Sabino Canyon

Yesterday we ran the beautiful Sabino Canyon. Sabino Canyon has got to be one of my favorite places to run. It's only 7.4 miles, so it's a good distance, but it's hilly making it a challenge. It's also nice that we don't have to worry about cars (only the occasional tram), and cyclists have limited hours, meaning we don't need to dodge them. And, it's beautiful!! Yesterday it seemed extra pretty. All the trees are getting their new leaves, and springtime leaves in Tucson are extra bright green. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Sadly it's a 40-45 minute drive, and a BEAST with a jogging stroller (900+ feet elevation gain, wowzers). But, since James had the day off and wouldn't be going all the way to the top (thank you, tendinitis), he could take Zack and the stroller and head back down while I huffed and puffed all the way to the top.

When I got to the top I was remembering back to the last time we ran the whole thing. We met with one of James' co-workers on a Saturday morning in September of 2009. It was a horrible, horrible run for me. I kept making us walk and had no idea why I was dragging so badly. Two days later we found out I was pregnant. Suddenly it made sense, why I slowed us down so badly. It was the beginning of my child sucking all of the energy out of me, and one of the last runs I did for almost a year. Zack still does require a lot of my energy, but not 100%, more like 99.3%.

James and I are sometimes a bit competitive. Not so much with/against one another, but against the clock. We always want to set a new fastest time. Our fastest time to date was 1h25m. Yesterday we finished in 1h16m. Speedy Gonzalez, for sure. Maybe we were so much faster because no one stopped me to ask me if I was training for the Olympics (true story, it happened once while running Sabino!) or because there was no water on the road (this brings back visions of James tip-toeing across the water with ziploc bags on his feet, and then him hopping across the water yelling about wet feet, haha). Or maybe it was because there weren't any snakes stretched out across the road, ewwwwwww. Perhaps it has something to do with the 2 half marathons I've ran since December. 7.4 miles is easy compared to a half!

I am looking forward to my running buddy getting back from vacation (seriously, who needs to take their kids to DisneyLand?!) so we can go on our Friday runs together for a little while longer before it gets too hot. Then we will be stuck on the treadmill (boooooooooring) for the summer, or running at 6am, which is a bit on the early side (remember that little boy who's sucking 99.3% of my energy out of me???). Gotta love Tucson!