Sacramento Running News

Mo Bartley takes home a sweet, sweet plaque for her effort. (SRN photo)

On Saturday, several hundred runners kicked off the Memorial Day weekend with a run of the No Excuses 5K, Sacramento’s long-standing, age-graded race.

The key to winning this event is to be unusually fast for your age, and this year it was Mo Bartley, 59, of Auburn, who hit that sweet-spot and trounced all comers with a 20:44 finish that age-graded to 14:11.

Finishing in second place was Janice Kesterson, 60, of Oakdale, with a 21:07 that age-grades to a 14:15.

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Ranger Ollie sez: “Be careful!”

It’s the weekend and I’m sure most of us are planning to spend part of it on the American River Parkway. There are a couple of things to keep in mind.

On Saturday, May 17th, the American River Parkway Trail will be closed from Discovery Park to Del Paso Boulevard, from 6:00 a.m. to noon, for the Eppie’s Kid’s Duathlon and Fitness Festival.

The event starts and finishes at Discovery Park. More details about the closure and the race can be found here (PDF).

Then, on Thursday, May 22, Parks staff will be removing a large dead oak tree just east of the Ambassador parking lot near the 18.5 mile marker on the American River Bike Trail (near lower Sunrise).

Work will begin at 8:30 a.m. and should be completed by 11:00 a.m. There may be delays on the trail due to the size of the tree and its proximity to the trail.

Plan accordingly!

Kirsten Schneider on the way to a 50K win. (Photo courtesy of Gold Rush 100K)

McDonald, Schneider earn Gold Rush 50k victories

By John Schumacher

Paulo Medina and Jen Pfeifer took the long way home to individual titles and Mike McDonald and Kirsten Schneider ran point-to-point for their victories on a pleasant, picturesque Saturday in the second annual Gold Rush 100k/50k.

Orangevale’s Medina won the men’s 100k, completing the course that began and ended in historic Folsom in 10 hours, 6 minutes and 2 seconds. He ran conservatively for most of the course that followed the American River and Folsom Lake into the foothills before catching leader Brian Miller of El Dorado Hills with 12 miles to go and pulling away.

Miller finished second for the second consecutive year, this time in 10:22:56.

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