Sacramento Running News

As we say goodbye to 2010 it’s time for those of us who care to look back and see which local runners ended up on top of the heap.

There is probably a way that some industrious person could analyze all the results of races run by local runners and come up with a ranking that no one could understand, kind of like NCAA football. Unfortunately for you, I am not this industrious. Fortunately for all of us, there are actual races with results and a few really competitive race series that you can test yourself in.

The big daddy of regional competition for  amateur athletes is the Pacific Association USA Track and Field Grand Prix. The PAUSATF region is much more than Sacramento–running north to the Oregon border down to San Luis Obispo, and from the coast to just beyond Reno, Nevada. There is a lot of talent in that pool (including Kevin). There are team and individual results and you can look up your favorite runners’ results here.

I am not going to break out the individual results because there are too darn many due to all the age, distance, and gender divisions. There are many local runners, from the big local teams, landing in the top-ten of their respective divisions.

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Now that your December marathon is done and the baked goods are piling up around the office, are you worried about packing on the pounds over the holidays?

To investigate the impact of when you exercise , a team of sadistic, Belgian researchers put a group of athletes on a horrible, high-fat diet (probably not much different than the standard American holiday diet) and had them not workout, workout before breakfast, or workout after breakfast.

Naturally, the non-exercising group packed on the pounds (those lazy bastards!). But there was a significant difference in the weight gain between the other two groups.

The after-breakfast exercise group, of course, put on less weight than the non-exercise group, but they still gained. However, the pre-breakfast exercisers hardly gained any weight at all.  Their blood chemistry was better too, showing better insulin response.

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You promised yourself you’d get at least eight hours sleep tonight, but you just downloaded the latest Stieg Larson novel to your iPad and now you can’t wait to see what comes next.

You remember you’ve got that hard track workout scheduled for the morning but figure your target marathon is still months away and while you may not be at your peak tomorrow, you can catch up later.

We all know, after all, that sleep is important for top athletic performance and that extra sleep can improve performance and even that lack of sleep makes you fat.

If that isn’t enough to shut your eyes and dream about Lisbet Salander then maybe an appeal to your vanity will do the trick. It turns out that not only does lack of sleep make you fat and slow, we now know it makes you ugly, too.

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Last weekend, Dylan Wykes came down from Kingston, Ontario and won CIM, leading wire-to-wire. I know you are all wondering: “Who is that guy?”

Flotrack has a lengthy interview with Wykes.

It’s an interesting read, covering the race and what it takes to train for something like that. Turns out, Wykes is a Montreal Canadiens fan.

Dan Weintraub chases Marie Sample to the finish line.

It’s been a week since the marathon and it seems like a good time to  finally wrap up the news on the event. Hopefully it was worth the wait as we’ve got a bucket-full of fun facts for you!

The weather was close to perfect for this time of year. Although the streets were wet from the previous night’s deluge, the rain quit before the start and waited to resume until later in the afternoon.

Dylan Wykes, a Canadian, led wire-to-wire for the win in 2:12:39. Ethiopian Buzunesh Deba, the defending women’s champion, was first woman in 2:32:13.  Read what the Bee’s John Schumacher has to say about it.

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The Western States Endurance Run lottery was held today and some 200 “lucky” runners now have plans for the next seven months.

I see some familiar names on the list. Is yours one of them? Full lottery results are here.

Hopefully it won't be too rainy for us!

Looks like it might rain.

The Sacramento Bee promises “start to finish” coverage of the event. Evidently, they are tired of getting scooped by the Sacramento Running News.

This year, the California International Marathon is offering “Live Results” and athlete tracking. If you are spectating or supporting  a loved one, you can use this feature to minimize the amount of time you’ll be spending in the rain.

The CIM has posted the list of runners, relay teams and race numbers here. If you are spectating, be sure print out the list so you can shout out the names of random runners as they come up the street. It confuses them. This is good. It can take their minds off the pain and get them wondering about something other than “What was I thinking?”

Also, be sure to check out CIM’s spectator information.

Whether you are running or not, be sure to check out the CIM Expo. They usually have some deals and fun merchandise to check out. As an added bonus, you can meet me at the Buffalo Chips booth this afternoon, where I’ll be weighing in the Clydesdale and Athena runners.

Good luck if you are running tomorrow! I look forward to seeing all of you on the starting line.

If you’ve been reading race reports here you’ve noticed I am constantly amazed by the racing dominance of a handful of local masters women.

Sam McManis profiles these local speedsters in today’s Sacramento Bee. The article is titled: 40-It’s the new fast. Be sure to check it out! Try not to be intimidated.

I have been known to gently tease the fans of barefoot running, and wearers of minimalist shoes. However, I’m not against running barefoot, but in fact believe it can be a helpful training tool.

As part of my training for CIM, I ran a mile or so barefoot on grass a couple of evenings a week. I gave it up when the days got shorter and it was too dark after work to spot the dog-doo.

A non-running friend of mine told me about a coworker sharing his devotion to barefoot running, saying that we’d evolved to run barefoot. My friend wondered if maybe we had evolved to invent shoes.

Let’s just say I’m a bit skeptical about the hype. Barefoot running zealots claim that running barefoot will cure almost any running related ailment. If you are injured while running barefoot, they say, it is because you are doing it wrong.

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Yesterday, I stumbled on this rather startling interview of Marion Jones on the Daily Show.

You may remember Marion Jones from the 2000 Olympics, where she was an unstoppable and glamorous force for the US team, winning the hearts of Americans and five medals.

That summer, there was a whiff of scandal as we learned her shot-putter husband, C.J. Hunter, had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. (In his case, I think “doped to the gills” was the actual, scientific term used.)

By 2004, when Jones came to Sacramento for the Olympic trials, rumors related to the BALCO doping scandal were swirling and she was a pale imitation of  the runner we’d seen in Sydney.

While it seemed everyone around her was tainted, it wouldn’t be until 2006 that Jones failed a doping test (for EPO). However, the “B” sample tested negative and Jones went back to competition.

During the federal investigation of BALCO, Jones was finally boxed into a corner and she admitted to perjuring herself, and to using steroids during training for the 2000 Olympics.

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