Skip to main content

El Tour de Tucson Race Recap

We only have about 6 months left in Tucson, so I am really trying to "soak it up" before we say goodbye. With that, I decided to participate in one of the biggest events in Tucson this year: The "El Tour"

On November 22, I did the El Tour de Tucson with my friend Amanda. We were actually sponsored by her uncle's bike shipping coming - ShipBike . We got our full race entry paid for AND jerseys! And I will say -- it is a really cool company. For cyclists/triathletes who travel around the country, they have a specially engineered box that will ship the bike to your race destination.

Since we were "Team Shipbike", our motto during the race went along with the company. "Let's get our goods from start to finish undamaged and in 1 piece" ;).

This is one of the biggest cycling races in the country -- as Tucson has amazing climate, and it's one of the biggest cycling destinations in the US. The race was beautiful - mountain views the entire time. Weather was in the 50-70 degrees. Couldn't have asked for a better day!

We did the 75, and had a blast the entire time! Thousands of Tucsonans come out to support the riders, so it's just a blast! Great energy.

Here are a few pictures :) I don't have any photos mid-race, since they are all blacked out by "marathonphoto.com" ;)



Here we are pre-race!

And post-race. I'm impressed that I'm still hugging on and respecting my bike at this point. After 75 miles, I kind of wanted to kick it ;) 

The most challenging part of this race was the pain in my bottom! We finished in great time, though! So I am proud. There was a 1/2 mile spot where you had to pick up and carry your bike through a wash (dried up river, for those not familiar with the desert).

I'm kind of bummed I didn't do it the other 6 years we lived here. But maybe some day we can travel back to visit, and I can participate again! 

Comments

Lisa's Yarns said…
Way to go, Abs! That is a lot of miles on the bike so I can see why your behind was so sore!! The longest I have rode is 32 miles, I think. I definitely need a different bike if I want to bike longer than that but I can't stomach the thought of buying another one anytime soon so I guess I will stick with what I have for now! I am glad you got to experience this while you are in Tucson!!!

Popular posts from this blog

Currently - May edition

   I haven't blogged much - but the last time I did one of these, Maddy was 9 months old. It's really fun looking back on the things that were "stressors" to me at that time. Prior to that - my currently post was a pregnancy edition.  So here goes May 2022. Maddy is almost a 15-month old and summer has set ablaze here in Tucson.   Reading :  I really wish I had a better answer for this one, but I have not been the best about reading lately. The only book I'm reading is "How to talk to your kids so they'll listen and listen so they'll talk". It is really good. Most of the book is geared more to school-aged kids, in my opinion. But it highlights some great communication skills with children to help them trust you as a parent to be open and honest. Eating: All the smoothies. It has been getting really hot here - and every day when we get home from our stroller run I make a smoothie for Maddy with whole milk, Fage, and fruit - and then a smoothie for...

One Confused Lady

Yesterday morning was packed with a session of cross training.....rushed home to shower and get professional-looking....headed across town for an interview.....kicked butt at my interview...."bopped" over to our house to see the progress of the build......headed to the "design center" to sign more paperwork.... (Side note: I cannot get over just how much paperwork is involved in building a house. Holy Hannah. And we haven't even closed !!! Iy-yi-yi....Those lovely people in history who got law-suit-happy.....God bless 'em.) Yesterday was a good day! So here's a little humor for your Thursday. A little thought. A little depth.....( A little cynical rant ) Afterwards, I decided to head to one of my favorite places to peruse.... Target. But my experience at Target was far from fun, relaxing, or pleasant. Just confusing. Loud. Crazy. Despite many screaming children-temper tantrums.... Which is common and un-escapable. Although screaming chi...

A weekend of the great outdoors

As I am preparing for my return to the real world tomorrow, I feel a strong sense of dread. As I won't have a weekend or free week for a long while! Instead of focusing on that.......I'm sharing a few snapshots from our awesome weekend! This weekend we were in Big Lake, AZ -- which is about 20 miles from the New Mexico border (just 5 1/2 hours from our house). (last weekend we were in Parker Canyon...which I will blog about another day) We camped from Friday-Monday, which was the perfect length of time. The temperatures were a great escape from hot Tucson. In fact...it was VERY cold at night. It was in the low 30's at night, 60's during the day. The trout fishing was incredible. Here's a few snapshots: Home Sweet Home for the weekend! Look at the giant tree I cut down!!! Wow!! (Okay, this was posed...) But...Ryan did teach me how to use a wood-saw! There were tons of dead/fallen trees lying around. So we cut all our firewood for the weekend! I felt very ...