A Remembrance Run was held January 10, 2011 at the weekly Meet Me At Maynards.

Like you, I’m in shock.  The tragic events of Saturday, January 8, 2011 swept over me in wave after wave of anger, disbelief, horror, sadness and grief.  How could something like this happen?

By now, everyone knows that Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot at a community event this past weekend.  Six people lost their lives.  A young girl, a federal judge, a church volunteer.  Gone. People we knew, friends, or friends of friends had their lives changed forever in just twenty seconds.

It was surreal watching the news that day.  It was national news, covered by every major news network.  These were events unfolding in our backyard, but here it is on MSNBC, FOX and CNN.  We’ve all been to that Safeway, driven through that intersection and complained about the traffic.  We’ve just never seen it from that angle, from a helicopter, on national TV.

Facebook, twitter, email and text were exploding with updates.  I suppose I was like everyone else skipping between channels, checking the internet, following Facebook and other online sites.  I too did the mental check down – “where are my loved ones today?”  I cried when they announced Gabby had died.  Cried again when they announced she wasn’t.  I grew angry at the conflicting reports.  With a journalism background, I was frustrated with the urge of the outlets to to be first with breaking news, even if first meant you were wrong.

Gabby is a friend of mine. I’ve known her from before her political career and am proud to call her a friend.  During this process it has been both staggering and awesome to count the number of people she has touched in our community.  The number of friends she has is inspiring.

Gabe Zimmerman, Gabby’s Director of Community Outreach, lost his life that day as well.  This hit closer to home in my circle of friends.  You see, Gabe was a runner.  He recently completed the Mount

Gabe Zimmerman finishes the Mount Lemmon Half-Marathon in October 2010.

 Lemmon Half Marathon and his dad was the leader of the Tucson Trail Runners.  He came from a family of runners and was well known in our running family.  We are in shock and utter sadness.

I’m angry.  My sense that day was to do something, to help.  As a board member of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners, we have a simple mission to promote running and healthy lifestyles in our community.  We put on races and sponsor running and walking events. My friend and running mentor, Randy Accetta struck on a simple idea: We can turn our mission to a good use.  We can promote healing in our community and continue to share the positive attributes that make our community great.  We’ve seen it, people coming together to promote healthy lifestyles, to make themselves and their city better.

We will promote that healing process tonight at the weekly Meet Me At Maynard’s.  A Remembrance Run in memory of those that lost their lives, honoring those that are still fighting and celebrating what is good in Tucson. Tonight we will remember so that we never forget.

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.

This is our running team in Tucson – The Slow Old Goats, a subsidiary of The Workout Group.  Many have tried, but it’s not easy to qualify for the Goat squad. There are three criteria:    

• You must be SLOW
• You must be OLD (over 40)
• You must be a GOAT

We will consider 2 out of 3, because we do have some on our team that are obviously not Slow, but they are Old Goats. We even bumped a guy up from the JV team (he’s 39), because he almost forgot his anniversary to go running, thereby proving that he is a Goat and well on his way to being Old.

We’re thinking of branching out too. The women’s team will now be known as The Nanny Goats, while those that do not meet the OLD criteria will be relegated to The Billy Goats (because they’re just kids anyway…).

You must also have a sense of humor, obviously.

Go to any local race and you’re sure to see The Grinders, The Workout Group (WOGGERS), Blue Pants Racing, and a host of other racing teams toeing the line. Why the uniforms, why the team names when we’re not really racing for a team prize?  Maybe they’re like me, being on a team or part of a group makes running easier – having teammates that understand the effort it takes to stay motivated and train goes a long way.  Maybe being on a team or group is fun because, even deep down, it appeals to our desire to be a part of something bigger, even in this individual of all sports. 

The Goats (aka The Soggy Woggers) is our team.  Slogan – We may be OLD, but we’re SLOW…