Crown King Scramble 50K: Virtual Edition

Scout PhillipsRace Report, This Week In Aravaipa Running, Uncategorized

I put on an old t-shirt Saturday morning, you know the kind; it’s soft from multiple wears and washes, maybe even a little threadbare in spots, but it means something special to you so it has yet to be turned into a rag or donated to the local clothes closet. My t-shirt is green. It has the old Crown King Scramble 50K logo on the front, and the elevation profile of the race on the back. I’ve had it for a few years, and I wore it all day last year as the Race Director for the 2019 event. I woke up feeling a bit disoriented on Saturday, it was 4:47 a.m. and I wasn’t …

Dam Good Run: The Virtual Edition

Scout PhillipsRace Report, This Week In Aravaipa Running

Traditionally, the Dam Good Run that happens each spring out at Lake Pleasant Park, provides runners with a unique experience. Runners traverse the dam itself, an area generally restricted from the public, and they delight in seeing the lake from a different vantage point. This year, as we are all looking at the world from a new and unfamiliar perspective, some of the registered DGR participants got out for a virtual Dam Good Time. Our running community is adaptable. While we may create and adhere to training programs specific to a goal race, there are always factors we simply can’t control. Perhaps you were lucky and had nothing but great training weather leading up to …

2019-2020 Desert Runner Trail Series Final Standings

Noah DoughertyCommunity, Race Report, This Week In Aravaipa Running

We’ve officially finished our Desert Runner Trail Series with the completion of the Mesquite Canyon Trail Runs on March 7th. This was the 10th year for some of these races and a nice little milestone for Aravaipa Running and how far we’ve come. We again saw the most participants throughout the series and we just can’t thank you all enough for your continued support. It really is a pleasure to be a small part of your race experience! We’re constantly looking for ways to improve this series and will continue to do just that.We added the Hummingbird Pass to the Spring series that flutters around the 5K distance, we have two kid’s fun runs held …

A Postcard From Steep Camp Sunrise

Scout PhillipsRace Report

In my youth, during our mandatory quiet hour at summer camp, I would struggle to compress the activities of one day into the 3×5 space of a postcard to send to family and friends. Once again, I find my mind so full of things I want to share about our inaugural Steep Camp Sunrise weekend, that I simply don’t know where to start. Perhaps the best place to start is with gratitude. I am incredibly grateful to the White Mountain Apache community for inviting us to their land to create this event. I am equally grateful to all of the runners, families, and friends who chose to make this a most memorable experience. We promised …

Why Black Canyon 100KM?

Hayley PollackCommunity, Race Preview, Race Report

Guest Post by Eric Senseman The Black Canyon 100k takes place on the Black Canyon Trail in Arizona, a north-to-south, point-to-point trail through the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains. It starts about 75 miles south of Flagstaff and ends just north of Phoenix. Like most any point-to-point trail, the elevation at one end isn’t the same as the elevation at the other end. In the case of the Black Canyon Trail, the north trailhead sits at about 4,200 feet above sea level and the southern terminus rests around 1,900 feet. The 100k itself runs north-to-south, so the course accumulates a net downhill. Flowing downhill through the Black Canyon is the Agua Fria River, a roughly …

The Golden Hour

Noah DoughertyRace Report, Ultra Thoughts, Uncategorized

 “I’m an absolute nervous wreck. But she thinks she’s close to the pavement. She has to make it.” I’m sure this has been written about, potentially on a rotating basis considering the industry growth and amount of 100 mile races sprinkled across North America right now. That’s OK, I think everyone can and should get to experience what my team and I did this past weekend at the Coldwater Rumble 100 mile race. The final hour before the race officially ends, or as we so aptly call it, the Golden hour, is a 60 minute window where we see hours of determination and grit make its final push to the finish line in hopes of …

Twinning at Coldwater Rumble

Hayley PollackCommunity, Race Report

Written by Jen Laughlin 2018: We were both racing the 52K at Coldwater Rumble. The 52K consists of two loops: a clockwise 20 mile loop, followed by a counter clockwise 12.5 mile loop. The course is gorgeous, runnable, and very social. It’s the perfect set up for anyone wanting to finish their first 100 miler, first ultramarathon distance, or first trail race. This very course was my first trail race back in 2014, then again the following year when I completed my first 50 miler. It’s such a special and nostalgic race to me that I’ve raced a distance at Coldwater Rumble every year since. This particular year was my third time at the 52K …

#WhoWeAre – Jen Laughlin – Birthday “Fun”

Hayley PollackCommunity, Race Report

Jen is our wordsmith; she seamlessly manages all of our social media pages (over 20 of them) for Aravaipa and Run Steep Get High + she’s also the voice behind Squirrel’s Nut Butter. It is not uncommon to hear someone in the office say “just send the idea to Jen, she’ll make it sound 10x better.” Read on to hear about Jen’s experience at the 2015 Hypnosis Night Runs. This is also a race I will never forget…  It was the spring of 2015, and I was preparing to turn the big 4-0. I knew I wanted to go big for my birthday, but wasn’t quite sure what I had in mind just yet. While …

#WhoWeAre – Pati Coury – Steep Camp

Hayley PollackCommunity, Race Report

If you’ve been to any Aravaipa race over the last 9 years, I can almost guarantee you’ve been taken care of in some fashion by Pati Coury. She is our aid station mastermind with a heart big enough to truly care about each and every runner that comes through her ‘kitchen.’ She’s methodical and her attention to detail really can not be matched. She might the the literal mom to a few on our team, but she embraces that role for anyone in need of her care. She’s also a truly amazing runner and that is really on display at Silverton 1000, now Steep Camp!  Steep Camp (aka: Silverton 1000) Seven years ago, I was asked to …

A Record Year at Whiskey Basin Trail Runs

Jamil CouryRace Report

When I saw him come into the mile 45 aid station at Badger Mountain he was ahead of schedule just as he had been all day. There was some dried blood on his hand and some fresh stuff still running down his right knee but he had a pleasant demeanor as he calmly stepped off the trail up towards us. When approached by the cheerful Squirrel’s Nut Butter team at the Badger Mountain Aid perched atop a juniper covered hillside overlooking Granite Mountain and most of Prescott, Arizona he politely asked if we had a cup. He was hoping for a drink of water. “I lost my water bottle off a cliff back there. Took …