Sacramento Running News

This past Sunday,  Paul Ngeny of Auburn (by way of Kenya) came to town and ran away with a commanding win of the now officially huge Urban Cow Half-Marathon.

Ngeny’s time of 1:07:51 was announced as a new course record, leaving this reporter confused as the race’s website lists Dennis Rinde’s 1982 course record as 1:05:38. (We promise to post an update when we figure this out.)

UPDATE: Race Director Rich Hanna explains that Dennis Rinde’s record is the “Race Record” set on the old Sacramento marathon course, but Ngeny’s time is the new course record for the Cowtown/Urban Cow course.

Following up in second and third were Chad Worthen of Sacramento and Ben Deland of Pleasanton, who finished in 1:13:17 and 1:14:35, respectively.

In the women’s race, masters runners dominated with Midori Sperandeo, of Folsom, picking up the win in 1:20:17, and Jenny Hitchings, of Sacramento, coming in second with 1:23:34.

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The start of the men's race at last year's Willow Hills XC race

If you have fond memories of the cross country races  you ran back in high school, and are maybe getting a little tired of pounding out 5Km races on city streets, you might be happy to learn that the Sacramento area will be hosting two (Two!) adult cross country races this fall.

The first is the Buffalo Chips hosted Willow Hills Cross Country Open, which will be held next weekend (October 9th) at Folsom High School.

The second, hosted by Golden West is the Ancil Hoffman Challenge, which will be held at Ancil Hoffman Park (naturally) on November 6th.

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XC runners take off at Willow Hills

When I look at the calendar, I see that it is now autumn. When I go outside for a run, I still feel the iron grip of summer’s heat holding fast to Sacramento. But there are signs of change. The teams are back.

Nothing says “autumn is coming” like the herds of high school cross country teams hitting the bike trail.  It harkens me back to a fictitious time in my youth, testing myself against my own preconceived limits.  Learning that the pain was temporary but the accomplishment of a goal had permanence.

I’m embarrassed to say that the naked and less flattering truth is while I did go out for cross country in my sophomore year, I only made it through about a week’s worth of practices.  I showed up the first week of school and got thrown into the pack that was running at what seemed like break-neck speed around the campus.

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