CrossRoads Blog

There is something inherently cool about this town. It’s low down and funky but with a laid back sophistication. Kind of a California old hippie vibe but with an Arizona desert town tough slant. It’s just hard to describe - but what is easy is to say how much we dig this place. I’ll say it again, if you have not been to Bisbee, go, simple as that.

I had even a little more excitement in anticipation of this year’s Bisbee 1000 Stair Climb. We had such a riot last year, the whole trip was perfect (Blogged about it HERE), with the exception of the race. The race is self was great, in fact it quickly became my favorite, but the rub was I was still feeling the effects of the ankle jack and was not real happy with the effort I was able to put forth. This year I was all heeled up and ready to hit a goal of a ‘first page finish’ (top 100, last year I was 122 or something like that).

We again stayed at the Gym Suites. A perfect place really for folks like us who enjoy cooking their own meals, okay.. and are a little picky about what they eat. The place had a great bedroom, a living room, dining, full kitchen, and a balcony overlooking town all for about half the cost of what we pay at a typical Marriott. The place is like an apartment really, must be close to 1200 sq ft. A perfect choice for someone who wants to spend a week in Bisbee.

The whole weekend was again exactly the perfect vibe you hope for - chilled, easy going, great people, great food, interesting characters, and one heck of a challenging 45 minutes or so. We did the typical town walkabout pretty much the whole time we were there and not sleeping. Unlike a lot of places the antique shops here really have antiques - or at least unique old crap sold at a decent price . In fact along those lines, after 10 years of looking Kimberly found an old ‘Lucy Table’ and chairs that fit perfectly in the Red Kitchen motif. The art and artists of this town are also enjoyable. Very talented folks that I think just love the area so they do their thing and sell it at reasonable prices. I love supporting local artists and when you can buy a cool piece of handmade clay for less than a case of soda you gotta’ love it. I also much appreciate that you can walk to a couple of small stores and have access to a nice selection of organic fruits and veggies. Here we are in the middle of nowhere pretty much in some old mining town and I had the best pear I have had in 20 years. Why? Because it came from some guys trees down the road. I know this because when I went back the next day to score some more they were gone and she told me because his tree was now empty…. Bisbee (see what I’m saying).

Race morning came and it was a perfect day. Perfect from a 70 degrees and sun perspective, not so perfect from a ‘you have to run 4.4 miles and do 1003 steep skinny stairs along the way’ perspective. In fact, it was the warmest day by 10 degrees in the history of the event. Both Kimberly and I had great runs and a most excellent time. Though having said that, it took only by the second group of (there are 8 total) stairs to be reminded that this is about the most challenging cardio race that I can imagine. A Marathon may last hours, but you never get close to the heart rate - lung death of this thing. Wow… even the most fit of the young people are looking like zombies well before half the race is over.

As for results I did and did not make my goal. While I finished 65th overall (of1340) and 5th in my age group at 40:56, it was not the ‘first page’. Dang race folks changed the print out from 100 to 50 per this year! Dang it, now I got the same goal next year I guess - I will have to move up 15 spots and hope they don’t change it to 25 per :-). Kimberly had an awesome time of 47:06 cutting a ton of time off her last year mark. She was 6th in her age group of 95 total and beat a ton of those young healthy 20 something men types!

Right after the race we were able to hook up with a ‘new friend’ Zuleika which was very cool. We walked around the little festival, and watched some of the Iron Man - yeah don’t ask, I skipped it, wussed out, gave in, etc. - next year for sure if we are there.

We celebrated the race just like last year as well with dinner at Cafe Roka. Everything was again outstanding. This chef could do well in Manhattan I think, he just decided he likes the Bisbee vibe and setup shop there. We also got a chance to take a peek into the huge mine which is something to see. We never had done so because it is on the other side of town but we needed some tie-downs for the table and chairs and drove past it this time. Some more walking town, packed up, and headed out. Another ‘annual’ Bisbee trip that met the high expectation. Some PICS HERE

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Miller Family, Runs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.