TTR Redington 50k

I've never done the whole thing. Two seasons ago, I only went to the aid station and back ~ 27  miles. Last season, I went off course with Alli and Glenn and ended up at Bellota Ranch. By the time I got to the aid station, turning around back to the start netted 50k, but it wasn't the official 50k.

We had a record number of people show up this year. Everyone getting ready for Old Pueblo 50 mile race.

This year I finished it! And Dallas ran it with me! I wore my 'trail gansta' outfit.

I felt pretty good most of the run. Redington is an out and back on the AZ trail. It is a lot of up and down, with several long climbs each way.

Dallas had some IT band issues on the way back, so he told me to go ahead without him when we were about 5 miles out from the finish.

Ross got a lot of pictures of us out there running as we passed him both ways.

I had a smile on my face when I came in to the finish!

Great run! Felt strong at the end.

Total time: 7:15

Elevation gain: 4,464 feet

Distance: 31.38 miles

Ross always gets candid shots of me like this

I have no idea why I was posing like that. :)

One of our newer TTR members, Jeff, summed up the day with a fancy move at the finish.

Now THAT'S infectious enthusiasm

Another weekend at Tucson Mountain Park

Saturday - 24 miles with Tricia and her friend John at Tucson Mountain Park. Both of them are running the Pemberton 50k, too.

Trails - Yetman, Golden Gate, Prospector, and Starr Pass

Felt pretty good and better as the run progressed. I had a great time and think both of them will do great at Pemberton. I don't usually run with anyone but Dallas lately, so it was a nice change.

Sunday - TTR Tucson Mountain Park Scramble

My shin was bothering me and I was a little tired from Saturday, so I took Doug's suggestion and hiked a short loop around Bren Mountain. I started with the TTR group at pullout G7, went up Golden Gate trail, and then arrived at the intersection of Yetman, Golden Gate, and 'Gates Pass' trails. This 'Gates Pass' trail is not on any map.

Climbing high above Gates Pass Rd.

Beautiful trail. Lots of climbing. Went around Bren Mountain and dropped onto Yetman, which I took back to Golden Gate and then the G7 pullout. 

Saw two deer - one had a big rack, but didn't get a shot of it.

She is far away, but right in the middle

5.86 miles

1,262 feet elevation gain

2:06 total time

It was hiking only, probably only ran a few short spurts. Lots of up and down over 4-5 topouts, one was a little rock scramble. Can't wait to do that one again. Fun to go off of the map sometimes. :)

Everyone did different trails on this run, so it was cool to hear where everyone went on the map. Doug had everyone draw their routes on his blown up board. Very neat idea!

Doug's homemade ice cream and sherbert is the absolute bomb. Anytime Doug is the run director, he makes different flavors. Never a dull run when Doug is around.

TTR Tortolita Mountains Run

Tricia showed up, or I would have been the only gal!

Distance: 14.66 miles
Elevation gain: 2,910 feet
Time: 3:32

This is a hard run. Up Wild Burro, around Wild Mustang, up Alamo Springs, down Wild Burro. Tortolita mountains have a lot of 'step ups/step downs' which are tiring. I always feel slow on that type of terrain.

Pretty uneventful run, but it is pretty out there. Quite a few decaying saguaros, maybe from the cold snap last winter? Dallas got off course, came in an hour and 20 minutes after me. He probably ran 20+ miles.  I was worried that he may have fallen out there and was hurt. So relieved when he showed up.

Lot of running at Tucson Mountain Park

Love running with my best friend.

Dallas and I have been running a LOT out at Tucson Mountain Park. Over the holidays, we did two runs - a 10 mile and a 12.5 mile. Since there was no run scheduled with TTR, we decided to head back out there again. Good place to get a lot of runnable miles. I'll need that with Pemberton and Old Pueblo coming up.

We started at Gates Pass -  Yetman TH. We took that to the Golden Gate intersection and ran Golden Gate trail. New trail out there for me.

Lots of cholla cactus on the Golden Gate trail and nice singletrack. A little climb on the way back.

