Tucson | Canicas Rolling

August and September have morphed into one big blur of travel. I feel as though I have spent at least a solid week in transit at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. I returned home on Friday evening, and on the last leg of my flight my seat mate asked where I’d been. It took me a minute to remember.

I have about eight different blog posts partially composed, and another eight ideas in my head, but haven’t quite gotten around to finishing anything. All that is to say: writing about my race at the Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run is a little behind schedule.

I’d been sick for the couple of weeks leading up to the race and still wasn’t feeling 100% on race day. I hadn’t run in ten days, so my goals for the race was 1) finish and 2) try to finish in under 90 minutes. It’s a hilly course, so I didn’t have any expectations of a speedy time.

My friend and running partner Sergio runs this race every year. This year he finally talked me into doing it. Saguaro National Park is split up into two separate segments, one way the heck out on the west side of Tucson and the other way the heck out on the east side. The race was along the beautiful rolling 8 mile loop at Saguaro East.

Sergio picked me up bright and early and we got to the park around 5:30. Sergio, who is much speedier than I even when I am not recovering from being sick, was going for a PR, so I found some other friends and left him to warm up and get towards the front of the pack.

There is a 5K and an 8 miler at this race. The 5k goes off 15 minutes before the 8 miler and runs counter-clockwise on an out-and-back course, while the 8 miler does a clockwise loop around the park. Summary: there were a lot of people at the start. In spite of this, I kept seeing folks I knew, which was a lot of fun.

Lori, Elise, and me before the race.

The race director welcomed us. Park Superintendent Darla Sidles welcomed us (she was running the 5k). Ross Zimmerman, father of Gabe, gave a lovely speech (this race is the second leg of the Gabe Zimmerman Triple Crown). The national anthem played. And then the 5k runners were off. The 8 milers shuffled toward the start and before we knew it we were off, too.

Saguaro National Park Superintendent Darla Sidles welcomes racers.

The first three miles of the race are mostly downhill or flat. The sun was rising over the Sonoran Desert, and the scenery was stunning. At this point I was feeling really good.

Mile 1: 9:27
Mile 2: 9:20
Mile 3: 9:38

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and even snapped a few pictures of the people ahead of me as I ran along.

The light was breathtakingly beautiful. Early in the race it was cool enough and gorgeous enough that all I felt was lucky to be able to run in such a lovely spot.

About halfway through mile 3 the big hills begin. At first I really thought I could hang. I made it through mile 4 in 11:37–definitely slowing way down, but still running. But by mile 5, which is basically all steep uphill, the two weeks of being sick and ten days with no running caught up to me and I found myself walking.

Mile 5: 15:40. Yikes.

The scenery was as breathtaking as the hills.

At this point I changed my second goal. Pushing myself to finish in under 90 minutes just didn’t feel like any fun at all, so instead I decided to see how many species of birds I could spot or hear while running. That was a lot more fun.

Red-tailed Hawk (a pair, chasing each other)
Verdin
Curve-billed Thrasher
Cactus Wren

Trying to power up the hills.

I think I can…finish this race…

Runners behind me, coming up the hill.

Mile 6: 11:18 (getting back into some downhill here). Mile 7 ticked away in 12:07 (rolling hills again).

Common Raven
Lesser Goldfinch
Anna’s Hummingbird
American Kestrel

As I eased into mile 8 I heard someone coming up from behind me saying, “I’ve been chasing you for the last three miles!” It was my friend Sean–so great to see his smiling face. We ran together for about a half a mile and then he pushed ahead towards the finish.

I was almost there. I put my head down and went for it, running Mile 8 in 11:21.

This was supposed to be an 8 mile course, but when my Garmin beeped for mile 8, I was interestingly not at the finish line. My watch measured out another .15 miles before I crossed the line. Hmmm.

According to my Garmin, I ran 8.15 miles in 1:31:42.

According to my timing chip, I finished the 8 mile race in 1:32:18. (The race website said they had some issues with the timing chips, so I am leaning in the direction of my Garmin).

You be the judge.

I walked over to the finishers’ area and quickly reunited with Sergio (who had run a PR–67 minutes, I think; way to go, Sergio!), as well as a handful of other friends who all work in my building. We ate pretzels, drank water, and found a tiny spot of shade to recuperate from the heat of the morning and the run.

Historic Y Finishers! Greta, Carolyn, Joey, Sergio, and Jennie.

One of the neater parts of the race is the medal, which is the second part of the puzzle for the Gabe Zimmerman Triple Crown. Two races down, one to go (a half marathon in October).

