Tucson’s Debra Hollis has logged four consecutive 5 a.m. runs this week — motivated entirely by the very real possibility that something with red eyes is still out there.

TUCSON, AZ — For years, Debra Hollis, 43, told herself she would start running in the mornings. She bought the shoes. She downloaded the apps. She set the alarms and then silenced them with the quiet, practiced dignity of a woman who had made peace with her own limitations. It took a chupacabra — or, as she now calls it, "my accountability partner" — to finally get her out the door.

Last Tuesday at approximately 5:12 a.m., Hollis was walking her dog, a corgi named Brisket, along a stretch of open desert on the western edge of Tucson when she reports encountering a creature she describes as "low to the ground, spine-ridged, and extremely motivated." What followed, according to Hollis and three independent witnesses who were either jogging, bird-watching, or, in one case, also being pursued, was a three-mile chase across rocky scrubland that Hollis completed in under thirty-four minutes. Brisket, for the record, made it back to the car first.

Community Notice

I’ve been meaning to run since 2019. Turns out I just needed a biological impossibility nipping at my heels. My Apple Watch gave me a personal best. I nearly cried.

— Debra Hollis, Tucson Resident and Reluctant Athlete

The Encounter: A Wellness Origin Story

Hollis says the creature emerged from behind a cluster of saguaro cacti and made immediate, sustained eye contact — something she describes as "deeply personal" and "weirdly motivating." It did not growl. It did not screech. It simply began moving toward her at a pace she characterizes as "purposeful" and "frankly rude for that hour of the morning." All three witnesses — retired schoolteacher Gloria Reyes, amateur cryptozoologist and licensed electrician Marco Fuentes, and a man who has only identified himself as "Todd from Scottsdale" — confirm that the creature matched no known species catalogued by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, a fact that department spokesperson Janet Calloway was very tired of being asked about by press time.

Marco Fuentes, who has been tracking chupacabra activity in Pima County for eleven years with a success rate he describes as "spiritually rich if statistically humble," says the Tuesday sighting is the most credible he has documented. He was also being chased at the time, which he acknowledges may have affected his observational rigor. "I got a partial photograph," Fuentes told WTC News, "and a hamstring injury I’m genuinely proud of."

I’ve seen blurry things in this desert for over a decade. Tuesday was different. That thing had intent. Also, I PR’d my 5K without meaning to, so I have complicated feelings.

— Marco Fuentes, Amateur Cryptozoologist, Licensed Electrician

As of this reporting, Hollis has completed four consecutive morning runs, averaging just over five miles each. She has signed up for a 10K in March and purchased a headlamp, a reflective vest, and, at Fuentes’s recommendation, a trail camera she has positioned near the saguaro cluster. She says she feels, for the first time in years, genuinely excited about exercise. "Everyone always says you just need to find your why," Hollis told me, lacing up outside her home Thursday morning as the sky turned pink over the Rincons. "I found mine. It has spines and no verifiable taxonomy. But honestly? So does my spin instructor." She turned, clicked on her headlamp, and disappeared into the desert. This reporter did not follow. I have a perfectly adequate threat level threshold, and it is clearly labeled unknown.