San Marcos: A top 25 Retirement City, Healthy, Wealthy & Wise To….Yep!
Ask any local of San Marcos, Texas, and they’ll all agree: San Marcos is an up and coming city. Every day it seems like there’s a new festival, more shopping stores, street renovation, or new apartments.
According to Texas Monthly, San Marcos is growing faster than almost any other city in the US: a whopping 8% per year! And according to Forbes magazine, San Marcos is one of the top 25 best retirement cities in the U.S.!
Just ask any lifetime resident of San Marcos, and they will tell you why they never left, even after graduation from one of the top 25 Universities in the USA, duhhh!
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that this urban town is holding a ‘’WELLNESS’ Event, that is about living in a beautiful city to age 100 or forever whichever comes first. To do this people need to know how to do it and what does wellness mean.
To be candid, ‘you need your physical body to be fit, and you need to have a good nest egg to support your lifestyle to age 100.
One of the first events that San Marcos will have is its first Marathon, ‘The San Marcos Marathon or the ‘Money Concepts-U Marathon’. The Marathon is just two weeks before the Austin Marathon, and a Month before the ‘Rock ’n Roll San Antonio Marathon.
It’s one week before daily savings time goes back to regular CST, which means what, ‘The Perfect Date’, October 29th, 2016, or the last Saturday in October.
But the ‘Marathon’ is just one of eight events, for the much bigger event, ‘The Run for The Americas’. The big event is a series of races dedicated towards a start/continuing journey to a life of wellness or good health.
There will be a Marathon, but also, the Southwest Texas-15k, the ‘SAN-MAR 10000 (10k) and the really fun event, the ‘All Souls & Saints 5000’ fun run/walk 5k, dress for ‘All Hallows Eve, Paint your face for All Souls Day (Dia-De-Los Muertos) and All Saints Day.
All Souls Day or Dia-De-Los-Muertos Celebration is about remembering our loved ones that have passed on. A celebration of life and learning how to live a ‘long life’ in a comfortable lifestyle. We should ask about our loved ones that have passed, how did they die, could they have lived another five years or twenty years, if they had paid more attention to their health and body.
Why do people die? Many articles on Longevity have said the same thing the human body can make it to age 140, but it doesn’t because of what we do or not do to our bodies.
What we eat and drink, and if we don’t do enough exercise to keep our mind, heart and soul healthy. How did the centurions do it (those age 100 or more). How, why, what did they do?
The event is being sponsored by the San Marcos Rattler Alumni Association and Distinguished Alumni. The annual ‘All Class Rattler Reunion’ is part of the event. By adding more events, more Rattler Alumni will want to visit their High School town.
And with more volunteers, the Association is able to pay for the expenses of the ‘All Class Reunion’, and increase the net proceeds for several of our non-profits. For 2016, the non-profits organizations to benefit from the big event, are; The Hays County Women’s Center; Southside Community Center, the Youth Service Bureau, and the SMHS girl’s athletic programs.
The ‘All Souls & Saints 5000 is by far the best run/walk event of the four running individual events, only because almost all can participate. What we mean is this, it is very hard for a person to start a good fitness program on a weekly basis—cold-turkey.
That is why most exercise programs fail after a month. You can go to any gym or health club on January 1-31, and there is not enough parking to hold all the new members. But by March 1st, many, as much as half have given up.
The 5k fun walk/run can be the first program for many hundreds, if not thousands of people, who make the goal today, and then on October 29th, they just ‘Walk’. Walking is by far the easiest type of program to get started, and keep.
And that is the most important—to keep doing it. If they can do ‘walking’ for 90 days, it should become a good habit. You can walk anywhere, from a treadmill to walking in your own backyard, and even inside your house.
You can walk anywhere, just write it down, to keep tabs on the minutes and the miles.
But in addition to the four different individual run events, there are four team relays (four to a team), and there is a special ‘Wellness EXPO’, the Rattler All-Class Reunion Dinner and DA Reception, ‘Wellness Speakers, and the Americas Dance Party.
With a ‘battle of the DJ’s, music from the 50’s to the 90’s, rock-n-roll, country, salsa, Caribbean, South America, but most important music to dance to.
Dancing is a wellness sport and fitness program in itself. It is an excellent and a fun way to stay fit. And to add to the dance excitement and celebration of life, all can dress in costumes, or just paint your face and have a blast on the dance floor. Check out Facebook pages for the event and some of the most beautiful ‘face-paints.’
All events will be at the Embassy Suites and San Marcos Conference Center, located at IH-35 and McCarty Lane and the actual start and finish line is right in front of the new Amazon.com Fulfillment Center.
The Marathon has a unique course (the only one of its kind in Texas) that will run through three counties: Hays, Guadalupe, and Comal. The first, second, and third place winners of each age group will win medals and various prizes.
Any participating business is welcome to form their own team or sponsor a team. (The Marathon Course is expected to be Certified any day now as all work to the centimeter has been done and sent).
Both individual and team winners will be decided by best time during the four races. The prizes include a Letterman’s Jacket—medals (plus a team trophy), and Merchandise certificates from several participating businesses.
The running events start at around 7:30 am, with all Marathon Runners to go off first, then the 15k, 10k, and the 5k run-walk. The Wellness EXPO will be open in the Embassy Suites SM Conference Area from 8 am to 3 pm.
This EXPO will feature four special ‘Wellness’ guest speakers throughout the day, and the EXPO will have several vendors/businesses that specialize in ‘Physical & Fiscal Wellness.’
We invite any Wellness Vendors to contact us if they are interested in having a table/booth. The theme of this event is to stay or become “healthy, wealthy, and wise to age 100.”
The EXPO will continue well into the afternoon, ending at around 3pm, and the ‘DA’ reception for Rattler Alumni and special dinner, and the annual ‘Silent Auction.
Then “Americas Dance Party” will begin at 8pm. In addition, the SMRAA will hold their annual Golf tournament at Quail Creek at 9 am. This year it is a three-person scramble and can enter individually or with a team. All Alumni and parents of Alumni from San Marcos High School are invited.
Although the Marathon will be held in San Marcos, it will become a potentially international event. Runners from all over the Americas, from Canada to South America, have been invited to join in the festivities, making this Marathon a unique addition to San Marcos.
The major reasons that runners from all over the Americas will come to the event to run: to shop at the largest outdoor-outlet mall in the USA, to visit a TOP 50 retirement city, and Texas State University undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Anyone interested in the run should visit www.runfortheamericas.com to learn more about the race, as well as to register individually or in relay teams of four. The four team relay categories are: Boomers, Teachers, Veterans, and the Collegiate division.
All individual and Team Registrations get the following: (1) a long- sleeve multicolored shirt, (2) Ticket to Wellness Expo, and (3) Ticket to Americas Dance Party.
No matter one’s age, occupation, or place of origin, “The Run for the Americas” has a place for everyone. Centrally located in diverse San Marcos, Texas, it promises to be the biggest event of the year, and a fun-for-all-ages celebration of living a healthy lifestyle!
The sponsoring parties, Money Concepts-U, WuWu-U, Mochas & Javas, Hopson Builders, and the San Marcos Rattler Alumni Association (SMRAA) are working hard on planning and marketing the event, and also are asking for more Rattler volunteers.
Ruben Ruiz is the Texas Regional Director for Money Concepts, Wealth Management and Financial Planning located in San Marcos. Ruiz will be doing a regular column on financial planning and wealth management for the San Marcos Corridor News.
Run for the Americas was Ruiz’ vision, find out more about it here.