Gabe Zimmerman Triple Crown in progress.

I was surprised to be reasonably close to running the race in under 90 minutes given the amount of walking I did in the middle. I was even more surprised to see/hear just eight species of birds. But birding while running definitely helped take my mind off of the fact that this race was freaking hard. In fact, as I got to miles six and seven I even found myself wishing that there were a few extra miles in the race so I could see more birds. I really wanted a Gilded Flicker, guys.

Maybe next year.

Last Saturday night I ran the Meet Downtown Night Run 5k, the first leg in the Gabe Zimmerman Triple Crown. The week before I’d been down in Bahia de Kino, on the central coast of Sonora, Mexico. Lo, these many years ago I used to live there, doing seabird and wading bird monitoring, as well as environmental education and community outreach work for Prescott College, who has a field station there. It was a wonderful week with some reunions with friends I hadn’t seen in four+ years, but the point of telling you that is to say that I spent all day Saturday driving home from Mexico, navigating Hermosillo traffic, waiting at the border crossing in Nogales, and making it back to Tucson in the late afternoon, just few hours before the race started. Ideal? No, but it was enough time, and enough is as good as a feast.

I never know where to put my hands and always end up looking like a mannequin.

I was a little out of it after a week of early rises and all-day meetings, not to mention a full day of driving, but I quickly found my friends who were also running.

Who needs a chin anyway?

It was a bigger race than I was expecting. My friends said they’d heard there were 3,000 people registered, and it was crowded. Although the sun was starting to think about going down, it was Tucson on May 30. It was hot. I was glad that I’d arrived close to the start time so I didn’t have to stand around waiting.

Before long we all moved over to course. My friend Claudia and I planned to run together. I told her I was hoping to go sub-27. She told me that she was just hoping to keep up with me. The announcer counted down from then and…we all started to shuffle forward. It took a couple of minutes at least to cross the start line, everyone jostling for room. (It was also awesome to see Tucson come out for this race, all ages, sizes, and ability levels.)

Waiting for the start.

Mile 1: 8:43

There was a huge crush at the start. I’m not the zippiest runner, so I didn’t push my way to the front of the pack before the gun. Because of this I spent the first half a mile dodging around walkers and slower people. Claudia and I quickly got separated, but I just kept on going. It was hot and I was suddenly thirsty. I had taken a big slug of water before I left my car, not 30 minutes earlier. It was only a 5k, so I hadn’t brought any water but I was already thirsty. Not the best sign.

Mile 2: 8:41

I wasn’t looking at my watch. I felt thirsty and sluggish and slow and was just hoping to keep my miles under 9 minutes. I wanted some chapstick. I wanted some water. Spectators were taking pity on the runners and had pulled garden hoses to the street and were spraying us as we ran by. That helped. I grabbed a cup of water at an aid station, and that really helped. I drank some and poured the rest over my head. Somewhat refreshed, I pushed on.

Mile 3: 8:53

The last mile. Time to put my head down and go for it. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. Alas, the body doesn’t always do what the mind tells it to do. I snagged another cup of water early in this mile and then with about three-quarters of a mile to go I heard someone come up behind me hollering, “Jennie!” It was Claudia, who’d somehow found me. She said, “Come on, let’s go! If we push we can still beat 27!” She pulled ahead slightly, and I did my best to keep up with her.

Mile .1: 1:00

I had been thinking in my head that three times 9 equals 27, so I just needed to keep each mile under 9 minutes to go sub 27. Funny how conveniently I forgot that a 5k is 3.1 miles, not 3 miles. The 27th minute ticked by. I crossed the finish line. My friend and coach Brian was waiting there, giving high fives. Claudia and I got some water and our medals.

I feel like the Sesame Street description of “tall” and “short” when I stand next to Claudia.

The medals for this three-race series all fit together to form one larger medal. One down, two to go!

The Epilogue

Finish time: 27:17, good for 15th out of 146 in my age group. I didn’t get under 27 minutes, but I did shave 20 seconds off of my time from my race last fall, so that was nice. (If Claudia hadn’t pushed me, I’m not sure that I would have done that). I have run 5k in under 27 minutes in practice, so I know I can do it. Now I just have to bring it to the race.

(Next up in this series is an 8-miler through the beautifully winding hills of Saguaro National Park in September, followed by the third and final race is in October, a half marathon through the streets of Tucson.)

Canicas Rolling

Tag Archives: Tucson

Race Report: Saguaro National Park Labor Day Run

2015 Meet Me Downtown Night Run or “Don’t forget about the .1”