Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon

The Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon, also known as P. F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon, is a marathon and half-marathon race, held annually in Arizona on the Sunday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and linking three cities of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area: (Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe). Like the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon of San Diego, it is organized by "Elite Racing Sports Marketing and Management." It is sponsored by P. F. Chang's China Bistro. The marathon race can be used to obtain a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon.

Course

Both race courses start in Phoenix, and finish in the city of Tempe on Packhard Drive between Arizona State University's Sun Devil and Sun Angel stadiums. The event also includes wheelchair races starting 10 minutes and 5 minutes before the marathon and half-marathon races. The average start line temperature is around 40°F (4°C), and the average daily high temperature is between 50°F and 70°F (10°C-21°C).cite web
url = http://www.rnraz.com/race_info.html
title = Race Information
publisher = www.rnraz.com
accessdate = 2008-02-04]

The marathon portion of the event begins on Washington Street (near 14th Ave) in downtown Phoenix, while the half-marathon portion of the event begins one street south of Washington on Jefferson Street (near 12th Ave). Along the route are over 40 high school cheerleading teams and 70 bands who perform for the runners. Later in the evening there is a concert held in Tempe for all the runners and volunteers.

World record

The event is noted for the half-marathon world record set by Haile Gebrselassie on January 15, 2006, who ran the second half of the marathon course in 58 minutes and 55 seconds. This part of the marathon course is slightly downhill, but is still within IAAF requirements for world record status. Grebreselasie's record stood for a year, until it was lowered by 2 seconds on February 9, 2007 by Samuel Wanjiru at Ras al-Khaimah; Wanjiru lowered it again to 58 minutes 33 seconds on March 17, 2007 at The Hague.

Men's Winners

Women Wheelchair Winners

"CR:" Course Record

Notes

ee also

* List of marathon races

External links

* [http://www.rnraz.com/ Official website of the Rock n' Roll Arizona Marathon]
* [http://marathoninfo.free.fr/pages/arizona.htm Rock n' Roll Arizona Marathon at marathoninfo.free.fr]
* [http://www.mapmyrace.com/races/RockAndRollAz2006/ Marathon route]
* [http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/07rnraz/07rnraz_index.html 2007 Results]