ARR Rio Vista Luck of the Draw

I ran the 3rd Annual Rio Vista Luck of the Draw 8k on Sunday, May 10. The race was well-organized by the Arizona Road Racers club. Unfortunately since I’m horrible at committing to races (being the first to sign up for the Fireside at Norterra Adventure Run was a complete fluke), I couldn’t take advantage of my ARR membership to get a discount on the race. Race day registration was $25. Instead of a t-shirt, we received a participant medal. I thought it was a little weird getting the “medal” when I registered instead of after finishing the race. Participants also got a discount coupon ($10 off a $20 order) for Buca di Beppo, who seemed to be a major race sponsor.

The race was at Rio Vista Park in Peoria. The park facilities were very nice with plenty of parking, a group ramada area, and clean bathrooms. The 8k course was different than the 5k course that I vaguely remember from last year’s ARR Summer Series #3 race. For the 8k we started off running south along the edge of the park, and I think for the 5k we ran north. There’s a course map on the ARR website.

The 8k started at 7:30am and there was also a 2 mile fun run that started 15 minutes later. I don’t have a lot to say about the run itself. With only about 150 participants there was plenty of room and I just settled in to run at my own pace. I managed a 10 minute pace for the first three miles, then ended up slowing for the last two miles. There were a couple small hills, but overall the course was pretty flat.

After crossing the finish line, every participant was handed a playing card which was our ticket to a possible door prize. The post-race refreshments were handed out in pre-packaged brown paper lunch bags with a choice of an apple or banana. The other items in the bag were Pringles, a Nature Valley granola bar, a slice of raisin bread, and Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. The bags made it easy to grab and go (no waiting in line for food), but I think I prefer being able to select my own snack.

Awards were presented at 9am, then it was time for the door prizes. So the fun thing about the race was that door prizes were given away, as the name of the event implies, by the luck of the draw. For each prize, a playing card was drawn. Everyone who had that card came up to the front, and then they drew another card from the deck, with the high card winning the prize. The door prizes were pretty awesome. The ones I remember are: two prizes worth $100 at Buca di Beppo, $25 at Texas Roadhouse, $20 at Sprouts, and a free meal for two at Sweet Tomatoes. Unfortunately the five of spades wasn’t a winning card for me that day.

I’ve enjoyed all the ARR events I’ve been to and this race was no exception. Assuming I’m not busy, I’ll be back next year to try my luck again.

Kids Camp USA 5K

Note to self – Never plan a get together celebration dinner party thing the night before you have to get up early for a morning race. This is particularly true when the party crowd happens to be Belly Dancers.

Kimberly and I ran in the Kids Camp USA 5K race this weekend. Considering with the above mentioned get together at our house we both ended up with about 3 hours or less sleep, I think we did pretty good. Heck, we did good just getting up at 5:40 seeing our heads didn’t even see a pillow until after 1:00.

Anyway, enough of the complaining (err excuses), we had a great time both at the race and of course with the friends at the get-together. Kids Camp USA seems a great cause. We of course found the race, then found the group behind it. Kids Camp sponsors various events for young ones such as (what this event was supporting) a camping trip to Apache Lake for 100 plus kids. There is no criteria per se for the kids to attend, just youngin’s in need of some adult support for a good time. They really seem like a good group and we will for sure see what we can do to help ongoing.

The 5K was at Thunderbird Paseo Park. One of our favorite venues as it is fairly close to home, is in the SPR canal, and makes for a good out and back track. A couple mini hills up on the course but nothing drastic. The event was run by Arizona Running Events Company and as always, good folks who make these small races as professional and fun as possible.

The race itself was fairly typical, although it ended up being a tad short for a 5K. My Garmin showed 2.8 miles and in fact when they posted the Results they listed it as 2.8. While I do look down on occasion at my Garmin timing watch, I had not for the last mile or so. You can imagine my surprise seeing as I was coming up to the finish line and seeing a little over 19 minutes (I'm not that fast in a 5K)!

Again with the qualifiers, the Mrs. and I had good runs. I think I felt as rough as I have during a run for quite some time, but still managed to come in 8th overall (19:30) though I was 4th in my age group (dang old guys need to stay home :-) ). Kimberly took home the “Bling” for the family with a 3rd place metal in her age group. I told she was a rock star – 3 hours sleep and still getting in on the metal action!

After enjoying the post race festivities and grabbing the metal, we hung out and did another 7-8 miles or so in the canal – got to keep up with those long runs you know. And of course, as always, there was a Sunday nap…

Pioneer Days 5k

Johnny E. Osuna Memorial Park

April 4, 2009 @ 8 AM

Peoria, AZ

If you like to run and go to a festival, here's another one right in "Old town Peoria".

Entertainment, a parade, craft vendors, historical tours, games, make-n-take crafts, pony rides, a petting zoo and more is what the town website says.

The races is run by RunningMasters.

Here's some info on the festival.

April 2009 Races

ARR Thanksgiving Classic 5k

Race Report: ARR Thanksgiving Classic 5k by Chad Sayban.


