Last weekend's race was all business. Showed up with a goal and left with a PR. Doesn't get much better than that.

This weekend, I once again set and achieved a goal - to have fun and enjoy the morning at the Bisbee Stair Climb. A girl deserves a break, right?

It was a good thing my goal wasn't loftier as I underestimated the driving time to Bisbee and we barely had time to pick up our race packets, visit the porta-potty and squeeze into our corrals before the race began.

Paul started in the first wave with a very manageable number of fast runners. I chose to start in the second wave with, it appeared, almost everyone else. There was a third wave for walkers, but the bulk of the crowd seemed to have self-selected wave 2. This was my sixth time racing here and, while I appreciate the great strides they have made in easing course congestion by introducing the staggered start, I'd like to see them take it one step further and assign racers to a wave.



Regardless of your pace, climbing over 1,000 stairs is a butt-burning, quad-busting, shin-screaming workout. However, in keeping with my goal, I walked each of the nine sets of stairs and, on the road portions, ran at a comfortable pace. It wasn't exactly a stroll in the park, but I felt good enough to share commiserating remarks with the runners around me and to pick it up near the finish to pass two people wearing khaki shorts. I simply cannot bear to be beaten by people who are not wearing proper running attire.





This event has always plagued me with side stitches, but, this year, I was cramp-free. This lack of pain, combined with a decent base of fitness, resulted in a surprisingly good finishing time of 56:58, which is less than one minute off my personal best. I was also pleased to place 15th out of 91 in my age group, although, like last week, this accomplishment has more to do with the weak field than with my running prowess. My overall placing was 433 out of 1337.

Paul is still trying to shake the residual cough and chest congestion from his never-ending cold, but still turned in an impressive time of 37:22 which placed him 32nd overall and 4th out of 54 in his age group.





Post-race, we caught up with our respective TTG and XOOD teammates while enjoying a little people-watching, which is always entertaining in Bisbee.





This was our first year doing this race as a day trip, as opposed to a weekend stay. The 9:00am start time makes is do-able for Tucsonans to drive the 2 hours that morning, but the weekend getaway is far more relaxing.

Before getting back in the car, we did take time to refuel with lunch at the Copper Queen Hotel. And, for Paul, no trip to Bisbee is complete without a shot of espresso from Old Bisbee Roasters.