Sacramento Running News

You’ve trained for months and got up at the crack of dawn for the big race. You waited in Folsom for the start, shivering in the dark, with thousands of your friends.

Now, 25 exhausting miles later, you can almost smell the finish line as you pound your way down L Street.

Suddenly, a half block ahead of you, lights flash and bells clang as the guards drop at the railroad crossing. “Can this really be happening?” you wonder. It is certainly possible.

At last year’s Sactown 10, this very thing happened, despite assurances from the railroad that it would not. Subsequently, race management made the prudent decision to re-route the course to avoid the crossing.

But the California International Marathon, finishing at the Capitol, has to cross these tracks. Without completely changing the 30-year old race, there is simply no other way to get from the start to the finish–and Sacramento has no railroad overpasses in Midtown.

For years, the railroad has agreed to hold the train for a few hours, allowing the runners to pass safely. Now, after Union Pacific declined to allow safe passage of the Kaiser Permanente Women’s Fitness Festival–forcing that June event to cancel their half-marathon (The 5K is still on!)–some are worried that CIM is in jeopardy.

Last year, CIM didn’t get assurances of safe passage until the month before the race, and race organizers are now concerned that Union Pacific will break with a 30 year tradition and block this year’s event.

Even if you don’t have any interest in running the marathon, you should be interested in the economic boost this area gets from 14,000 runners, family members, support crews, and media descending on the town.

Last year, it took an act of congress (Congresswoman Doris Matsui, specifically) to get the train to cooperate. What will it take this time?

Read more in the Sacramento Bee.