By Cecilia Chan | The Arizona Republic
For Anthony Aguilar, it wasn’t so much running in 104-degree weather under a blazing sun on Saturday that was hard; it was the hills.
“When you hit the 2-mile mark, it was uphill,” the 27-year-old Phoenix resident said at the finish line with his calves cramping. “It made you or broke you. It almost broke me. But I hung on and pushed.”
Aguilar won the 5K race with a time of 18:22.
He was one of 1,348 runners and walkers who braved the late-afternoon heat to participate in the inaugural Scottsdale Beat the Heat Race. The event, held at WestWorld of Scottsdale, also featured an 11.22K, or nearly 7-mile, race.
