Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

Today marks a month since we left Canada to start a new life in Phoenix . I’m surprised how quickly a month has passed by, but I have to admit that the transition from Calgary to Phoenix has been difficult – far more so that moving from Stoke to Calgary  almost 4 years ago. The past month has been good and I certainly can’t complain. Phoenix is a really nice city, there are plenty of regional parks with lots of trails to hike or run on, and I’ve even found some decent running routes close by. The dining out is fantastic, people seem to be friendly, and we even found a dog park that was just a 10 minute drive from home that Wilson and Brandy frequent at least once daily. So what’s making things difficult for me at the moment? I guess the easy answer is that Calgary felt like home. I loved the house there, I always felt safe, the weather suited me – yes, even the crazy cold winters and snow! – I was able to get out for runs with my dogs more frequently and even if the d...

Last Saturday called for a 10km easy run on the trails, and with me still working on getting my bearings here in Phoenix, I once again opted to register for a local trail race that was just a 30 minute drive away. This event was organised by Aravaipa Running which are pretty big here in Phoenix, and with a choice of 4 distances of which one was 11km, it once again fitted perfectly with my training program. The race took place at Cave Creek Regional Park just north of where we live, and not surprsingly, we were again treated to outstanding views of the Sonoran Desert and its many peaks stretching out into the distance. Some of the amazing views at Cave Creek In the couple of days leading up to the event, we'd been told to expect thundery rain, but instead we were greeted with warm temperatures and overcast skies. The cloud cover was a blessing as it gave some protection from the burning sun, but it did little to curb the air temperature which was already around 25 degr...

On Thursday evening, I caught wind of a trail race that was taking place in nearby Scottsdale at the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. There was a choice of distances ranging from 4 miles up to 10 miles, and with having a 15km easy trail run scheduled in for that day, I decided to enter the 10 mile race and give it a try. At the minute, I'm building up to the Las Vegas Marathon which takes place in mid-November although after that, the plan is to get back out on the trails and return to ultra running. I currently have a 24 hour race planned at the end of the year which will be my first attempt at a 24 hour, and I'm also contemplating running a 100km in February- the Black Canyon Ultra which is a point to point race in nearby Anthem and which will also be a qualifying race for the Western States 100 miler in 2016. With that in mind, I thought doing the ArizonaReg 10 Mile Trail Race would be a good introduction to trail running in Phoenix, to give me an idea about the org...

It's been over a week now since we left Calgary to start our new lives in Phoenix, and things are certainly different than what we had become accustomed to whilst living in Canada. With having the animals, we had decided to drive down with the Jeep rather than flying - Wilson and Khayman had already had the experience of being loaded on to a plane when we emigrated 4 years ago and whilst they both arrived in good health with no effects from the flying, we didn't want to put them through the stress of it all again. Brandy of course was born Canadian and being a large dog, aside from the stress it would likely have caused her, the cost of flying her to Phoenix would also have been expensive. We ended up leaving Calgary a week later than originally planned. Andy had just arrived from Sweden, only to be told that he would be needed in Malaysia a couple of days later, and so I spent a week at the Holiday Inn Express in Calgary with 2 dogs and a cat, waiting for him to ret...