19 miles for 19 years run

Today, I ran 19 miles in honor of my 19th anniversary of sobriety. 19 years ago, on March 1st, 1990, I quit drinking alcohol entirely. Wow, how my life has changed since then. I reflected back on my life over the last 19 years during my run today.

So, to celebrate, I headed over to Sabino Canyon and did a little running. How else would I celebrate?

I started as the sunrise was peeking over the Rincon Mountains. I started alone and ran the Canyon tram road up and back. There was quite a bit of wind and huge wind gusts made it difficult to run at times. On the way back, I hit the Rattlesnake trail and portion of the Esperero trail back to the tram road. Of course, at this time, a wall of people were headed my way. That is the one downside of Sabino Canyon; if you are looking to 'get away', don't head there. Everyone is there. It sure is pretty in the canyon, though. Here I am at the end of the tram road in road running shoes:

After I had returned to the parking lot, 8 miles later, I met Shari. I changed into my new Montrail Vitesse trail running shoes (yay for new choos!) and put on my pink gaiters, which drew lots of complements today (as did Shari's pink/purple camouflage gaiters). We then both headed out to run Phoneline trail (does that trail ever get easier?), and then looped back on the tram road for another 9 miles.

Afterwards, Shari had to take off, so I went back out on Bear Canyon trail for another mile out and mile back, for a total of 19 miles. It was pretty smoking hot here in Tucson today and I was glad to be done.

Total time: 3:44 (running time only)

Total cumulative elevation gain/(loss): 3,361/(3,367)

Overall, a really good run. I had a fun time running with Shari, and felt good about the 19 miles. The Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon is one month from today, so I'll be doing 2 more long runs in the 20 - 22 mile range and then it is time to taper again. I'm hoping to beat my 2 prior year times for this race. In 2007, I ran that marathon in 4:55; in 2008, I ran it in 4:35. This year, I want to do it in 4:15. We'll see.

I ran 34 miles for the week.

More than anything, I just want to have fun doing it. That's what I'm talking 'bout.