After a five-year absence, the Arizona Distance Classic footrace returns to Oro Valley this Sunday, March 2.

The resurrected 13.1-mile half-marathon, 6.55-mile quarter-marathon, and 5-kilometer run and walk begin at 7 a.m. Sunday on the campus of Roche Tissue Diagnostics, 1910 E. Innovation Park Drive.

Participants are following courses of different lengths along Rancho Vistoso Boulevard and part of Innovation Park Drive. They’ll be most active between 6 and 11 a.m. Sunday. Some partial road closures are planned, and police will be present at intersections. Traffic can flow in both directions along Rancho Vistoso. Within Innovation Park, “there will always be access into the National Parks Store,” which has an event on Sunday, said race director Randy Accetta. 

As of Feb. 18, the reconstituted TMC Health Arizona Distance Classic had 669 pre-registered participants. While most are from Arizona, people from 21 states and three foreign countries are in the field.

“We may get up to 1,000 in the last two weeks, as we do final marketing and the word gets out,” said Accetta, whose Run Tucson business is partnering with the nonprofit Southern Arizona Roadrunners to put it on.

The Arizona Distance Classic began in 2005, and was held annually in Oro Valley until the onset of the pandemic. “It lay fallow for these years” since Covid struck, Accetta said.

Then, the Southern Arizona Roadrunners bought the event, with “nothing to purchase but the brand,” he continued. The group is “excited to bring the AZDC back to life,” according to its website. It is described as “the most scenic Arizona race event of the year.”

Accetta is cautious to quantify the event’s economic benefit to Oro Valley.

“We have food trucks and hotels,” Accetta said. “There is some financial benefit, some brand benefit, and once we get going on this, the communal benefit.” He’s driven by the chance to give people the “motivation to wake up and get ready” to run.

“I am very committed to making our community healthier,” Accetta said. “We know our world is a very stressful place right now. We all talk about emotional and political division. What we do as athletes, in producing events, we do for everybody, regardless of who and what you are.”

The classic has a wheelchair division. Visually impaired people are hitting the streets. There is prize money, about $500, as well as age group and category awards. The first 1,000 entrants get an official event shirt and a souvenir finisher’s medal.

“We are diverse and inclusive,” he said. “We don’t care if you’re red or blue or what, just come out and exercise. That feels very important to me these days.”

Accetta, retired from an academic career at the University of Arizona, came to Tucson “to get a PhD in American Literature. Theoretically, I’m supposed to be teaching Nathaniel Hawthorne (who wrote ‘The Scarlet Letter’) and Herman Melville (‘Moby Dick’). Next thing you know, I’m putting on running events, but it’s a blast.”

TMC Health is the distance classic’s title sponsor. Other sponsors are Ridgway Private Wealth, Rightsure Insurance Group, The Running Shop, Roadrunner Race Timing, Southwest Endurance Training, El Conquistador Tucson A Hilton Resort, Roche        Tissue Diagnostics, Arizona                      Pristine Roofing, Natural Grocers and Skratch Labs.

Net proceeds benefit St. Luke’s Home, which provides aid to low-income elders in an assisted living community. 

At its peak, the Arizona Distance Classic drew about 1,600 participants. More often, the number was about 1,200. Accetta is accepting of and encouraged by the runner total this renewal year.

“We started putting it together in December,” Accetta said. “It’s a short timeframe, get it in, learn how it works up there, then come back next year bigger and better. It’s planned to be an ongoing, annual race. In a way, this is a pilot.”  

This article appears in Feb 20-27, 2025.