Sabino Canyon Splashing
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
Tim Bentley runs through the water at Sabino Canyon last year.
Updated January 12, 2011: President Obama referenced Christina Taylor Green in his speech this evening in Tucson. He noted that she had been given this advice as a baby featured in a 9/11 book: ‘I hope you jump in rain puddles’. I wholeheartedly agree.
July 2009
Runners in Tucson and southern Arizona are blessed with one of the most beautiful areas in the world to run and train. Sabino Canyon is undoubtedly the tops in the area, if not one of the Top 10 places in the country. This 7.4 mile, round-trip, paved road meanders its way up rolling hills and across eight bridges affording you great views of Tucson and foothills of the Catalina Mountains. In the high monsoon season these bridges will be overflowing with water, making for a nice evaporative cooler effect.
Running through the water on Sabino’s bridges not only cools you down, but it’ll take you back to your childhood when puddle splashing was pure joy. In high school we used to run the Canyon, literally racing from bridge to bridge, vying to be the 1st in line to splash those behind us. Looking back it was a great fartlek workout, literally ‘speed play’ in Swedish. Who knew that playing in the water would work wonders come race day?
There are many things you can do to ‘play’ and cover a lot of miles while you are running. When running in a group, run single file with the last person in line moving up to first and taking the lead at their desired pace. Each subsequent runner does the same in 2 – 4 minute intervals. Running by yourself, or with a friend? Count the number of red convertibles that you see, or on a trail run, see if you can spot our desert neighbors such as rabbits, lizards or the elusive roadrunner. Keep score in a journal or log and before you know it, you’ve run the miles and had a great time along the way. Hopefully a mountain lion doesn’t make your scorecard…
Running Man doesn't know whether to be scared or feed the 'high' mountain lions in Sabino Canyon.
Unfortunately, the water wasn’t flowing this past Saturday, so I couldn’t surprise my fellow runners with a splash off. Although, water must’ve been on the mind of fellow Soggy Wogger, Pete McNellis. About a mile from the Visitor Center he broke into ‘Beach Baby” by The First Class. While not quite the speed variation Gösta Holmér intended when he invented Fartlek, Pete’s singing (or lack thereof) provided us with plenty of reasons to pick up the pace and vie to be 1st to the finish.
Another way to make the miles go by…
Looking for different ways to make your running go by easier and mean something at the same time? How about this group I see in the Canyon almost every time I’m there – Team In Training. A dedicated group of 25 runners are training to raise money and awareness for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Preparing for the October Nike Marathon in San Francisco and the January PF Chang’s Marathon in Phoenix, they were doing 8-10 miles in the canyon, meaning that some were running parts of the hilly road twice. Coaches Ashley Fitzharris and Rick Karl have successfully guided many groups to a successful first marathon, oh and they’ll raise about $100,000 along the way. Check them out at their website.
