Back from AZ

This was taken at South Mountain Park in Phoenix, a park about the size of Mount Pleasant (seriously). It had a patchwork of trails, easy through strenuous, to accommodate everything from runners to horses. I got there at dawn for an early Sunday morning run, thinking I'd have the place to myself. When I arrived, the cars were overflow parked down the entry drive. There were more mountain bikes that I've ever seen in one place. I took the climb to a high trail along a ridgeline to get a good view. For the five miles up and back, it was a constant stream of bikes, runners, and hikers. Endurance activity so often puts you into what seems to be such a minority, that it's a real tonic to be surrounded by this kind of activity.

I've decided that I like Phoenix. Though, like any bid city (particularly one so spread out), it is really several cities: Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe, etc. The endurance brotherhood perception was aided by the fact that on this weekend, Tempe was hosting a full Ironman, and Phoenix was hosting a southwest region high school cross country invitational. The airport was buzzing with young fit people soooooooo much faster than me.

Good thing I missed my girls. Otherwise, coming back to drizzly, damp Charleston might have been tough.