Where the heck am I?

Oh yeah, I'm at the new starting point for Tucson's half marathon, better known as the middle of NOWHERE! To say that it's isolated is an understatement, but this weekend I made up my mind to run this race, so I can't let a little thing like the starting location get in my way.

The new start line for the race is at Biosphere 2, which was recently sold to a home developer for $50 million. Looks like lots of new homes will going in the area someday! Anyway, it's about 15 miles North of Oro Valley, and about 30 miles North of Tucson. The elevation is almost 3900 feet at the start of the half marathon, and about 4800 feet at the start of the full marathon. For those of us Arizona natives that means cold temperatures; usually high 20's to start off. Brrrrrrr! I'm looking forward to the race because you're out in the middle of the boonies so it's really a relaxing run. All you see are mountains and an occasional cow!

Tucson's full and half marathon are considered fast races because they're downhill, but I haven't found the half to be too rough on my knees yet. When I run I put on my Ipod and zone out as I enjoy views of the Catalina Mountains. The only thing that keeps me going is my music and the thought of eating a huge carb filled breakfast after the run. The biggest obstacle is waiting in the porta potty line with thousands of other runners in the freezing dark. It really gets exciting though when you line up at the starting line; you can just feel energy coming from every direction.

I haven't registered for the race yet. I'm going to run 10 miles this Saturday and if I don't drop afterwards I'll register online. Then all I need to do is get my fuel belt and a fun hat to wear. You'll see all sorts of interesting sites at these races. There's on gentleman that runs barefoot, some runners that wear trash bags to keep warm and others that wear Santa hats. I've got to say true runners are an interesting breed.....