First things first: Thank you to all the volunteers, sponsors, runners, and walkers who have helped make this one of Tucson’s most-popular races!!! Now, check out race photos at the Goatographer FB page.
Second things: Check out the results page, and if you earned an age group or open award and did not receive it, please visit The Running Shop (3055 North Campbell) to pick up your award.
Third things: if you did the race virtually, please go to The Running Shop (3055 North Campbell) by October 1st to pick up your medallion and a shirt. We cannot guarantee the perfect shirt size at this point, but we do have lots of medals for you!
Finally: What a great day! Race day dawned hot and humid, and as the opening notes of “Born to Be Wild” as sung by Maxx Staxx and the Mighty X rolled across the desert, a thousand runners headed towards the scenic roadways of the Tucson Mountains on Sunday morning, September 16th. Staged at Pima Community College West, the 2nd Annual TMC Tucson 10k has over 1300 registrants and a hundred volunteers.
Fast Field Vies for Prize Money and RRCA State Championship Status
Overall winner Harry Mulenga took the top spot for the second year in a row — making him the only defending champion in the history of the event. The race up front was affected by the heat and humidity, as Mulenga finished in 32:59, more than two minutes slower than his 2017 winning time. Mulenga, living in Oro Valley for the past two years and originally from Zambia, was chased to the finish line by Kenyan-transplant Japhet Kipkoech, who finished in 33:13. Bjorn Wastvedt, visiting from Pennsylvania, took third place.
For the women, former UA standout Kayla Ferron set a new course record of 37:47, as she ran from the front and easily won the women’s race. Ferron, a schoolteacher in the Sunnyside School District, was almost a minute ahead of second place finisher Jessica Culver, who finished in 38:39, a few seconds behind her 2017 pace. Third place went to Nicole Pearce, in 39:48.
Click here for a quick video of the start: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bny1RWvjjlN/?taken-by=runtucson
It was inspiring to see such exciting open and age-group racing from the various Tucson-area running groups, including The Grinders, TRP, Southwest Endurance, and The Workout Group.
RRCA Arizona State 10k Open Champions:
Open Men: Harry Mulenga, 32:59
Open Women: Kayla Ferron, 37:47
Masters Men: Todd Kornfeld, 38:00
Masters Women: Tia Accetta, 40:28
Grand Masters Men: Joel Stamp, 41:58
Grand Masters Women: Sharon Silvas, 44:37
Super Grand Masers Men: Benito Gonzalez, 42:54
Super Grand Masters Women: Merry Dearmon, 47:58
Photos and Social Media
Our good friend Goatographer has posted thousands of photos on his Facebook page. Please view them here, like his page, and contact him here if you want to purchase any of them.
For social media, we’ve enjoyed reading your various posts with hash tags #TMCTucson10k, #GabeZimmermanTripleCrown, #medlamonday and others.
If you missed the band, Maxx Staxx, you can check out a quick video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnz2GI5jSio/?taken-by=runtucson.
Sponsors
Tucson Medical Center is the title sponsor of the TMC Tucson 10k and the main donor to the Gabe Zimmerman Triple Crown — we cannot overstate how helpful TMC has been to our region’s health and wellness community.
We also cannot overstate how helpful The Running Shop is: hosting packet pickup, hosting post-race shirt/medal pickup, providing awards, and overall ensuring that we have a healthy and fit community.
On our media end, the Daily Star, Cox Communications, My 92.9, The Morning Blend, and Tucson Lifestyle are our go-to outlets and we’re grateful to them for their help.
For food and snacks, TMC donated oranges and all sorts of snack food, while this year we had a whole bunch of Vita Coco Coconut Water to provide post-race recovery. Thanks to Hensley Beverage Company for hooking us up!
Beneficiary
This is the second leg of the 2018 Gabe ZImmerman Triple Crown. At the TMC Get Moving Tucson events on Sunday, October 28th we’ll provide the $9,500 check to the BEYOND-Foundation raised by the Triple Crown participants.In addition, this race earned almost $2000 for the Southern Arizona Roadrunners for their operations and Children’s Fitness Fund.
Special Thanks
The officers from the Pima County Sheriff Department were on hand to ensure road safety again this year, while AMR was at the finish line. Special thanks to AMR and Tucson Fire Department who responded quickly when called — we’re happy to report that our injured athletes are on the mend. Events like this take a lot of people to make ’em go. On our end, we’re grateful to our friends at The Running Shop for hosting packet pickup and post-race shirt/medal pickup. Again, if you did the race virtually, please go to The Running Shop (3055 North Campbell) by October 1st to pick up your medallion and a shirt. We cannot guarantee the perfect shirt size at this point, but we do have lots of medals for you!
The Southern Arizona Roadrunners have been a great partner for this event — thanks to Sheryl Felde for managing the volunteers at registration and for all the cleanup. Special thanks to the Workout Group and ComeRun running groups for providing water station and staging area volunteers — and to the children and parents from FC Sonora Soccer team for handing out water at the 4-mile mark. Additional special thanks to Michelle Hawk for driving around in a rental truck all morning managing the course — and to Linda Whelan for doing a ton of pre-race planning and race day management!
The gang from Southwest Endurance (SWET) did yeoman’s work at the finish line and wrote out the inspirational sayings on the race course.
Sheryl made this list of volunteers:
Steve and Sheryl
Laura Penny – she stepped in to help at the running shop yesterday, we were low on help
Judie Shyman and Ed
Shirley Hester
Denise Gizinski
Kim Andres- she is visiting from Dallas, and was at the race early, so she helped out.
Steve Sheldon
Austin Grover
Don Branaman
Noemi and Craig Mills
Dan and Kim Sheen
Peggy Chalk
Joe Faulk
Lauren Reasoner
Maureen Cunningham
Doreen Davis
Amye Chaparro
Stephen Moore
Caroline Gardiner
Dave Odom
Abby Nastase and husband. They also helped at Saguaro.
Igor
Kara Rubelt
Michelle Hawk
Linda and Kerry Whelan
Christine, Kamran and Hayden
Soccer team
Kristina Bonet
