Catalina State Park Trail Race

Last Saturday I raced in the Catalina State Park Trail race, which happens to be my favorite race that Tucson holds. It's not a huge race. There are about 300 people total. But it has breath-taking views, great support, and it's quite the challenge!

The route is a 10.2 10.5 miles (according to MY Garmin) race. There are 2 loops that you complete. Within the loop, there is a 92 stair climb. While running on trail, you're pretty much running on sand the entire time. Which is not easy! You pretty much suck wind the while 10+ miles.

The views are just incredible, though!

I did this race last year, and happened to place 1st in my age group, so I felt pretty serious about "defending my title". (another perk to a smaller race. Placing!!) I'm not elitist.

After I did last year's race, I got motivated to become a better trail runner. So I really started incorporating it into my workout plans.

And I definitely beat my time, but didn't do as well in terms of rank as last year!


Last year's results: Time: 1:39:16.  7th overall women. 1st in my age group
This year's results: Time: 1:31:48.  9th overall women.  1st in my age group

I had so much fun, and just smiled ear to ear the whole time. I did the race with a few other friends. By mile 3, another runner and I realized we were about the same pace - so we ran the rest of the race together. I was planning on trying to convert her to our running group, but unfortunately she lives in California!

Here are a few photos from the race:

Here is a picture of one of the water crossings and stairs we had to climb. I stole this off the Everyone Runs website.

This is an example of the views throughout the whole park! Pretty awesome, huh?

 

This is a photo of some of the "Ragnar crew". We were laughing because all had some form of "Ragnar swag" on at the race. We should get paid by Ragnar for marketing!  

 

 

 

This is a fun shot of me and my friend Amanda, who I work out with most days of the week. She beat me by a few minutes - but she was my "rabbit" during this race!

 

We both walked into this race saying, "let's just take it easy and have fun and not worry about pace" Ha! Everything changed once we crossed the start line. We are kind of competitive....;)

 

After the race we went to a local Mexican restaurant for Bloody Mary's and omelets. It was a great morning, and a fun race! Can't wait to do it next year!