TMC Get Moving Tucson Event:TMC A-Mountain Half-Marathon, Tucson Lifestyle 5k & Cox Charities 1-Mile

Date and Time

Race Day packet pick up and registration from 5:45-6:45 am

TMC A-Mountain Half-Marathon starts at 7:00 am, with an early start for walkers (details on the walk announced soon)

Tucson Lifestyle 5k starts at 7:00 am

Cox Charities and FitKidz Free Mile begins at 7:45 am.  

Race Awards

PRIZE MONEY UPDATE: The 2014 Half-Marathon Announces Possible $3,800 in Prize Money for TMC A-Mountain Half-Marathon with prize money based on times and placing

• $50 to first overall male and $50 to first overall female; $50 to top overall Master's (Over-40) male and female

• $200 to the top 5 males who break 1:11 and to the top 5 females who break 1:26++

• $500 for course records.  Current course records are Scott Smith’s 1:06:23 (2012) and Ariana Hilborn's 1:21:19 (2013)++

• $100 to first male and female member of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners

• Preem award of $200 to first male and female runner to the “A” on Sentinel Peak **

NOTES:

**A-Mountain preem prize money is only given if the A-Mountain leader finishes the complete half-marathon in under 1:30 minutes for the man and 1:40 minutes for the woman

++ Runners who break the course record will not receive the additional $200, but will receive $500

My wife says this is too complicated, but we are trying to reward performance and local running.  So, as an example, if a man wins the race overall in 1:11:01 but is second to the "A" he will get $50.  If the first man to the "A" is also the first member of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners, he will win $300. As another example, if the female winner is a SAR member who is first to the top of the hill while breaking the course record, she will receive $750.  When in doubt, join SAR! 

Age Group Awards: Age Group Under-19 through Over-75 -- courtesy of The Running Shop

TMC A-Mountain Half-Marathon Run

Women's First Place: Printed Mizuno Blaze Warmer Long Sleeve Shirt 

Women's Second Place: Printed Mizuno Aero Short Sleeve 

Women's Third Place: Asics Running Beanie

Men's First Place: Printed Mizuno Aero Tee  + $15 gift certificate to Running Shop

Men's Second Place: Printed Asics Eco-Line Tee 

Men's Third Place: Asics Running Beanie

Tucson Lifestyle 5k Walk/Run

Overall Male and Female receive printed Mizuno hi-tech shirts

Age group in the walk/run to be announced soon . . . 

Training Advice

2014 UPDATED: How to Run the TMC A-Mountain Half, a mile-by-mile description of the race course.  

Miles 1-3 The 5k and Half-Marathon runners will all start together.  The starting line is in front of the historic Pioneer Building on Stone Avenue.  To ensure an accurate and certified course for each race, the course will include a lap of the Downtown library at the very beginning, followed by a straight shot east along Pennington Avenue to Sixth Avenue. 

Runners will head to the east side of Sixth Avenue and drop under the rail tracks via the Sixth Avenue Underpass, before heading north on Sixth Avenue all the way up to Second Street.  Turn right on Second Street and head towards the University of Arizona for a half-mile or so, then turn left on First Avenue and left again on First Street.  This section should be fun – plenty of folks to run with, an easy uphill through the first mile, then mostly flat for a mile, then a very nice downhill all the way through the Sixth Avenue Underpass.

Miles 3-4 Half-Marathoners will go right past the finish line on Church at the Old Court House.  From Court House/Jacome Plaza , north to Sixth and along Sixth to I-10 is all a gentle downhill down towards the Santa Cruz.  Take advantage of this slight drop.  From Sixth/St. Mary’s you’ll turn south on Bonita and have the whole street to yourselves until you hit Congress. Heading west on Congress to the A-Mountain road at Cuesta is a gradual rise - not very noticeable, but still, a bit uphill. You’ll be on the north side of Congress all the way to Cuesta.  Again, be patient on this stretch.

Miles 5-7 Once you turn south on Cuesta, you will begin to notice a bit of an uphill.  OK, it's a bit more than a bit uphill.  Almost the same distance as the famed Saguaro hill, the climb up to the “A” on A-Mountain can be broken into a few sections.  Stay to the right side of the road on this whole stretch.  The first piece through the neighborhoods is gradual, so try to get in a steady rhythm without working too hard.  As you hit the parking lot on the right about a half-mile up the hill, you’ll notice a flattening for a couple of hundreds of yards.  This is a good time to re-assess your pace and shake out your arms a bit.  Then you have a quarter mile of steepness to the split at the top of the mountain, where the Cross Country team from Sahuaro High School will be cheering and handing out water.  

