Runners in Arizona are blessed: we get to run all winter long without having to don tons of fowl weather gear, fight unbearable snowstorms or torrential downpours.
That makes training for a winter marathon or half marathon much easier.
Late last October, we took a trip to Portland. Anyone who has spent a winter in the northwest knows that the rain starts to go sideways around Halloween, and the darkness takes over. It’s cold. It’s wet. It makes training a real challenge sometimes.
But, imagine training through the first half of winter, and then traveling south to run a flat, fast marathon? All the work you put in training in the cold, wet, miserable winter weather will leave you hardened, ready to go fast in the comfortably warm climate of Phoenix.
I mention this today, because if you want to start training for the PF Chang Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon, your training effectively starts on Labor Day, September 6. That gives you a full 18 weeks to train for the race. We even have an 19-week marathon plan for time-crunched runners you can use.
So while it’s probably too late to start training for a race like the Portland or Seattle Marathon, a winter race like Arizona is easily within reach, and it’s a nice mid-winter break.
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