Sacramento Running News

By now, I think we can all agree that exercise is key to good health and aging well. If you’re reading this website, I’ll assume that you’re a runner. As runners, we all face motivation that ebbs and flows. We have training days that are hard. Mornings that are cold and dark. Workouts where we’re the only one that shows up.

Some days our muscles are still sore from the prior day’s workout.

There are days we feel fat, hungry, cranky, lazy, and sleepy. Some days our shoes hurt our feet. Some days our feet just hurt. Some days everything hurts.

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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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One of many exciting starts

Folsom High School’s Willow Hills cross country course saw some heavy action at this weekend’s sectional championships.

There was laughter, there were tears. There were thrills and spills. There were zillions of volunteers.

Under perfect running conditions, Granite Bay Girls and Davis Senior Boys took the Division I titles.

It should be noted that Granite Bay has the seed of a dynasty in that their freshman Clare Carroll posted the fastest girl’s time of the day in 17:55.

Results and more on ESPNRISE.

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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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