Possessed Magazine Running Blog

THE ARIZONA ISSUE

JANUARY 2025

Welcome to dusty, prickly POSSESSED No. 59—aka The Arizona Issue

I broke down in Kingman, Arizona, back in 2014, and for ten hot days, my two road-trip buddies and I languished by a Motel 6 pool, playing Uno, smoking cigarettes, and waiting for the local mechanic to call (he never did). Each day at sunset, we’d wander up Route 66 to The Sportsman, a shady saloon notable for its cheap drinks and complete absence of sportspeople—most of the customers looked like they’d been stitched together from old saddlebags and turquoise. I myself was definitely not a sportsman at the time (certainly not a runner), which is a shame because instead of getting drunk and waking up every day feeling like Satan had used me for a Q-tip, I could’ve used that time to clock miles and explore the beautiful desert trails the Grand Canyon State has to offer.

Arizona is trail runners’ paradise. The scenery is spectacular, the weather is great, and the running community is thriving, to say the least. To be honest, it seems odd that they haven’t yet named an Arizonan city for trail running—you know, like they did with Surfers Paradise in Australia. That’s not a nickname—that’s what they called it: Paradise for Surfers... Perhaps Flagstaff, AZ, should be renamed Trail Runners’ Paradise or Dirtland or Ripped Ligament City, something like that. I don’t know, but it wouldn’t hurt to write a letter to Becky Daggett, the Mayor of Flagstaff, at Flagstaff City Hall, 211 W Aspen Ave, Flagstaff, Arizona 8600, and get the ball rolling... Shangri-La-teral Ligament Sprain. That’ll do.

Anyhoo, this is The Arizona Issue., and it is jam-packed with more Arizona stuff than you could fit in a really, really big cowboy hat. Right off the bat, we’ve got a fantastic photo story from Saddles 2024, a catalog of Arizona’s deadliest critters to keep y’all safe on the trails, and then we have an interview with Hayden Hawks, who explains how you can win Arizona’s Black Canyon Ultra this year. After that, we take a pile of AZ myths and have them individually busted by professional Myth Buster Buck Scuzz; then there’s a recipe for AZ’s famous Navajo Tacos, a playlist from Arizona death metal outfit Gatecreeper, and Arizonian ultra-runner Callie Vinson puts on a slideshow. Unrelated to Arizona, we have an interview with the founder of Run Beyond Project, Kyle Muller, an explanation of miles and kilometers for our extraterrestrial readers, a big bag of love letters from you guys, the readers, and a few other bits and bobs. Important to note: If you’re reading this in print, you’re getting the whole Arizona issue. However, if you’re reading this online, you’re getting most of it, but not the whole shebang and you don’t have anything cool to put on your coffee table.

We hope you enjoy POSSESSED No. 59: The Arizona Issue.

x Jason