The race route will take you to the right, counter-clockwise, with a gorgeous view of the Starr Pass area to the west and the Santa Rita Mountains to the south.  You can see the sparkling observatories of Kitt Peak and the mountains surrounding Baboquivari Peak. The hill softens a bit as you make the half-mile push for the sparkling white “A.”  There are a couple of false summits as you approach the top, so maintain a steady pace.  We'll have a drone up there taking photos and video, so be sure to smile!

According to mapmyrun.com, the whole climb is about 1.5 miles with a 509 foot elevation gain.  Not that bad, right?  Once you hit the low brick wall marking the parking areas on the east side, you’re almost to the top. Another hundred yards or so, and you level out for a few steps before plunging downhill.  

Miles 7-8 The downhill is probably the hardest part of the course.  Enjoy the pull of gravity, but you’ll want to be careful of running too fast - don’t brake yourself, but don’t overstride too much, either.  Like with the Tucson Marathon, too much too fast will blow out your quads, so be smart on the downhill section.

Miles 9-10 Once you’re off the hill, the half-mile stretch heading east on Congress is pretty easy.  Please stay inside the cones on the south lane of Congress.  You’ll turn south on Grande and stay on the right side of the road all the way down to the bike path entrance just north of 22nd/Starr Pass Blvd. You may be tempted to pick up the pace on this stretch, but it’s probably better to be patient here as you run in the morning sunshine below Sentinel Peak.  When you enter the Santa Cruz River Path at Grande (just north of Starr Pass Blvd), you'll have a water station, a medical tent, and an ambulance at the dirt lot.  At this point you should be in a nice rhythm.  

Mile 10-12 Once on the bike path, you will stay on the right hand side of the bike path and head south for exactly 660 yards then do a U-turn and head back north, still staying on the right side of the lane as you pass runners for another 660 yards until the path opens up.  (As you can probably tell, we needed this turn-around on the bike path to ensure that the course is exactly 13.1 miles.) You’ll head north on the bike path all the way until St. Mary’s again. Again, stay on the bike path the whole way -- you'll have a water station crewed by the cross country runners of Catalina High School offering water right near Mile 12.  You should be feeling good along the River Path, so this is a nice place to step up the pace a bit.  There are some shady stretches and you’re getting closer to home on this primarily flat stretch.

Mile 12-13.1 Exiting the bike path onto St. Mary’s is a bit tricky. As you come up the hill off the bike path approaching St. Mary’s, you can either hug the pathway to the right and stay on the narrow sidewalk heading east across the Santa Cruz or you can jump down from the curb to the main roadway. If I were racing it, I would probably hop the curb, but it’s a bit high, perhaps as many as 10”, so be careful here.  As you head under the I-10, you’re about 2/3 of mile from the finish line, so it’s time to put the pedal to the metal!!  You finish with a long straight-away up Church Street.  Save some for the final kick!

Beneficiaries

Proceeds from the event will fund local charities, including Cox Charities and Big Brothers, Big Sisters Tucson, as well as Child and Family Resources.

Community Partners

We want to thank a host of community partners for help with this event, including our title sponsor, Tucson Medical Center.  Without TMC's support, we could not produce such a large event.  We urge all runners and walkers to patronize our sponsors and partners:

TUCSON MEDICAL CENTER

Cox Communications

Caliente and the Arizona Daily Star

Dan Kalm State Farm

Afni Careers

KHIT 107.5

Snell & Wilmer Law Firm

Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club

Tucson Lifestyle Magazine

The Running Shop

Waste Management

Rural Metro

The City of Tucson Mayor’s Office, the Downtown Tucson Partnership

Sahuaro High School, Catalina High School, St. Augustine High School

Interested in being a sponsor?  Contact Race Director Randy Accetta.  It's expensive to put on a race Downtown, and we're looking for course sponsors, t-shirt sponsors, and post-event sponsors.  Join the healthiest community in Arizona!

Contact

Call Race Director Randy Accetta 520-991-0733 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).