[rachinaz]

We drove down to Tucson Saturday afternoon and were running late so we had to go straight to the running store to get our bibs then double back to the hotel. Kids were driving us NUTS . . . it's only a 90 min drive but neither of them napped so they were overtired and alternating between grumpy and hyper. It was a looonng evening! LOL! But by Sunday morning we were all back to ourselves and spent the day with DH's cousins and went out to dinner with them and some good friends. Very nice day. The weather in Tucson was heaven. Mid-80s and cloudy. Such a great reprieve from Phoenix.

Got up early this morning and out to the race site right on time to hit the portajohn and get to the start. I ran the 8 miles and DH ran the 2 mile fun run with the 2 kids in the jogger. No chip timing so my official time will probably put me just at 1:20 or 1:21, but my Garmin read about 1:19. Glad to squeak in under 10 min miles. Much slower pace for me than normal, but it was a BRUTAL course! LOL!

I had heard about this race for several years and always wanted to run it but this is the first year I've gotten things planned in advance to be able to do it. It's a trail run through the Saguaro National Forest. Desert landscape so the course was absolutely beautiful with rock mountains all around and every kind of cactus and desert plant you can imagine all along the course. Of course, I forgot to grab the camera on the way out of the hotel and DH left his cell phone in the car so we didn't get a single picture.

But the hills . . . OMG! . . . I tend to like hill running and this course wiped me out. It was a loop course and only a couple hundred runners, so it was a fun atmosphere. I chatted with a few people along the course and the general theme was . . . these hills have to go DOWN eventually, don't they?! Seriously, there was a stretch from mile 3.5 until about mile 6 that was continuous up hill, wrapping around and around this mountain. I usually don't do much fueling on races this short, but they were handing out gel at mile 4 and I really felt like I needed one. It kicked in around mile 5 and I felt a lot better.

I'm just really glad it was an overcast day. Talking to people later who said they had run it in previous years on days the sun was out and it's a death march . . . it is still summer in southern Arizona after all.

Overall a really nice day and a great workout. My left IT is still giving me trouble and I had some tingling in my lower leg again and my knee is pretty sore now. Icing and ibuprofen . . . four more weeks till Portland and I'm still considering the best way to keep this old body afloat til then.

Oh yeah, Ian ran his first kids race. Too cute! The race director kind of made it up on the fly for the kids that were roaming around. He let the little kids go first a get a good headstart and the older kids who ran it were very sweet, pretending to try to sprint past the little ones toward the end but letting them cross the line first. I jogged up the hill with Ian then he ran down to the turnaround and back up. Everyone was cheering for him and he had the hugest grin on his face the whole way. Kicking myself again for forgetting the camera . . .

[okatybug]

Sounds like you did awesome!! Sounds like beatiful scenery took minus those hills

Hope your knee feels better so you can move smoothly onto the next race!!

[colnken]

WTG Rachel!!! and WTG Ian! Sounds like a great day.

Lisa

[sages]

WTG Rachel! Sounds like a beautiful place to run!

Amanda

[bblessed]

Woo Hoo!! Congrats Rachel!!! Wow, those hilly conditions sound killer from your post!! Sorry to hear about your IT band and hope you can find relief! ((hugs))



WTG Ian on his first race!!! Sounded very cute!!



TFS all the details with us Rachel & feel better soon!