I thought it would be easy to blog from Tucson- that in fact I would have a lot of time to chill out and work on fixing up the blog total- not the case! One thing that drives me crazy is when hotels charge you for internet. I mean come on, really?!? Internet is so prevalent that you can find it in every coffee shop, library, airport, laundromat, etc. Needless to say, I did not get any work done on the blog, or really any blogging in- we did however, have a great time!
We left Boulder on Saturday afternoon, after a pretty relaxing morning walking the dog, Pure Barre-ing, cleaning, and packing. I knew that since we had a late flight and the race expo closed at 5pm, we would really have to hustle once we got off the plane. Well, hustle was an understatement. We ran to the shuttle for the rental car, picked up the car, and put the pedal to the metal to get to the expo on time. We just barely made it, with me running down the corridor of the hotel and into the ballroom that was hosting the expo. I was psyched to make it in time and I was able to change form the marathon to the half- thank goodness!
We headed straight for some hot tub soaking before hitting up Café Poca Cosa for dinner. I had read about Poca Cosa on the Fitnessista blog (which, by the way, her Tucson Faves page, really made our vacation awesome!) and knew we would love it. Since it was Saturday night, there were no reservations available, but we decided to chance it, and go hang at the bar. We lucked out and only had to wait about 20 minutes- we enjoyed great drinks, and then made or way to the table. At Poca Cosa the menu changes daily, with about 7-8 choices available. I ordered the fish- amazing!, and Derek had the Plato Poca Cosa- a little of everything- he at e it all, so it must have been good!
The next morning started early- with a 5:15am bus ride to the start. I’ll do a full race review later this week- but let me just say, Tucson Marathon/Half Marathon was awesome! Well organized, beautiful, and fun! Anyway, I was not sure at this point if I would walk or run, or both. Well- I started the race running, and just kept telling myself that I could walk when I needed too. SPOILER ALERT: I rant the whole race and had a great time!
After the race, we scooted out of the finish area and headed straight to brunch at Blue Willow- another Fitnessista recommendation. Again, so good! (the theme here is that food in Tucson is amazing!) The morning continued with a trip to Eegeees, and then some soaking in the hot tub and hanging by the pool. The perfect way to recover from a half marathon!
Last night we met our friend Josh and his friend Kathy for happy hour at Guadalajara Grill. Josh ran the full marathon, and t was fun to debrief the race and hear the war stories. Kathy lives in Tucson and is an endurance athlete. She’s training for a 50k- pretty inspiring! After leaving them, we headed out to El Guero Canelo (yes, Fitnessista) where Derek had a Tucson fave- the Sonoran Hot Dog (ewww) and I just sipped some horchata. At this point I was pretty tired, and definitely ready for more hot tubbing and bed!
This morning we ran met up with Josh again at Frank’s Restaurant- recommended to us by Kathy, and had an awesome, and cheap breakfast- $1.75 for eggs, hash browns, and a homemade tortilla. It was gray, and starting to look it might rain, so we rushed out to try and make it to hike in Sabino Canyon before it really poured.
Sabino Canyon was awesome, but I was so bummed that it was rainy and grey ! We did stick it out for about an hour of hiking, but I could have easily hiked around for 3 or 4 hours! Now, my legs, were probably happy that we were forced back to the hotel, but I was bummed to not spend (what felt like) enough time in the desert! At the hotel we went in the hot tub (again!), showered up, and packed our bags. We also caught up on a little HGTV, which I need to watch whenever we are at a hotel…one bad thing about not having a TV at our house!
Finally, we ended our trip with lunch at Little Poca Cosa- which is associated with Cafe Poca Cosa, but is only open for breakfast and lunch. All the reviews are true- they do serve delicious food, the music is loud, and they do hug and kiss you when you leave. Definitely my favorite place we went to in Tucson!
On our way out of town we stopped at the Tucson Tamale Company and picked up a dozen tamales to take home- all different flavors, so I am anticipating some reviews in the future! Derek and I were talking about roses and thorns (our way of high points and low points) during lunch and we both identified the food in Tucson as amazing and definitely a rose from the trip! Thorns include the traffic, the lack of internet, and the rain today…but they are thorns, only little annoyances, compared to the roses- the food, the race, the desert, and hanging together!
