Mark and I arrived in Phoenix late Friday afternoon and drove two hours to Tucson. We expected the weather in Arizona to be warmer — the temperature was cold —similar to what it had been when we boarded the airplane in Newark. It ended up being a very long travel day, so we had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel (Hilton Tucson El Conquistador) and turned in for the night.
Saturday morning, the first order of the day was to pick up my race number, which was at our hotel, the marathon "host" hotel. Then we headed out for sightseeing. On our way into downtown Tucson, we had breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Club; I had done an online search for "breakfast all day in Tuscon" and found this place.
The afternoon was spent exploring the Tucson Museum of Art. We took a docent-led tour of Art of the American West, one of the museum's permanent collections and viewed the Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct exhibit. After the museum tour, we walked around the downtown area, which was a ghost town! The historic Hotel Congress' restaurant, Cup Cafe was highly recommended for dinner, we had an early bite to eat there. The hotel's main claim to fame is the fact that the notorious criminal John Dillinger stayed at the hotel in 1934, and his gang was captured shortly thereafter in Tucson. Our waiter was a wealth of information about suggestions for our stay in Tucson and what to do in the area.
They were calling for cold temperatures at the start on Sunday, but I hadn't brought enough warm clothes with me. So on our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Target to get a cheap "throw-away" sweatshirt (and yes, we used our credit card at Target, so now we are carefully monitoring our charges after the Target credit card breach).
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| Starting area |
The race course snaked along the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and a bulk of the run was along Arizona State Route 77. At one point, we turned off 77 and ran up to the entrance gate at the Biosphere 2. Fortunately, the cloud cover was ideal for running, but the strong head wind was not. Taken together, the altitude and head wind did not make for a "fun" run, at least not for me. Fortunately, our hotel had a hot tub, as well as a cold spring pool right next to it. So once I got back to the hotel, I changed into my swim suit and submerged by lower body in the cold spring (it was freezing!). The cold water helps to reduce the inflammation caused by the long run, and I knew that it would help the muscle soreness that I'd feel the next day. After a few minutes in the icy water, I couldn't stand it any longer, and I jumped into the hot tub where Mark was already waiting (he had refused to jump in the ice water). After warming up, we had lunch at the hotel, and then a nap was in order.
The waiter from the night before had recommended the Guadalajara Grill for dinner. We went there for my marathon celebration dinner. The table side prepared homemade salsa, which was simply amazing.
When we arrived back at the hotel, there was a wild boar running around the parking lot. How often do you see that in NYC or PA?!?
Post Marathon Vacation Outline:
Monday:
Lunch at The Cafe in Sonoita on our way to Tombstone
Toured Tombstone & Boothill Graveyard
Bisbee for coffee
Dinner back in Tucson at Tavolino
Tuesday:
Breakfast at The Good Egg in Tuscon
Visited the Biosphere 2 for the afternoon
Drove to Florence so we could be closer to the airport - Holiday Inn Express
Dinner at L & B Inn in Florence
Wednesday:
