Randy Accetta and Tia Accetta
Randy Accetta
Randy founded Run Tucson with the mission of making Tucson better through running.
Randy is the long-time Director of Coaching Education for the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), directing the nation’s premier run coaching certification program. In this role, he has certified over 10,000 running coaches around the world.
Randy is well-suited to be a head coach for The Workout Group. He founded the training group with Greg Wenneborg in 1997 and has been helping manage the day-to-day operations for the past 25 years. As a certified Group Fitness Instructor, Randy has training in group fitness, helping people enhance their fitness and modify risk factors for chronic disease to improve health.
Past-President of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners, Randy is also the race director for some of Arizona’s most popular events: the Grand Canyon Trail Half Marathon, Saguaro Labor Day 8 Miler, TMC A-Mountain Half-Marathon and 4-Miler, TMC Tucson 10k, TMC Meet Me Downtown 5k Night Run, TMC Earth Day 5k at the Biosphere 2 and more. As co-founder of Meet Me Concepts, LLC, Randy can often be found at Meet Me at Maynard’s in downtown Tucson.
Randy ran for Wesleyan University, ran a season of professional track in Europe, wrote a bit for Runner’s World, was the Arizona coach for Team in Training, and was the Program Director at Craftsbury Running Camps. His PR’s include 4:08 in the mile, 9:03 in the steeplechase, 14:34 in the 5k, 30:34 in the 10k, 1:07:08 in the half-marathon, and 2:19:25 in the marathon (qualifier for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials). Randy has also raced high-altitude trail races and other events.
Randy has recently left the University of Arizona, where he was most recently the Co-Chair of the New Venture Development Program and Mentor in Residence at the renowned McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship. He has earned numerous teaching awards, including Entrepreneurship Teacher of the Year, Eller College Teacher of the Year twice, and innovative teaching awards multiple times. He has been a featured presenter at the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers annual convention multiple times.
Accetta holds a PhD from the UA’s Department of English. His current academic specialties include entrepreneurship education, business communication, sports marketing, NIL strategies, nonprofit leadership, and distance learning.
Tia Accetta
As co-founder of Run Tucson, Tia helps produce events and manages Run Tucson’s in-person and online coaching programs.
She leads the twice-weekly Workout Group in person in Tucson, while also providing online coaching to a stable of 20 athletes around the country. She is an RRCA certified coach, an ACE Group Fitness Instructor, and has worked with Lorraine Moller and the folks at the Arthur Lydiard Foundation.
Holding a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Arizona, Tia uses her teaching expertise to help athletes qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials, the Boston Marathon, or simply find their running joy.
Originally from Walla Walla, WA, she ran for the University of Idaho, and has over 30 years of competitive running experience. She says that she didn’t start appreciating the marathon distance until her kids started preschool. She has run nine marathons: 3:10, 3:08, 2:58, 2:53, 2:50, 2:49, 2:48:54, 2:54 (2nd place at Go! St.Louis), and 2:48:05. She has competed as an “elite” athlete in the Chicago, Twin Cities, Cal International and Go! St. Louis marathon.
A 2017 stroke survivor, in 2018 she set the course record of 2:55:49 at the Jack and Jill Marathon in Washington State.
Other PR’s include:
5k= 17:40
8k= 29:34
10k= 36:18
Half Marathon: 1:18:16
Marathon: 2:48:05