Sacramento Running News

The author running at wet Boston Marathon (Photo courtesy of Daniel Weintraub)

By Daniel Weintraub

Three days post-Boston, and my shoes are finally dry. I can walk down stairs without much trouble. I am feeling mostly recovered from the Marathon. But I am still not quite recovered  from the post-Marathon partying. I had not trained for that. I partied hard Monday night (i.e. four or five drinks — that’s hard for me) with Jenny Hitchings, Galen Farris, Abe Weintraub, Stephanie Ward, and Angel and Steve Simpson, friends of mine from Michigan.

Most of what happens in Boston stays in Boston, but I can say I enjoyed watching Galen announcing Jenny’s first place age group triumph to everyone we met in the bars and then seeing the normally modest Jenny take selfies with her new fans and tell her story over and over. She was doing everything but signing autographs on people’s calves. I was proud of her.

I had no such hopes for glory in Boston this year. But I was on a mission of my own. A year ago I ran my first Boston Marathon in 3:01:15, narrowly missing my goal of breaking three hours. I was on track to break three last year until my quads, thrashed by the course’s persistent but underrated down hills, locked up in the final few miles and my pace slowed to a relative crawl.

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Lloyd Levine

By Lloyd Levine

Derek Yorek ran and finished the 2015 Boston Marathon. He is not an elite athlete. Outside of his family and friends it is unlikely anyone had ever heard of him.  But on Monday, April 20th, 2015, shortly after 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time), he did something amazing, something incredibly improbable, something that makes road running the most democratic of sports.

On Monday, April 20th, 2015, shortly after 10:00 a.m. Derek Yorek LED the Boston Marathon for several minutes. Yorek ran with and in front of Wesley Korir, Lelisa Desisa, and Meb Keflezighi, the winners of the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Boston Marathons.

In what other sport could a “non-elite” line up and compete against the best the sport has to offer?

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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.

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Jane Kibii breaks the tape! (Photo courtesy of SRA)

By John Schumacher

After Timmy Brown and Angela House supplied the early energy for Sunday’s Credit Union SACTOWN Five- and Ten-Mile Run, Jordan Chipangama and Jane Kibii kept the momentum going by besting elite fields to win 10-mile individual titles.

Brown, a 5-year-old brain cancer survivor, ran in the Miracle Mile to start the festivities on a gorgeous day at the state Capitol.

House, a 13-year-old leukemia patient, sang the national anthem before the five-mile run.

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Mason Myers deserved a fist bump for his masters win in 2:41:26.

Local Men Dominate

By Mark Winitz

NAPA, Calif. — Two-time Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon winners Chris Mocko and Devon Yanko ascended the winners platform yet again at today’s 37th Annual Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon.

Mocko, age 28, of Folsom, who previously won the race in 2011 and 2012, emerged victorious in the men’s race with a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 6 seconds.

Yanko (née Crosby-Helms), 32, of San Anselmo, dominated the women’s field after previously emerging victorious at the Napa Valley Marathon (NVM) in 2007 and 2012. The winners headed a sold-out field of 3,000 entrants who were greeted by blue skies, little wind, and ideal temperatures in the low-40s rising to around 60 degrees by the 6-hour finish cut-off time.

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Jane Kibii takes 2nd! (Photo courtesy of Erik Aguilar/Painani.org)

By John Schumacher

Volha Mazuronak’s surge down the stretch produced a women’s course record and Jacob Chemtai’s late move delivered a personal best en route to individual titles on a cool, fast Sunday at the California International Marathon.

Mazuronak, from Belarus, pulled away from Colfax’s Jane Kibii in the final seven miles to win the women’s race in 2 hours, 27 minutes and 33 seconds, shattering the 15-year-old course record of 2:29:21 set by Australian Nickey Carroll.

Chemtai, a Kenyan living in Santa Fe, N.M., dropped Zambia’s Jordan Chipangama and Kenyan Kiplangat Terer in the closing miles to win the men’s race in 2:11:57, the eighth-fastest time in the race’s 32-year history.

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By John Schumacher

A strong group of international runners heads the men’s field while a talented American runner looks like the favorite on the women’s side for the 32^nd annual California International Marathon on Dec. 7.

Kenyans Julius Koskei, Eliud Ngetich and Jacob Chemtai, Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Alemayehu and Zambia’s Jordan Chipangama all appear capable of winning the men’s race and the $10,000 first prize on the 26.2-mile course from near Folsom Dam to the state Capitol.

Koskei, the 2013 CIM runnerup, owns a 2:10:14 personal best, the fastest time in the men’s field. Alemayehu, who lives in Antioch, has run 2:11:18, owns two top-three CIM finishes and is a two-time Credit Union SACTOWN Ten-Mile Run champion.

Ngetich ran 2:11:59 in 2013 and Chemtai delivered a 2:12:39 performance earlier this year. Chipangama also stood out in 2014 with a 2:12:22 effort.

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Three of the region’s top masters runners (L to R): Terry Baucom, Midori Sperandeo, and a cheering Rich Hanna. (Photo courtesy of Randy Wehner Photography.)

If you had been at the first Run to Feed the Hungry, you’d hardly recognize the massive event it’s grown into during the last two decades.

Ballooning from several hundred to 27,000, it’s become one of the largest races in the country and probably the largest Thanksgiving race period.

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Tim and Lindsay Tollefson before the 2012 Trials (Photo courtesy Tim Tollefson)

By John Schumacher

Tim and Lindsay Tollefson headed into the 2013 California International Marathon hoping to record qualifying times for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

The couple might have achieved something else last December during the 26.2-mile race from Folsom to the state Capitol: a Guinness World Record.

The Tollefsons’ combined time of 5 hours – he ran 2:18:29, she finished in 2:41:31 — appears to be the fastest marathon run by a married couple in the same event. Guinness lists Kenta and Norika Soto of Japan as the current record holders for fastest married couple, aggregate time, with a 5:28:23 mark.

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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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