We then ran Yetman trail and then looped around on Starr Pass trail (on the Kinney Rd. side).

Next - down 36th St. trail. Cool saguaro cactus 'alley' on this trail. Don't believe the sign - it says .9 miles and it is about 2 miles to the TH.

Dallas is the quintessential 'forefoot' runner

We also ran out and back to Starr Pass TH. We found out later that Outside magazine was doing mountain bike testing out there. When we reached the Starr Pass TH, there was a U-Haul unloading a pile of mountain bikes. Luckily, we got out of there and back on Yetman before they got going.

Heading back up to Gates Pass at the end kind of sucked - very rocky uphill and then rocky downhill. We got 'er done, though!

Yeah, one time in 100, I get ahead of Dallas.

22 miles in 5:16. Slow, but we hit some rocky sections with some climbs. We had 25 minutes of 'non-moving time' on the Garmin - we took a few breaks. 2,400 feet of elevation gain - not bad for Tucson Mountain Park.

This place is where I practiced learning how to trail run. One of my favorite places.

Beyond...

This was an event to commemorate the January 8th, 2011 shootings. A day to get people out, enjoying the outdoors with the community we love so much. A positive reaction to a horrible day. A tribute to the people lost and injured.

TTR participated with SAR to put on free trail runs at Sabino Canyon today.

I met up with Tricia, who I haven't seen since the trail races I used to do out at the Tortolitas. It was so awesome to see her again! I was dressed pretty warm - I arrived at 6:30am, and I knew it would be several hours before I started running.

We swept the 7 Falls distance together.

Above 7 Falls pool

I really enjoyed running with Tricia. We talked the whole time. It was great!

I enjoyed hanging out with all of the new faces and TTR members, who came out to run and volunteer.

TTR rocks!

It went really well and I think everyone had a good time. We had 4 people not check in from Bear Canyon Loop - uh oh. Before calling search and rescue, we were able to get their phone number or email address from the sign in and within the hour or so, all reported back that they were home and fine. Whew.

My heart goes out to my friend Ross, who is going through probably the worst year of his life. He has been grieving the loss of his son Gabe, who was tragically killed on January 8th. Out of the grief came *Beyond*. Ross and his family established the Tucson Trails Tribute fund, which put on the event.

Ross, thank you for this day of celebrating life with those around us. We were with you and your family in spirit today and love you very much.

Happy New Year!

Ended 2011 with a Ride and Tie on 12/31/11...

Check out my crazy socks.

Two 5 mile loops at Fantasy Island. One mountain bike, two people. Kathy and I were a team - there were about 8 teams. Kathy is a hoot.

She took off on the bike and I ran.

We switched about every 5 minutes. She'd put down the bike after 5 minutes and start running, and I would run to the bike, start riding, pass her, drop the bike, and so on. It was fun.



Kathy on 'our' bike

We also had to carry stuffed animals around for extra points. After the first loop, you could down prune juice and other sugary junk for extra points (time deductions). I like prune juice, so I did it. Luckily, no problems as a result.

What a fun time! Big thanks to my friend Shari for the invite!

Started New Year's Day of 2012 with a TTR Wasson Peak run! 14.6 miles in 3:13. Beat my prior time of 3:26 from 2010.

On top of Wasson - 4,686 feet high

It was really windy on top

Good to see Dallas at the end - he was way faster than me.

We do a figure 8 - up Sendero/Esperanza, across the saddle, down King Canyon, up to Wasson, down Hugh Norris. 3,027 feet of elevation gain. I was tired heading up, so I was fairly slow, but I made up time going down.

Got in 63 miles this week. 25 mile trail run on Monday (Bear Canyon Loop and Sycamore), 12.5 mile trail run in Tucson Mountain Park on Thursday, 5 miles at the Ride and Tie, almost 15 miles at Wasson Peak and another short 6 mile run mid-week.

I'll cycle down a bit the next week to avoid overdoing it, but I think this is going to be a good year.