How much fun was that???!!! Randy here with a quick note thank all 805 of you for being part of the El Tour de Tucson 5k, held for the first time at the El Tour site.

I rode my bike on the course and saw every single one of the finishers out there, in the sunshine and in the rain -- thank you for all those smiles and high-fives . . . I hope you had as good a time as I did!

It's race evening as I write this and we've already received emails and phone calls with questions, so we wanted to get this quick note out to you, with information on results and awards, plus a thank you to the folks who worked so hard to make this event happen today.

Speaking of events, next up is the popular Southern Arizona Roadrunner event, the Thanksgiving Cross Country Classic, a 5k and 1.5 mile Run/Walk at Reid Park.

OK -- ff you see something wrong, please let me know. We'll send another race report later this week with more reporting, any corrections, and with discount codes to future Run Tucson events.

In the meantime, thank you very much for being part of our great running community. We hope that you have a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving Week, wherever your travels take you.

Randy Accetta, on behalf of Tia and the crew at Run Tucson

randy@runtucson.net | tia@runtucson.net

RESULTS

You can find all race results at the RunSignup Registration page here.

You can search for your name, bib number or town, by overall or age group.

Thanks to Julie and Mark from On Your Left Timing.

Congratulations to Kennett Peterson for taking first place overall in a splendid time of 15:51 and to Whitney Penny for cruising to victory in the women's race in 17:23.

Even though Veronica Hughes is listed as last, she started late, so by time the final finishers were actually Virginia Stenson and Beth Judd --- congratulations to all three of you for showing so much perserverence!

Again, we'll send a more thorough race report sometime soon . . .

Thanks to Michelle Senner for snapping the award photos for us! I've screengrabbed 'em from Facebook and hope to do a better job when I have more time!

AWARDS

Check out the age group and overall results here. Top three overall male and female plus the top three male and female in 5-year categories from U15 through 75 and up receive a Fleet Feet gift certificate courtesy of Fleet Feet.

We did awards at the Expo today, and some of you got your gift cards. However, if you did NOT get your gift card at the award ceremony, you can visit the Fleet Feet in Oro Valley to pick up your gift card.

• The deadline to pick up your gift card is December 25, 2023.
• Please have the results available on your phone or printed out to show your placing.
• If you cannot get to the Oro Valley location (7607 N. Oracle Road, #121), you can contact Fleet Feet about picking up your award at their Udall Park location (7301 E. Tanque Verde Road, #151).
• Click here for more information on Fleet Feet locations and contact information.
• Thanks to Fleet Feet for all their support of this first-time event!

FINISHER MEDALS

The finisher medals were handed out at the finish line. We will bring them back to the El Tour office next week, but I'm not sure if or when they might be available for pickup by "virtual runners."

Also, I am not sure about what's happening for those who paid for a t-shirt but did not pick it up. As I said above, we'll send another race report with more information once things quiet down and we know more.

Thanks for the Instagram shout-outs #runtucson and #eltour5k and #eltourdetucson5k

SOCIAL MEDIA

If you want to share any photos of you, your friends, or the beautiful morning scenery, please share at the Run Tucson FB page here.

For social media, please tag @runtucson and @eltourdetucson with any instagram posts -- you can use hashtags #ElTour5k, #ElTourdeTucson5k, #ElTourRun and #runtucson and anything else you want . . .

PHOTOS

We're working on having a bunch of photos available, but for now we have a few snapshots at our www.facebook.com/runtucson page

Special thanks to the 18 million people who helped produce this event:

• The folks at El Tour are awesome. We are grateful to TJ Juskiewicz for inviting Run Tucson to do the 5k with El Tour

• Special thanks for operations leadership by Jessica Escobedo Davis, her dad Tim Escobedo, and her nephew Angel

• Thanks to AAA Arizona for handing out oranges, bananas and Shamrock Farm chocolate milk -- and thanks to some of the AAA folks for helping cheer runners around the finish line turn

• Thanks to San Miguel High School for handing out medals

• Thanks to Clint Pittenger at Starlight Deejays for everything -- music, arch raising, banner hanging, humor and more!

• Ira Keeley was the awesome Turn-Around Guy -- thanks Ira!

• Thanks to Stacey Bell for helping set-up and helping direct runners at the finish line

• Thanks to Alan Germany, Agata Orlinski, and Tanya Gonazalez for helping with set up, break down, and water stop management! (Tanya works at the non-profit next to the finish line and when I stopped by their facility to talk about the race last month, she asked if she could volunteer -- super cool!)

• Thanks to the UA Society for Neuroscience for managing the 1.5 mile water stop

• Thanks to Dave Dixon and Michelle Senner for helping at the awards

• Thanks again to Julie, Mark, Julie, and the On Your Left crew for doing such a great job with all the timing

• Thanks to Mountain View High School for all the packet pickup volunteer help at the Expo

John Ward was our go-to course manager -- John has been doing behind-the-scenes ops work at all of our Run Tucson races since Saguaro -- it's great to have him on board!

Doreen Castillo Davis was once again our go-to on everything -- thanks to Doreen and her sisters for all their help at the Greenway. I've posted some of Doreens snapshots on the www.facebook.com/runtucson page

Thanks to Tia for helping load the truck and thanks to Anabelle for helping me unload the truck!

If I'm missing anyone, please forgive me and let me know who I missed!