A cold early morning start.
Having been introduced to trail running much later in my life and finding such happiness in the endeavor & the community alike, I wanted to make sure my kids got exposure to it much sooner. We had gone out for a few hikes in the past and my daughter, Tenli, ran her first 5k on her 8th birthday at the Marana 5000 this past March, but we really hadn’t yet ventured too much onto the trails. On one of our more recent hikes up towards Romero Pools both of my kids did in fact run a little bit of the singletrack section. Just seeing their natural desire to run the rocky trail was really cool.
After her successful first race Tenli wanted to do another race and my son, Chase, also wanted to give it a try this time. He’s about 2 1/2 years younger and just turned 6 in late August. Since they both wanted to do a race I suggested one option might be the Everyone Runs Split Endz 5.2 mile trail race at Catalina State Park on September 25th. The timing worked well in that they both had enough time to get a little bit of modest training in beforehand and Catalina State Park is very close to our house in Oro Valley. Knowing about my adventures on the trail they both eagerly agreed that would be a fun race, so we signed them up! Angela decided fairly late to do the 10.3 mile race although she’d be coming off a long 22 mile training run the day prior.
Like father like son!
Armed with a race date on the calendar they began their training, albeit begrudgingly on some days, and before long the race day was upon us. We’d run the course in pieces during the training and I’d made sure to point out any turns & junctions as we went along but we’d never run the entire thing as a whole. The plan was that I’d run with Chase since it was his first race and Tenli would run it on her own this time after having had me pace her during the 5k. She really sandbags it in training while Chase often runs pretty strong, so I wasn’t sure if she’d be running in front of us or behind us honestly. Pacing for this race was difficult because the longest run they’d done continuously was a bit over 4 miles and we didn’t run too often on the trails during training simply due to time constraints/darkness. The race starts on the Birding Loop for 1 mile before transitioning to the Canyon Loop for about 3 miles, and then finishes on the Nature Loop for about a mile. There are a few steep, short hills, some gradual inclines, and a variety of footing but mostly it’s fairly sandy.
All of this led to us starting towards the back of the pack, which in a singletrack trail race like this means a conga line formed quickly in front of us. On the Birding Loop we actually came to a full stop a couple of times. This didn’t bother me as I wanted them to go out patiently and not blow up early. Chase though wasn’t used to having to wait behind people and started going around them on the side/off trail. He was so small that it actually was fairly easy for him but I had to reign him in a bit. That first mile was pretty slow at 14:25 (GPS watch shows 13:16 moving time – yeah, it got backed up) but that was totally fine with me. Tenli was just in front of us after that first mile but she started then picking up her pace when the course opened up to doubletrack. We powerhiked most of the hill that begins the Canyon Loop when you head counterclockwise and before long Tenli was out of sight. I only hoped she would pace herself enough so she had a pleasant experience.
Tenli cruising along to her age group win.
Chase meanwhile kept chugging along as we passed more and more people who had started out too fast. Our second mile split was 12:11 and the third was 11:56. He seemed to be running very comfortably but his little legs still had a long way to go. We had passed Tenli as she went the other direction on a short out & back section around the 2 mile mark and she looked great. People were commenting constantly all day long about how impressed they were with both Tenli & Chase. It was certainly a proud dad moment hearing all those great compliments. About this time we saw Manny Ochoa, a fellow TTR runner, come by us on his second loop of the 10.3 mile race that started a little earlier, holding a pretty sizable lead.
Chase kept up his consistent effort through the remainder of the Canyon Loop, logging a 12:12 4th mile before hitting the last steep hill of the day up the beginning of the Nature Loop. We again powerhiked most of this section as I didn’t want him wearing down trying to run something too steep. That last loop of singletrack I was telling him to finally let go a bit and push the pace as much as he wanted. He appeared to finally be struggling a bit, although he kept saying he felt good. This 5th mile he completed in 12:23 before running back down that steep hill and along the main road towards the finish line. He definitely had a really solid sprint left in his legs that last almost three tenths of a mile. I had to really extend my stride to keep up as we crossed the finish line moving at a sub 7:00/mile pace.
A great day for everyone!
Tenli was waiting for us at the finish line, having finished the race with a chip time of 59:48 in 94th place out of 194 finishers. Officially that translates to a 11:30/mile pace which was really good considering how slow the first mile turned out to be. She was picking people off all race long which is always a great feeling for a runner. Chase and I ended up with a chip time of 1:05:38 and in 127th & 128th place out of those same 194 finishers. That also is super impressive to me for his first official race. By no means is this a super easy course with the sandy conditions and there is a total of about 380 feet of elevation gain throughout so it’s also not flat like many road races. I really couldn’t be any prouder of their accomplishments. Just to see them both give their best efforts and enjoy the day was great. The fact that they both won their age groups (Chase was 1 of 1 and Tenli was 1 of 2) and received medals was probably more satisfying to them of course. Their determination to run the entire thing (except the hills I told them to walk) really showed their grit. Passing full grown adults also gave them motivation and I hope some of the lessons they’ve learned carry over into other aspects of their lives.
Overall it was a great day! Angela ended up finishing 3rd in her age group with a huge race PR even after the long effort the day before & a nagging injury. My dad had jumped into the race fairly late as well and finished 3rd in his age group (although behind Tenli). Plus some friends of ours also finished extremely well. Manny ended up winning the 10.3 mile race and our good friend Julio Garcia placed 2nd overall in the 5.2 miler.
Chase has since been wearing his overly large race finisher’s shirt at every opportunity he gets. I look forward to the next time they want to tackle another race! For some reason Chase is insistent on wanting to do a 7 mile race. Not sure why he picked that odd distance but maybe the Sabino Sunset run is in his future.
