Leg#1: The sun was rising over the mountains as we ran down the dirt road. The cactus, the fresh air, the starts replaced by the clear blue sky. It DOES NOT get any better than this! IT was everything I could do to SLOW down to keep on pace. I wanted to go fast. It had been raining days earlier so we had to "ford" three washes on the way down. I am sure a few of the series runners did not like it, I thought it was very cool! It was the straight downhill. We lost about 500 feet over the lap. With the soft dirt and the down hill, I knew I was working my quads but they were OK. At mile 25 I had a different opinion. I held back to a 9:51 pace.

Leg#2: We left the park and ended up on U. S. 60 and that was just fine. Flat, level and still plenty cool so the pavement did not give us any extra heat. There was plenty of water to be had and I had taken two dashes into the bushes by now. "Rural" type runs are great that way. No waiting at portapoties for quick break. The air was still cool and the few fans there were had lots of enerry. This was slight uphill but not too bad. I drifted back up to a 10:10 but that was just fine.

Leg#3: This segment takes us back into the town of Apache Junction. The course is easy to follow, there are folks managing traffic everywhere so we were totally uninterupted and life worked pretty well for the folks who lived there. The course had a lot of ups and downs in this section. The elevation map does not do justice to it. My Garmin shows a net gain of 30 feet, well, there were a lot of ups and down to get that 30 feet. I was feeling good, except my quads were just starting to speak to me, so I moved the pace back to a 9:51 rate to set up for the final leg. It was starting to warm up, I upped my water and Thermalyte a lot here.

Leg #4: Other than my quads, I felt GREAT. I started to drop my pace down to a 9:30 to head in at the 4:20 I was looking for. There were a lot of small ups and downs but the net of the final miles was down so I felt good about it. It was heating up so I kepy my water and thermalyte strong. As I cleared about mile 25 my quads, that were now in pain, realy went off. I was fine on the level but the ups and downs were very rough. It was very frustrating, I was in great shape but every hill up or decline was met by ever slowing pain. So, I just slowed on the ups and downs to keep it comfortable and headed for the finish. As I rounded to corner, I was my bride in her wheelchair, camara in hand, waiting for me. So I starting hooting and jumping up and down for the dropped my pace to a 7:30 for the last two hundred wards to kick some a$$ at the finish.

It felt great! I grabbed my medel then jumped the fence to run back to my bride. Last year, my first marathon, I finished in 5:23, got taken to the medics tent, had to be driven home and puked by the side of the road half way back to Tucson. This time, the jazz was fantastic, what a difference a year makes! We had a great day together with no concerns except a pair of quads that were sore.

When I looked at the poor, pale and trashed looking group finishing with me I can only imagion how I must have looked last year when the paramedics grabed me and took me straight to their tent to check my bloodpressure and if I had any sense left.

I need to do some more downhill training to manage my quads. I overdid them at the start and they told me that at mile 25. Otherwise, not much! I might drink a little more after mile 18 as it got hotter but otherwise it was a great run.

I did get the water, etc. dead on this time. HEED at the start. One Hammer Gel every 30 min. One thermalyte, every 30 at the start, two as it warmed up, extra at the end when it got hot. LOTS of water... recovery drinks at the end... It is really nice when you get the combination right!

For my warmdown we walked around the area a bit, I had an Endurox waiting for me along with a banana and another Odwalla protein drink. They were gone withing 15 min. of my finish. The, off to lunch in Scottsdale, brousing shops in Old Scottsdale for the afternoon then drove back to Tucson that night. Took an easy 1 mile walk this morning to start getting my legs going again today.


My quads... I felt great, had lots of energy and went on with my day.


This is a small, extremely "user friendly" race. I think there were only about 400 total marathoners. So, the pre-race fair is small, the post race fair is small. Both "below average", but in the scope of convenience and overall experience. Who cares!? I don't buy much at race shows and I never stay for the band. Unless I am knee deep in HIM training, I will do this race again next year!