Tucson Half Marathon Race Review

After a truly blissful slumber..... um no I fought with Nellie half the night for room on the bed. I used to be able to nudge her out of the way and she was fine but now she is dead set on touching me at all times and snoring like she suffers from sleep apnea.  So that is fun.

Any whoo the alarm went of at 4a.m. and I promptly flung it off the night stand. 4a.m. is not my best hour. After standing in the kitchen drinking iced coffee for awhile. I finally got ready and forced D to get out of bed to drive me (he actually volunteered to go even though I gave him several outs because standing around for four hours is fun for no one. He is in the running for husband of the year).

Check out the arm sleeves of awesome.

We drove for about 30 minutes to get to the shuttle buses in OroValley that took me to the start. This race was a point to point. The whole naming the Tucson marathon the Tucson marathon is kind of funny because you never actually are in Tucson when you are running this thing. There seemed to be plenty of buses and parking for everyone. After a 20 minute bus ride we were kicked out at the start and into the cold. Luckily they had heat lamps. Whoohooo. They even had them in the porto potty lines. WIN! I hit the porto potty and then stood around trying to bond with my fellow man and get closer to the heat lamp. D went out to breakfast. Why do I do this again? Oh right I like medals and more recently I like trying to get faster.

Medal obtained woot

  After standing around shivering for awhile the race started right on time at 7a.m. And man was I just ready to get going already. I was so cold that I took off at record speed for me. All I could think about was warming up and man I did. The arm warmers were off within ten minutes of running. Gloves tossed within five miles. Once the sun came out it was a beautiful day. The course was mostly downhill though there were a few hills that were not insignificant along the course. But they were welcome to kind of break up the pounding on the legs. Aid stations were frequent and the volunteers were great! You got love people who volunteer to stand around for five hours getting covered in water and Poweraid while runners trample past spitting and snotting everywhere. And for that I thank you volunteers cause we could not do the race without you. Gu was available from about mile 6 on. This is the first time I didn't carry my own water or own Gu and it worked out fine. Better than fine actually.

I was able to hold off the break down point until about mile 10 this time. That is when I had to have the inner pep talk to keep it going. I stopped and walked a bit at every aid station. Mostly so I could drink. I tried to pretend that I was a professional and run through and drink at the first aid station and almost died due to drowning so I accepted that I lack a certain coordination and just walked through the rest so I could drink. I alternated between water and poweraid and tried to eat 2 Gus but only got one down. I tried to eat a chocolate flavored one I grabbed at an aid station and just couldn't do that flavor. Something about tasting chocolate while trying to run just wasn't working for me. I grabbed vanilla flavor around mile 9 and that went down fine. Who knew, I thought chocolate was appropriate at all times. Learn something new everyday.

So the mile break down
Mile  Time

1 9:04.3
2 8:55.7 (whoa first time in the 8s- that is exciting)
3 9:03.3
4 9:10.8
5 9:12.8
6 9:16.1
7 10:03.5
8 9:49.8
9 10:30.2 (gu eating)
10 10:13.7 (start whiny breakdown about this being hard in head)
11 10:34.8
12 10:27.3 (yeah almost done!)
13 10:22.9

and a NEW PR woot 2:07:50 official finish time.

Overall this race was pretty awesome. A good one to run if you are looking to PR because it is downhill. There was plenty of supplies at the aid stations and everything ran pretty smoothly. They did lose my registration but it was painless to get a number so no big deal.

 Medal is awesome and the finish line had lots of volunteers handing out bottled water and a food tent with bananas, pb&j tortillas, powerbars, goldfish, popcorn and soda.

plenty of stuff at the finish

There was also a massage tent and plenty of parking at the finish for spectators or husbands who endure their wives crazy hobby and come to cheer them on at the finish. I would do this one again I think. The course was pretty, the last few miles were a little tough as you ran through a neighborhood and it seemed uphill for most of mile 11 and 12 but overall nice.

Awesome ribbon on this medal

The downside, so sore today. Downhill can induce you to push it and the pounding downhill may leave you more sore then usual if you are kinda dumb like me and didn't train running downhill. But if you eat a piece of pumpkin bar the size of your head it will make you feel better.

Mmmm pumpkin bars, twice as good because it has Christmas sprinkles and is on a holiday plate.