At 5am, long before the break of dawn, I awoke to the sound of heavy rain and lightning. Oooff. Not exactly the conditions I was hoping for. But after 12 years of living in the desert, I have learned that storms have a way of ending abruptly here. Besides, I was going to run the race in anything short of the aforementioned lightning and I figured it wouldn't last long. It were still three hours until the start.

After a quick shower, I dressed in several layers of gear. I wasn't sure what the conditions would be so I wanted to be prepared for whatever nature would throw at me. I ate a Clif Bar and a bottle of Gatorade and headed out into the wet morning.

It rained some on the way to the Peoria Sports Complex, but by the time I got there it had stopped. In fact, as I got out of the car, there were broken clouds overhead and clearing skies to the west. The weather looked promising.

The race includes a 10-mile, a 5k and a 1-mile walk and has been around for more than 30 years, so it draws a big crowd. One of the great parts about having it at one of the spring training stadiums is that there is plenty of parking and full use of the stadium bathrooms. No porta potties needed at this race. I collected my race number, chip and t-shirt and headed back to my car. I had my race singlet, shorts, gloves and arm warmers as I began my warmup. I ran a mile and stretched. By the time I finished, I realized that I wasn't going to need anything other than the singlet and shorts. It was in the mid-50s and plenty warm enough. In fact, it was just about perfect with very little breeze. The 10-milers were sent off at 8 sharp and I did some strides during the 15-minutes before our start.

The race


The gap across the starting mat was pretty narrow with such a large crowd of runners (632 finishers), but it opened up onto a wide road. I staged myself near the front to get through it quickly and then went wide and found my pace. The first half mile is on one of the roads leading into the main complex and then out briefly to 75th Avenue. New this year, the 5k route didn't follow the 10-mile along the paved path. Instead, it turned and run along the packed dirt next to the canal. Fortunately, the rain hadn't made it too soft. We probably lost a little time on this mile and a half long stretch, but not too much. I knew I was pushing a pretty fast pace for my current fitness as I hit the first mile mark.


Mile 1: 7:27


Yep, even faster than my fastest quarter mile intervals to date. I knew I couldn't hold this pace the whole way, especially since I knew we had a gradual uphill waiting on the way back. We had a small pack of runners at the turnaround, but I ended up in front of all of them. I don't know if I have some special talent for getting back up to speed faster than other runners, but this seems to happen whenever there is a change of direction in a race (see my last race report where I left a large group behind at the top of a steep hill.) We headed back and I saw the huge groups of people still headed towards the turnaround. I wanted to make sure they all remained comfortably behind me.


Mile 2: 7:43


I knew I had slowed from the first mile pace, but I ended up slowing a bit more than I anticipated. I was still under what I needed to hit my goal of sub-24 minutes, but it was closing up quickly and I was now fighting to maintain as we came back out on to the pavement. There were two runners who were passing others right in front of me and I mentally latched on to them, letting them pull me along. I would eventually pass them both near the end, but for now I was happy to let them drag me towards the finish. It was at this point that we began the long circle around the stadium, which includes about a half mile of steady incline. I dug down and tried to find whatever was left to maintain pace. I passed a bunch of fading runners as I spotted the 3-mile marker and accelerated.


Mile 3: 7:52


I passed my two leaders and a couple of others who couldn't respond to my late surge. As I came up on the finish, there were a few of the 1-mile walkers. Right at the line one of them decided to cut right across in front of me and I nearly wiped out both of us on the slick pavement. Fortunately, I tap danced past her and finished.


Mile 3.1: :43


Official Race Time: 23:46 (7:39 pace)
104 out of 632, 10 out of 39 in AG


In all, a really good race for me. I don't think I could have done anything more with my current fitness. The average pace for 3.1mile was the same as my interval pace for 1/4 miles a week before. I will get faster. I have a solid training plan and as I continue to lose weight, my speed will increase and my fitness will get better.

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April 2009 Races

Learning For Life 10k

Race: Learning For Life 10K (Peoria, AZ) by Mike Miller
Friday, November 14th, 2008

For those who maybe didn’t know, Kimberly has been training very hard over the last few months for her upcoming PF Chang Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon. The event is getting very close now and her run schedule is ‘amping up’. As part of her training she works with a team up at our Country Club that all practice and train together. This week for one of their training runs they decided to all do an organized event together. Seeing it was local and on a Saturday morning, I decided to participate as well.
The event called Learning for Life has a 10K and a 5K. We did the 10K because the Arrowhead group was looking for about that many miles today. It’s a great smaller event that is focused on supporting youth groups. A lot of the adult runners seemed to be local police and fire officers (as it was also part of the event). In fact, Kimberly ended up running a big part of the race just behind the local SWAT team.
We had a great time. It was right up the way from us at the Peoria Stadium where the MLB players do spring training. The course ran along 83rd street to the viaduct, down past 75th a little then back for the 6.2 miles. After the run they had a magician and other activities for the participants. I got Kimberly a charity Police Bear.
For the first time of any run we have done together Kimberly and I both got a medal. I came in 6th overall and second in my age group a little over 49 minutes. Kimberly was FIRST in her age group! This was of course something she pointed out to me a few times… . Then again, I had to remind her that this was my second top 10 overall in the last 3 races!