hope, and a home for vulnerable children in the Philippines. For the 5K, there were 244 finishers. There was also a 1-mile walk event. I arrived on site about an hour before start time, got my packet and then wandered around the start/finish area getting a few pre-start photos. The start/finish area was on Old Bandera Road and near a coffee shop; there was also a restroom building with indoor restrooms, which was nice; much better than porta-potties. This is also a dog-friendly event so, as soon as I started handing out treats to the dogs there, with the permission of their humans, I became quite dog popular, lol. A Reverend who is he primary contact for Ima’s Home gave us info about the children’s home and how they were supported. After that, my friend and the Race Director, Lisa, gave us information on the course and described the route for us so we’d know a bit about what to expect. The Reverend led a prayer, and then The National Anthem was played. After that, we all got lined up for the start.
On the course: Because of my spinal arthrits, I cannot run non-stop anymore, so I did my usual thing of run-8-minutes/walk-2-minutes and took some on-course photos during my walk breaks. After we crossed the start line, we made a right turn, went past a small traffic circle on our left and went down a street to a turn-round point. After the turn-rouund, we went back toward the start finish area. When we got back to the traffic circle we then went right onto an access road that had Bandera Road on our left. We made a turn-round here, went back toward the traffic circle and then went straight onto Old Bandera Road, passing by the start/finish area on our left. The hills on the course started after we passed the finish area, with us going downhill first, and then up a fairly long, but not too steep hill. Once up that, we encountered two police officers out there for our safety. We made a left turn and then the hills really began in earnest, starting with a long downhill. I could see other participants – much speedier tham me, lol – coming up the hill as they headed for the finish line. This was one long downhill that went on for a while. We then had a short flat part, went around a curve, and there was another downhill, then an uphill…and so it went. I am so glad I do hill work at least once a week during my training runs, that helped me a lot to be prepared. These hills were not as crazy as the hills Scallywompus uses for their event in Helotes – that course is hill crazy with very steep hills – but they were challenging enough for me. I was counting hills as I went along and we ended up with 6 pretty good uphills and 5 downhills, including an uphill on the way to the turn-round and then a downhill to get to the turn-round; and then, of course, we had to do everything in reverse on the way to the finish. After passing the mile 2 marker, I pretty much went non-stop to the finish, ignoring my Garmin signaling a walk break. On my training runs, I practice running the last mile I do non-stop, so that came in handy. I made just a few quick stops of mabye less than a minute to get a few more on-course photos. After getting back to the road where we finally headed toward the finish I made one quick stop to get a photo of the water station volunteers on that road, and then went nonstop to the finish – which was another uphill before we turned into the driveway where the finish line was and had some flat again. I ended up with a chip time of 48:39, averaging 15:40 per mile. Miles pace per my Garmin: Mile 1: 14:55. Mile 2: 16:18. Mile 3: 15:16. This was good enough to put me into first place in my 70-99 males age group, as I was the only one in this age group, lol. I had to wait a while to get my age group medal, as the guy announcing the awards started with the younger age groups first. When I finally did get my medal, I jokingly told him please start with us old guys first…we have to get home to get our nap after a race, lol.
After my finish: I stood back from the finish line so as not to impede anyone and got some photos of others finishing, and then wandered around the finish area chatting with other participants, volunteers, and supporters and getting some after photos, I also still had a pocket full of dog treats, so handed them out to the dogs I encountered – with the permission of their humans of course. I got very popular with the dogs again, with some of them even trying to follow me, lol.
Epilogue: This is a really nicely done event with a challenging but very nicely thought-out course. The finisher medal and the age group award medal is very nicely done and the race shirt is of very good quality. I will continue to do this one in the futture and would recommend it to others. Mucho thanks to all who made this one happen for we participantts, e.g., all the many sponsors; race day volunteers; iaap for the timing and results; the bike lead guy; Soler’s Sports who puts this event on each year; the police officers out there for our safety; and, of course, the ministry representatives of Ima’s Home; and anyone else involved I may not have mentioned here. Thank you all. See you next year, the Lord willing, as I am currently battling cancer for the 5th time, a battle I intend to win, just like I did with my previous cancers. God bless to 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.
