For one Friday night in May, the bicycle pump track at Oro Valley’s Naranja Park became The Circle Pit.

Professional athletes and people from more than 20 countries ran, jumped and occasionally crashed on the hilly, winding, compact, hot, joint-pounding pump track, driven by the amplified, hardcore sounds of punk bands JiveBomb, UpChuck, One Step Closer and Drain.

 “It’s going to be rough on the knees, for sure,” one runner said beforehand.

“Jump the bumps, that’s the name of the game,” said another.

The real name of the game was promotion: The shoe and sporting goods giant Adidas and its partner SATISFY Running are launching their first collaboration, a high-performance shoe called the Adizero Adios Pro 4 SATISFY. To create video, still photography, and other digital content for the shoe’s launch, the companies “were looking for pump tracks,” Town Manager Jeff Wilkins said.

They found Naranja Park.

For Oro Valley, the name of the game was economic development. More than 100 people — among them athletes, staffers, media, musicians, crews, vendors, technicians and social media influencers — came from far and wide for The Circle Pit.

“When factoring direct town revenue” and other activities, The Circle Pit generated anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000 in local economic activity, the town said in a post-event report (see related story). And the social media reach counts into the millions of views.

“It’s a big deal,” Wilkins said afterward.

How it came to Oro Valley

Jamil Coury is the founder and owner of Aravaipa Running, a Phoenix-based company that puts on a number of extreme trail and ultra-running events, among them the Cocadona 250, a 250-mile timed race from Black Canyon City to Flagstaff.

Aravaipa Running also presents the Tucson Marathon, which starts at Biosphere 2, ends at the Pima Community College Northwest Campus, and weaves through Oro Valley.

Coury is a friend of Brice Partouche, founder of SATISFY, a Paris-based running apparel brand where “luxury fashion meets running,” as Coury described it. “The fabrics are high-quality. It’s higher-end, the market they’re in.”

“Arizona has been deeply woven into the brand’s story since its founding in 2015,” said Tommy Hubert, head of public relations and communications for SATISFY. “We have longstanding ties to the local running community. More broadly, Arizona has become a regular gathering point for our athletes.”

SATISFY and Adidas “had this vision to do something on a small, short track” to create marketing content for the new shoe, Coury said. By “happenstance,” they learned about the Oro Valley pump track. “They asked me about it,” Coury said. He made the connections, and The Circle Pit seed took root.

SATISFY “took the lead on the creative direction, the entire atmosphere,” and “transformed it into an entire experience,” Coury said. The pump track’s outline from above even became the logo for The Circle Pit. Aravaipa Running helped with timing, and Coury was the master of ceremonies.

What was it?

Adidas and SATISFY characterized The Circle Pit as “a collapsed race format set to live music. A closed loop in the Sonoran Desert where rhythm leads and distance folds in on itself. Closed spaces, open minds.”

“You’re going to keep running laps until the band is done playing their set,” Coury told competitors in each 20-athlete heat. Runners were divided by shoe color — Army Green, Earth Brown and Black. Banging of a giant gong triggered the start of each 20-minute run, and the bands blasted music to pump the adrenaline.

Runners moved through what the companies described as “rotating heats in close quarters, and continuous motion. More crush than competition. More reckoning than race. No fixed pace, no clear line. Sound turned into stride and the body took over. The Circle Pit filled and kept filling.

“Energy crushing through the loop, runners pumping through tight corners, the pack never thinned, never quite found order,” they said.

In other words, there were bumps, scrapes and bruises.

“It is extremely hard to run on,” Coury said of the pump track. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve tried to run on.”

When the final heat was run, the band Rattlesnake Milk performed bluesy music for the awards, the merchandise giveaways and a meal.

There were a few phone calls

A few weeks before The Circle Pit, the town of Oro Valley distributed postcards to neighbors, telling them the pump track and nearby skate park would be closed for a private party
on May 15, and that it might get
little loud.

The mailing was scant on particulars; Adidas and SATISFY insisted on secrecy. “I wasn’t even invited, that’s how strict this was,” said Paul Melcher, Oro Valley’s community and economic development director.

 “They kept it pretty secretive until everyone arrived onsite at the park,” Coury said. Athletes “had the shoes on, and the gear,” but little else was shared.

Jessica Hynd, Oro Valley’s constituent services coordinator, said several callers were “confused with what the event was, or understanding what amplified music was.”

Others said “it wasn’t fair that private entities can rent out the park, and that we wouldn’t tell them who it was,” Hynd said. She pointed out people often rent park ramadas and facilities, such as Steam Pump Ranch, for private events, celebrations and weddings.

 Afternoon sound checks generated other phone calls. However, once callers were told The Circle Pit would be closed by 9 p.m., they were “satisfied,” Hynd said.

Rave reviews

Organizers of The Circle Pit “couldn’t speak glowingly enough about that facility,” Melcher said.

“Oro Valley has been absolutely fantastic, and the feedback from all the local partners is overwhelmingly positive,” SATISFY’s Hubert said.

“They were the most professional event producers” Melcher has ever worked with. “They knew their stuff. It was a pleasure to work with them.” And they were respectful of the facility, going so far as to hire a power washer to remove The Circle Pit logo from a pump track curve.

“One of the coolest parts of the event was hearing firsthand how many attendees, influencers, and brand representatives were talking about how amazing the pump track, skate park, trails and overall outdoor environment in Oro Valley are,” the staff report said. “Throughout the event, people were constantly commenting on how unique the venue was and how they had never experienced anything quite like this before.”

“Besides,” said Aravaipa Running’s Coury, “it was a lot of fun.” .