Sacramento Running News

Local runner and writer Sam McManis has an article in today’s Bee about ultrarunner Karl Meltzer’s planned 45-day run of the 1,840 mile long Pony Express Trail.

I know some folks would think this is crazy (my mother, for example), but I’d love to take on something like this! It would be hard to think of something more fun than spending days on the run.

He can do this, of course, because he’s being sponsored by Red Bull in this adventure. I’m not sure who would underwrite the undertakings of a mid-pack runner such as myself. Sadly, I’m not as good looking as Dean Karnazes or as fast as Karl Meltzer.

(more…)

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about endurance athletes over-doing it and failing to make it to the starting line.

Local trainer and ultra-running entrepreneur Julie Fingar, and other local runners are quoted extensively.

Most of us in this sport are driven to train. The challenge is to find that point where the training is having a net-negative impact on our lives and our performance. That’s often a tough call!

Thanks to Andy for the tip!

This weekend, Mary Coordt of Elk Grove, known to many local runners as “that woman in front of me” finished 2nd place in Sunday’s IAU World 50Km championships.

The race, held in Galway City, Ireland, included a deep field of the world’s best ultra distance runners.

In the process of her silver finish, Coordt, 41, has tentatively set a new American masters record of 3:28:30, besting Oregonian Kami Semick’s time of 3:29:47 from last year’s championship on the island of Gibraltar.

The weather was fine up until race day which brought wind and rain, says Coordt. “But the worst was the cars and exhaust…and I got almost hit twice, had to stop. And no one to run with for the entire 50k!”

The top woman was Susan Harrison of Great Britain, who finished in a rather brisk 3:15:42.

(more…)

The 09-10 Montrail Cup ended in June with the Western States 100, but the 10-11 Montrail Cup began Saturday with the Where’s Waldo 100Km in Williamette Pass, Oregon.

Some of the top US ultrarunners lined up again this year and a few local standouts ended up with top-flight results.

After declining to defend his 2009 Tahoe Rim Trail 100 mile championship (3-weeks after Western States 100), Erik Skaden took on Where’s Waldo and finished 4th overall in 10:21, closely followed at 10:28 by a surging Mark Lantz who came in 5th overall and top master.

The overall winner of the men’s race was Timothy Olsen, who came in at 9:25. The women’s winner was 49-year-young Meghan Arbogast, coming in at 10:52.

(more…)

This is not a running story, per se, but it’s a great story about a local runner doing a good deed, for a, er, steed.

Jack Meyer, an ultra-marathon runner from Foresthill, Calif., went beyond the call of duty, when the Tevis volunteer rescued a black Anglo-Arab mare that had fallen into a ravine. Christoph Schork’s 9-year-old Castle Country Karahty (“Kat”), ridden by David Shefrin, slid from the Western States Trail July 24 during the horse and rider’s attempt to complete the 100-mile Tevis Cup ride.

Read the whole story in, where else, The Horse.com.  I’m proud to know you, Jack!

I’ve been traveling a lot to some beautiful parts of the United States, and I’ve had some really nice runs in some wonderful places.  (e.g., This morning’s run next to the Vermillion River in Western Montana.)  However, I have never seen anything as nice as what we have in Sacramento and the surrounding area.  The American River Parkway is a treasure.  The multi-use trails in the foothills spoil us.  In our area, different user groups have banded together to advocate trail development, protection and maintenance.  In other parts of the US, I find myself sharing the beauty with speeding cars and trucks.

Yesterday, the Bee’s Sam McManis had an excellent article and description of one of those local multi-use trails:  The Olmstead Loop trail.  His story includes an account of a somewhat tense interaction with horseback riders that brought back memories of several encounters of my own with horse people.  One time stands out in my mind.  While running with a friend near Cool we came across a horse and rider.  The rider demanded that we get off the trail so she could pass.  At that moment, we were surrounded by an ocean of poison oak. A testy conversation followed.

Most of my encounters with horsemen and women have been fine.  Most of these horses are amazing animals.  However, some riders give me the impression that their horses have no business being on a multi-use trail.  Is it too much to ask for folks to only bring horses that are well trained (or at least well socialized) onto these trails?

(more…)

Once again, my wobbly stomach didn’t allow me the glorious finish I’d hoped for this year’s Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. However, Alaskan Geoff Roes managed to bang out a course record 15:07 on a modified “Snow Year” course. There have been criticisms that this record should have an asterisk next to it due to the modified “snow year” course being a bit faster than the standard course. But having personally slogged through the several miles of snow before and after the “easier” section, I’m not sure the overall course was appreciably faster. Also, if we’re going to go down that road, we need to consider the fact the old course record set by Scott Jurek in 2004 was set on a modified course that was created after the devastating Star Fire of 2001.

The race was impressive in that it was really a race. Roes won, but only by a few minutes over Anton “200 miles a week” Krupicka who ran 15:13.

The top two women were also only a few minutes apart, with Tracy Garneau besting Meghan Arbogast in 19:01 and 19:15, respectively.

(more…)