Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fcF6JTWAcpuUU65F8
Before The Start: My 60th race of 2026 was the Nightmare on St. Mary’s Street 5K held on October 31 at Central Catholic High School on St. Mary’s Street. As I am somewhat ‘directionally challenged” at times – even with a map and/or my phone’s travel app, this school was a bit hard for me to find and so my “adventure” with this event began. I knew it was on St. Mary’s Street somewhere but I just could not find it. I went up-and-down St. Mary’s a couple of times, looking for a school sign, but no luck. Finally, I stopped at a San Antonio Police Department substation on St. Mary’s to ask directions. One of the police employees was getting ready to head out, so I asked her where the school was. She told me it was a bit hard to find because there was a turn you had to go down to get to the race area at the back of the school; well, okay then. She then told me to follow her and she then kindly led me to the gate where the race parking area was; no school sign at that back gate – which I realized I had passed at least twice, lol, during my individual searches. That was so nice of her to get me there. I got there in plenty of time for the 8:30 a.m start as, knowing my directional capabilities, lol, I left pretty early to give myself plenty of time. I parked in the designated area and got race bib. After that I wandered around in the start/finish area getting some pre-start photos. Lots of participants had costumes on, some of them pretty imaginative. This is also a dog-friendly event so, as usual I had dog treats with me and was soon very popular with the dogs there, lol.
On the course: We started on time. The weather was a bit overcast with some sunshine. The temperatture at start time was 68 degrees – 72 degrees by the time I finished — with the humidity around 92%. As usual, because of the spinal arthritis I have now – from a birth defect I had; I wa born a “March of Dimes baby, with dislocated hips – I did my usual thing of run 8-mnutes/walk 2-mintues and took on-course photos during my walk breaks. The route – laid out by my iaap friends – was really nicely done. We started on the school grounds, did a kind loop through part of the school grounds and then went out a gate that took us onto public roads. We did a short out-and-back on a dead end street, and then headed down a street that eventually took us onto the San Antonio Riverwalk; that was pretty cool, running on the riverwalk. There were, of course, other non-racing patrons also using the Riverwalk and for the most part they were all pretty patient with we 5K people. Quite a few dogs were out there too, walking their humans so I’d make very quick stops to hand the human a dog-treat and then get running again. I got to the Mile 1 marker and my garmin had 10 minutes and something….ummm, no way; I haven’t been able to run a 10-minute mile in a long time, so I think someone may have moved the 1-mile marker; mabye someone who did not like all of us being on the Riverwalk; I actually heard one guy shout at some of the runners coming toward them that the Riverwalk was not for races; good grief. I got to the turn-round, got a photo of the great volunteers at that point for us, and then headed for the finish. I got to Mile 2 and it was dead-on for the time I usually do for 2 miles. The last mile I usually try to run non-stop to the finish – something I’ve been practicing during my training runs – with some ‘quick-stop’ on-course photos that took me maybe less than a minute and then I was off-and-running again. The route pretty much took us back the same way we had gone out, except that we did not go back up and then down that dead-end street we had gone onto on the way out. The rest of the course was pretty the same as the way we had gone out. When I crossed the finish line, I noticed my garmin had the distance as 2.97 miles, not 3.1 miles, so I thought my garmin might be a bit whacked out; however, my speedy friend, Bob who finished way ahead of me, told me he also had 2.97 miles. I asked the iaap lady keeping time if we were supposed to have done that dead-end out-and-back on the way back like we did on the way out, and she said yes, we should have done the same route back that we had gone out on, so I guess that is maybe why the course was short. I asked a couple of the lead runners – really speedy folks if any of the bike lead riders had taken them down that out-and-back and the answer was no; they passed by it and went to the finish; so maybe that was why the course ended up a tad short; no big deal for me, even with the bit of short, it was still a great course. One of the other runners, whose son goes to the school told me this was the first time being a bike lead for a couple of them and hey, it’s understandable; sometimes things happen at races; you live-and-learn and try to do better the next time. I really enjoyed this course; it was still a great course even if it was a tad short.
After my finish: I stood back from the finish line so as not to impede anyone and got some photos of others finishing, including some people in costume, and handed out a couple more treats to some of the dogs who came in with ther humans. After that, I rehydrated a bit with a bottle of water and wandered all around the race start/finish area getting some more “after” photos and chatting with other participants; volunteers; race organizers and an MC who held the post-race costume contests – for the adults the Wizard of Oz Group came in first – and also chatted with two police officers there for our safety; growng up in Virginia, my dad worked as a Juvenile Probabation Officer, so I am very pro-law enforcement. The two officers kindly let me have a photo with them. I meandered a bit more, chatting and getting more photos and I unexpectedly met a a participant who is a Melanoma Cancer survivor, which is a cancer I am currently fighting at the moment. It was great chatting with him as we compared notes, and he gave me some great info about what to expect and some things I could do that will help me win this battle, which I plan to do – my 5th time of fighting various cancers; I won all those battles nd I am deterimened to win this one also. As retired Air Force, I get great medical treatment from the medical staff at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC). They have literally saved my life on a few occasions and, as usual, they are providing great medical service to me for this fight.
Epilogue: This was a school fundraiser with the school’s students overseeing the event; students served as the hosts and MCs; operarated the sound-and-music at the event; served as course marshals; put out all the nececessary tables and equpment needed, with the exception of the start/finish line chute which was put up by my friends of racemanagment company iaap as they oversaw the timing and results. The school building itself is pretty large and we had access to the building to use the restrooms, which is so much better than using porta-potties, lol. It was very nicely done. Events included the run, jog, or walk 5K starting at 8:30 a.m.; a Kid’s Fun-Run race at 9:30 a.m.; a post-race costume contest for kids; teens; adults and groups of ‘themed” costumed participants. There were aslo various games and activities; trick-or-treating with help of the sponsors; and lots of school staff members served as volunteers to help with race registration, race-day packet pickup, and so forth. There was also food that included breakfast tacos; lots of bottled water, various types of small candies, and so forth. The race shirt is nicely designed – I did not get one because I do so many races in a year I am running out of shirt drawer space, lol – and the race bibs were pretty generic with bib number on the front and timing chip on the back of the bib.
I also like the location of this event, as I am a member of the YMCA and there is one right on the corner of Saint Mary’s Street in the Tripoint area, near highway 28; so I had brought a change of clothes and was able to go to the Y and get a nice hot shower – ahhhhhh – and change into non-sweaty clothes for my driive home. I will definitely do this event again and I certainly would recommend it to others. 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, race volunteer, organizer, or whomever and you see me at an event, give me a shout-out. I’d be happy to get a photo with you. God bless and may you be successful in all your endeavors and may you always stay healty enough to do them.
