Beyond Tucson

This past Sunday marked the 1 year anniversary of the Jan. 8th Tucson shooting.

It was a terrible tragedy that shook the whole Tucson community.

Beyond Tucson was a series of events that celebrated the spirit of community and the idea that we will work together to become stronger every day.

There were a few "main" events (at Reid Park, Kino Stadium, and Tucson Medical Center) and a ton of smaller events around town. One of the victims, Gabe Zimmerman, was a avid hiker and runner (also a member of the Tucson Trail Runners - TTR) as well as an aide to Gabrielle Giffords. A trail was named in his honor and a few events were hikes and trail runs. 

The Tucson Trail Runners (Partnered with SAR, Southern Arizona Roadrunners) had a event at Sabino Canyon on Saturday morning. There were 3 options for running: up the road to the beginning of the 7 Falls trailhead, to 7 Falls, and the full Bear Canyon loop. 

Since I convinced Chance and my friend Laura to go, we opted for the shortest run (about 4 miles). 

TTR runners introducing the event.

Lining up to run the different distances.

  The farthest line is the full Bear Canyon Loop. Apparently, there was an issue (as I read later on the TTR google group) with some runners having never run with TTR before. They didn't sign in when they got back so TTR thought they were still out there on the trail! O_O

I would have been freaked out. Please, please, if you run with a new group understand their rules so that they won't send a search team out for you! The 3 runners were apparently at home, without a clue.

Laura and myself, about to run! :)

I think I convinced Laura to run the Mt. Lemmon Half Marathon with me in April. So, I may have a new running buddy!  *fingers crossed*

A beautiful day! The shortest distance was along this road to the trailhead. 

We went fairly slow (considering I haven't run in awhile) but tried to push ourselves at certain points. 

We arrived at the trailhead to 7 Falls quicker than I thought. Chance was waiting for us (he took off awhile ago because we were talking about girl stuff lol). I tried to convince them that we should run along the 7 Falls trail for a bit (that's the distance I really wanted to do) but they were not having it. Laura wanted to wait for her mom and Chance wanted to go back home and relax. 

Oh well, it was still a beautiful day for running. Glad I got to experience it. And I got a little trail running in at the end. :)

We ran back along this trail to the parking lot.

So many saguaros! Beautiful!

It is so nice this time of year in the Southwest!

Since I start school tomorrow, I want to take full advantage of the beautiful weather and head back out to Sabino Canyon today to run along the 7 Falls trail.

It's turning out to be a great year!