Buckeye Marathon Recap

67mirunner

Hi all,

I ran the Buckeye, AZ marathon yesterday, so here are my post-race thoughts.

The race started off in really chilly, foggy weather - very unusual for Arizona! The start was well organized and there was an elementary school open for us to keep warm and use real bathrooms. The flushing toilets at the start were absolutely amazing!!

The first 16 miles of the marathon were ok - it was all on the side of a highway. Water stations were consistently every 2 miles and it only rained once or twice. The bummer was more that it was lonely.....only 99 people ran the race and there wasn't a single spectator. Factor in my 11min/mi pace and I was completely alone for 3 or 4 miles at a time.

At mile 16 the sun came out, and we turned into a neighborhood. This was the most exciting part of the run, because you actually saw people and houses. There was something to look at other than cacti and the white line of a road. The only downside was a missing water station at mile 18, so we went almost 4 full miles without any water.

Alas, at mile 20, that fabulous scenery ended and it was back into the open desert. Everything hurt, and the sun was absolutely baking down on me (yes, I burned a bit). Mile 23 had the most fabulous water station - their spirit and enthusiasm was amazing. Just after the 24 mile marker, I saw a tarantula cross the road!! That was so cool - at first I thought it might be lack of carbs, but I stopped and stared at it, so when it crossed the white line on the road, I was 100% sure what it was.

The finish was anti-climactic. Yay, I'm done. I went looking for water and maybe a bagel, but nope that was all packed up. Now, I beat the race cut-off time by over an hour and 17% of the field was still behind me. Can you imagine that I had to ask for water?? They gave me a cup and pointed to a water fountain. Um, seriously, I paid $90 for you to give me a dixie cup after running 26.2?!

Just wanted to share and ramble. And, I'm sore, so there isn't much else that I can do than read discussions and lay here in bed!! Happy Sunday everyone!

queenliz99

Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry it sucked so much. That kind of happened to me once in a paid event. It's deflating:( Congrats on finishing however!!

SKME2013

Brilliant! Congrats!!! The tarantula...would have sped me up quite dramatically! You should let the organisers know about the water issues so that it does not happen again.
Stef.