I ran the Mesa Half Marathon in Phoenix, AZ this morning. Very impressed with race support, conditions and atmosphere. No super top tier pros on the men's side but Sam Chelanga won in 1:03 mid and Molly Seidel was 2nd behind Jeralyn Poe on the women's.
Solid group of community runners for a mid size race with 50 runners under 1:15 and 100 runners under 1:20. Course is point to point with gradual downhill (Approx 160 feet over the 13.1 miles so noticeable but not a crazy advantage)
Jordan Hasay also ran the half. I ran the 10K and agree, the event had a fun, positive vibe, and I look forward to doing it again next year.
I won the male 15-18 age group :)
I've been running this race for nearly a decade. It's been really cool to see it develop. It has become the premier half marathon in the Southwest. Year after year it seems to get more competitive.
Increasingly people are traveling from colder climes to compete. As you said, this it's definitely not a race where elites come to put their bodies on the line.
It's an organic, local race without major sponsors that sub-elites and serious runners flock to from around the region. The race conditions are almost always perfect. The downhill gives a negligible boost...maybe 10 seconds over the whole race.
zalbanese24@setoncatholic.org wrote:
I won the male 15-18 age group :)
Congratulations!