Saturday Luke and I both ran the Sabino Canyon Sunset Run. The 12K begins at 5:45 and heads straight into a canyon. By the time you hit the turn around and head back, you're greeted with beautiful view of the Arizona sunset. The route has 500 ft elevation - rolling hills in the beginning and then straight up for the last .8-.9 miles until you hit the turn around. The biggest challenges for me last year were dealing with cramping after I hit the turn around and had to run down hill.
This year, I've been running this as a weekly run pretty much all spring. I'm much more comfortable with the hills and now that I know the route, even the long hill doesn't see that long.
The day of the race we had a cold snap and temps in the 60s. Chilly, but a nice respite from the temps in the 80s and 90s, and perfect for running. I ran this much faster than I expected and I credit the cooler temps and no over heating to my faster time. I finished in 1h 14 min. Respectable, considering most of my other runs have dropped down to 10:30-11 minute miles. More importantly, I felt good the whole way. Every hill was fun and I had no cramping or other GI issues. Luke came in w/ a 8:22 average pace - something I'm really, really impressed with.
This is a great local run and just one of the many local runs I've participated in over the past year. Tucson has a really wonderful running community of all ages and running/walking levels. They have a bunch of small races capped at under 500 people. Once you've been to one, you start seeing a lot of familiar faces. It's nice to be part of such a small and excited community.
