Please accept a hearty congratulations and big thank you for being part of the Grand Canyon Trail Marathon, Half Marathon, and 5k

We had a blast with everyone this past weekend -- thank you for being part of this fabulous event.

From cancer survivor finishers and wedding proposals to family reunions and friendship vacations, there were so many stories and so much fun. (Well, most of you had fun -- 2 sets of 2 folks did the half-marathon instead of the 5k -- we hope that all four of you have recovered from that unexpectedly lengthy journey!)

For those who weren't able to make it, we're sorry to have missed you. Way below you'll find a coupon code for 25% off the 2027 Grand Canyon event -- this can be used by anyone on this list and others in your running network.

As a reminder, we'll put all of you on our Run Tucson email list, so you'll get emails with info on upcoming events, running advice, and more. If you ever want to get off the list, please hit unsubscribe or email us and we'll take you off.

We got home late so we're still working through the post-race emails, but if you have any questions or if we missed anything, please track us down.

OK -- we'll send a more complete race report in a few days, but for now we'll end with best wishes on your upcoming running adventures!

Cheers,

--Randy and Tia and the crew at Run Tucson

Randy Accetta, RRCA Director of Coaching Education | randy@runtucson.net

Tia Accetta, RRCA Certified Run Coach | tia@runtucson.net

1) Photos

Race photos can be found here. We're grateful to Damion Alexander for taking over 2,000 photos on the course and at the staging area for viewing and purchasing. You can search by race bib number. Purchasing directions are on the smugmug pages.

• Grand Canyon Marathon and Half

• 5k Run/Walk

You can also click here for race director snapshots from the 5k course and the staging area.

On your end, if you're still sharing any of your own race photos, please tag @runtucson on your social media feeds! Tia runs our IG social and will be happy to tag and reshare and collaborate.

2) Results and Awards

Race results can be found at www.roadrunnerracetiming.com.

Our good friend Greg Wenneborg manages all the timing and can make any fixes, so if you see any mistakes fill out the form here and he'll try to take care of it.

Any overall and age group awards were provided at the finish line area, and (as stated elsewhere) are not able to be mailed. Leftover awards were donated to volunteers and others.

Thanks to the Town of Tusayan and the Grand Canyon Conservancy for the award support!

Tia is managing the cash award payments to overall winners in the Full and Half Marathons. Contact her at tia@runtucson.net if you have not been in touch with her already.

3) Donations

Thanks to your collective donations, over $2500 was raised for Grand Canyon area organizations.

• Over $1218 was raised for the Tusayan Fire Department (with additional funds from the Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser).
• $1281 was raised for the Grand Canyon Food Pantry
• $205 was raised for the Tusayan Youth Program.

Farther below is a list of donors -- thank you so much for supporting the Grand Canyon area community!

Thanks to Damion Alexander for all these photos. He thinks he got every half and full marathoner, so check out his photos here.

Damion is a Realtor in Tucson, so check him out here.

VOLUNTEER THANK YOU!

We are grateful to all of the volunteer help that was provided. From our friends in Tucson to the Tusayan community, it took a lot of folks to put this together:

• Clarinda Vail and John Vail managed the aid stations on the course. John is a local musician, while Clarinda is the Mayor of Tusayan and has been a friend of this event ever since we started 8 years ago.
• Thanks to Randi and colleagues at Pink Jeeps Adventure for managing the water stop at the 5k turnaround/12 mile mark.
• Thanks to Marty and the whole crew at the IMAX for allowing us to stage the race at the IMAX facility, including restrooms, beer garden, and craft fair.
• Greg Clifton and the team at the Tusayan Town Manager's office did all sorts of work to make this possible.
• The Tusayan Fire Department and their friends made the pancakes and served all the beer. We're grateful to them for managing public safety at the finish line -- and for helping take care of the region during the extensive fire season this year!
• Thanks to firefighers Kate and Quentin for flagging the course.
• Thanks to the Grand Canyon Conservancy for the awards and support -- and for helping take care of the National Park
• The folks at the Kaibab National Forest allowed us to do this on such a beautiful landscape and the Tusayan Town Council supported the race
• Thanks to Greg Wenneborg at www.roadrunnerracetiming.com for all the race support, registration management, and timing.
• Thanks to all the friends from our Tucson running community who handled the registration and finish line: Anne, Asa, Connie, Melanie, Sarah, and others.
• Special thanks to Doreen for all the gracious work!!
• Thanks to the local high school students and to Jeffrey and Linda for handing out all the race medals!

And of course, thanks to former President of the Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce, Laura Chastain, who got us started on this seven years ago!

You can use the discount code of ThatWasFun for a 25% discount to the 2027 edition, which is tentatively planned for October 23, 2027, pending approval from the Kaibab National Forest.

This discount code is good through the end of November.

Registration for next year opens next week here: https://runsignup.com/GrandCanyonTrailMarathon

Current pricing is $80 for the full and half-marathon and $35 for the 5k.

NOTE: all 2026 deferrals are already in the 2027 database.

To those who couldn't make race day, we're sorry to have missed you. You can use the same ThaWasFun code for next year.

NOTE: In our next email, we'll send coupon codes for our other Run Tucson events, located in beautiful Southern Arizona tourism locations.

All of you can use the discount code of ThatWasFun for a 25% discount to two more Run Tucson events this winter:

January 22: Empire Ranch Trail Run 10k and 5k, Sonoita, AZ

• In Arizona Wine Country about 45 minutes from Tucson at the historic Empire Ranch, a fundraiser for the Empire Ranch Foundation

February 22: Old Tucson Trail Run 8-miler and 4-miler and Family Mile

• Near Tucson, at the famous Old Tucson Studios, filming site of hundreds of classic western films

This discount code is good through the end of November.

Tia (#10) racing at Old Tucson back in 2011!