Tucson - First Running Workout - (Posted 1/3/06)
After two days of driving from Austin to Tucson, we arrived at my brother's house yesterday afternoon. We stayed in Fort Stockton Weds night and it was a long night in a crappy hotel. We stopped to visit my Aunt and Uncle in El Paso and to pick up the sacred "asadero" cheese for my Mom. It was nice to see them. We were out of there by 11AM and on to Tucson. We finally hit Tucson around 3PM and my folks were already there. We were really tired so just had some pizza and turned in early.
On Friday morning I woke up at 6:30 so I could meet Michele and Dave Hill for a run around my brother's neighborhood in NW Tucson. The Hills run a group called the "Grinders" and are both very accomplished runners. They are both in their 50s and dominate their age groups in Tucson. Dave is the #1 masters runner in Tucson at 54. Michele missed qualifying for the olympics by a few minutes and Dave's best marathon was a 2:20 after being knocked down in the opening mile in Beijing. They took me on some nice routes as the sun rose in Tucson. I know Austin has a great sunsets, but Tucson has great sunsets and sunrises that no city can touch. They are simply glorious. I digress...anyway, we ran a nice pace and Michele peeled off after about an hour. Dave and I continued on up a really nice ranch road toward the mountains and then back around to a point where Dave turned off and I kept on going back to my brother's home. It turns out Michele had heard about the Gilbert and the Gazelles from a person that trains with the Grinders who used to be a Gazelle...what a small world!
Stats - 9.39 Miles/1:22:18/8:47 pace
Later that day we took the girls to see the University of Arizona campus. It really brought back some memories. We spent way too much in the book store and then headed off to the Sausage Deli for lunch. I used to live at the Sausage Deli when I was in campus and it was really weird eating there with Carla and the girls. The sandwiches were just as fresh and tasty as they were 20 years ago when I first started at the UofA.
We celebrated Dad's 60th birthday a couple of weeks early that evening and we were in bed by 10 since I needed to get up at 6AM to do a speed workout with the Grinders in the morning.
On Friday morning I woke up at 6:30 so I could meet Michele and Dave Hill for a run around my brother's neighborhood in NW Tucson. The Hills run a group called the "Grinders" and are both very accomplished runners. They are both in their 50s and dominate their age groups in Tucson. Dave is the #1 masters runner in Tucson at 54. Michele missed qualifying for the olympics by a few minutes and Dave's best marathon was a 2:20 after being knocked down in the opening mile in Beijing. They took me on some nice routes as the sun rose in Tucson. I know Austin has a great sunsets, but Tucson has great sunsets and sunrises that no city can touch. They are simply glorious. I digress...anyway, we ran a nice pace and Michele peeled off after about an hour. Dave and I continued on up a really nice ranch road toward the mountains and then back around to a point where Dave turned off and I kept on going back to my brother's home. It turns out Michele had heard about the Gilbert and the Gazelles from a person that trains with the Grinders who used to be a Gazelle...what a small world!
Stats - 9.39 Miles/1:22:18/8:47 pace
Later that day we took the girls to see the University of Arizona campus. It really brought back some memories. We spent way too much in the book store and then headed off to the Sausage Deli for lunch. I used to live at the Sausage Deli when I was in campus and it was really weird eating there with Carla and the girls. The sandwiches were just as fresh and tasty as they were 20 years ago when I first started at the UofA.
We celebrated Dad's 60th birthday a couple of weeks early that evening and we were in bed by 10 since I needed to get up at 6AM to do a speed workout with the Grinders in the morning.
posted by Paco at 10:29 PM
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