Photos are here:   https://photos.app.goo.gl/3rB9xXagyVEkxubu8

Before The Start:   Held on Saturday, July 29^th, my 42^nd 5K of 2023 was the “Walk Run Have Fun BryceStrong 5K” was held on the campus of Judson High School.  Put on by the Bryce Strong Foundation, the event is in honor of Bryce Wisdom, who sadly passed away at the age of 14 from a rare form of kidney cancer. His family started the Bryce Strong Foundation in his honor and memory – Strong, because Bryce fought courageously all the way to the end, inspiring people in the whole San Antonio region with his personal battle. The foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families affected by adolescent cancer.  Bryce was a member of the Judson football team – and a school road was named Bryce Wisdom Way in his honor – so it is very appropriate to have this even held here. This event raises funds for the foundation. This year the event was changed from morning to the evening, with a start time of 7:30 pm, followed by a Christian Music concert held in D.W. Rutledge Stadium, the school’s athletics stadium for football, track, etc.  I arrived with about 40 minutes to the start. I’d picked up my packet the day before, so walked around chatting with friends and other runners and getting a few pre-start photos.

On the Course: Given that this is Texas summer, it was pretty warm with a 95-degrees temp at start time. Because I have a heart pacemaker I’d called my cardiologist to see if it was okay to do this one.  I got the okay, with instructions to just take it very easy for this one, walk more if I had to.  During the day I had just taken it easy and kept myself very-well hydrated through the day, and ate lightly.  In spite of the heat, I was actually feeing pretty good. God-and-Mother Nature had also blessed us at race time with a pretty good cooling breeze too. I did my usual thing of 8-minutes running/2 minutes walking, but mindfully slowed down my pace from 12-minute miles to about 13- to-14-minute miles, not wanting to push it in this heat, since I mostly am early morning runner. We started on Bryce Wisdom Way, then made our way across part of the stadium parking lot. We exited the parking lot onto a sidewalk adjacent to the stadium and the proceed up a long incline; it was not that steep, just long, lol. As I went up this, some of the front-of-the pack speedier runners were already coming back towards me.   Once up this incline we made a left turn and then went onto a loop road that eventually brought us back to the sidewalk which we then went down. This took us down to a right turn that put us back on a campus road that brought us to the halfway point and the course water station. Further down, we passed the school bus parking area. A left turn took us down a road where we could see the school soccer field on our left. At the end of this road, we turned left to go onto a grassy area bordering the soccer field; not the most even terrain, lol, so I was glad I had worn my ‘hybrid’ running shoes, good for both pavement and turf.  We hit the mile 2 marker on this grassy loop. We then went through one of the stadium gateways and did a short jaunt around the stadium track,  This took us to a gate on the other side, which we exited and then made a right turn to go back up to Bryce Wisdom Way that took us to the finish line. I ended up  with a chip time of 46:44, averaging 15:08 per mile, and Mile 2- 3 was even a negative split for me at 13 minutes and change.  I was really surprised at how good I felt the whole way in this heat, so I guess I prepared myself correctly, lol. .

After My Finish: I did a short cool-down walk and as I was doing that one of the volunteer young ladies actually brought out to me a couple of cups of water; that was very nice of her, and that pretty much describes how this event is: very well done with some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, both volunteers and participants.  There were 99 total finishers, but one of the ladies had told me at that point they had about 133 registered, so I think there were some no-shows on race day. Too bad, because this really is a nice course to do.

Epilogue:  I am so glad I found this event last year – the first time I did it, when it was a morning event – and a nice bonus is that I became friends with Bryce’s parents, Diana and Rich, two of the nicest, most-gracious, and helpful people one could ever hope to meet.  The whole family is like that and their son, Rashad, is well-known in our community from his being one of the most talented football players for The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA – Go Runners!).  Our MC for this event, if I remember correctly, was son Miles, another great guy.  Really nice post-race goodies available too, with a free smoothie for those who wanted one, and a food-truck on site too.  Also, as noted, previously, a Christian Music concert was held in the stadium, free to all participants. Diana told me that some of the band members had also signed up to do the 5K, so they had double duty for this one.  I bet they slept well when they finally got home. This has become one of my “Definitely Do!” events, one which will always be on my race calendar. Bryce has become one of my ‘personal inspirations.’  I wear my BryceStrong  wristband 24/7 and it always helps inspire me at the times I need it; to continue to “Never Give Up!’ like my race shirts read.