Bob Howard is a local runner who loves traveling to races around the country.
“I’ve raced in 39 states,” said Howard, who counts only runs between a 10K and a marathon.
He’s one of a growing number of runners who travel to run, while also using running as a way to experience a destination.
“With your feet on the ground you see the neighborhoods, you see the people, you experience the place,” Howard said. “Every place I’ve gone I’ve come away with a better impression of the place than before I went. The city puts its best foot forward, if you will.”
He once ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half marathon in the morning then flew to Las Vegas for a Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon that same evening. “It was really fun,” Howard said of what had started as a scheduling mix up by the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series. He was one of about 70 runners who boarded the same plane to Las Vegas.
Howard knew he was hooked on the combination of travel and running after he ran the New York Marathon in 2010.
“That was so fun I focused on doing some of the other big races,” said Howard, an electrical engineer. That led to the Chicago Marathon and the Bolder Boulder 10K in Colorado.
The longtime runner, who also cycles and swims “so I can save my knees,” was just getting started. “There’s something exciting about a big race,” explained Howard, who has also done Disney running events.
Howard said he’s made three trips to Disney World, where events are well organized with multiple day options with multiple medals. The next Dopey Challenge, for example, starts Jan. 5 with four days of events for a total of 48.6 miles — with Disney characters and entertainment along the course.
“That’s part of the destination mindset. People will come and do two races on one weekend,” he said.
He’s already booked his next several runs, starting with a half marathon in Idaho this summer. He plans four races in New England, including one in Bar Harbor, Maine that goes into a national park, much like the 47th annual TMC Saguaro National Park Labor Day 8-Miler that Howard has run for the last 21 years.
He’s also booked races the same weekend in Maryland and Louisiana in October. “If I were retired I would not try to cram so much into such little time,” he said.
Howard ran the first five Meet Me Downtown races in Tucson, but will miss the event’s 10th year celebration, which moved to Memorial Day weekend, because of other travel plans.
Race directors Randy and Tia Accetta and the Southern Arizona Roadrunners are presenting TMC Meet Me Downtown Memorial Day Weekend, which includes the new Friday Night Festival of Miles as well as the TMC Meet Me Downtown 5k Night Run/Walk, as the beginning of an effort to create a destination running event.
The weekend also includes sold-out seminars on how to become a professional running coach. As of Wednesday, 1,750 people had registered for weekend events, and Randy Accetta said registration for the runs would remain open through race days.
“I’m excited to try to make Tucson a running destination city even in our off season,” he said, noting that more than 300 runners had registered from other parts of the state and throughout the country.
The Arizona Inn, Tucson Marriott University Park, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort and Hotel Congress were some of the places he said runners would be staying.
Brandi Whitus will be driving in from El Paso, Texas. “We had planned to do something for Memorial Day weekend and I am constantly looking for races,” she said. “I like to check out areas that are nearby and Tucson is like a four-hour drive so it’s not too far,” said Whitus, who at one time was stationed at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. “My family got us into running and it’s something we enjoy doing together,” she said, noting its fun to collect race medals and bib numbers. “It’s like sightseeing.” She also enjoys the group atmosphere at the events.
While Bob Howard won’t be in Tucson next weekend, he does plan to take part in a new “Virtual Crown” that lets people run or walk each of the race distances on the same weekend as the race. That will let him complete the 2016 Gabe Zimmerman Triple Crown, which starts May 28 with the TMC Meet Me Downtown 5k Night Run/Walk; and includes the Sept. 5 TMC Saguaro National Park Labor Day 8-Miler and 5k; and the TMC Get Moving Tucson Half-Marathon events Oct. 29 and 30.
Michele Spry lives in Columbia, Missouri and came upon the virtual Triple Crown on the Internet. She and her mother and sister have committed to the three-race series, which commemorates Gabe Zimmerman, a Tucson native who lost his life in the January 2011 shooting that also wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Spry hopes to do a run in Tucson next year.
A children’s book author and small business owner, Spry started setting goals a few years ago. In 2013 she decided to complete 13 5K races that year. This year she turns 40 and wants to complete 40 5Ks. She recently ran the Pixie Dust challenge at Disneyland where “you do a 10K one day and a half marathon the next.” The races are fun and a good way for she and her husband to keep healthy.
“You don’t think you could ever do something like that until you try it,” she said.
