Sacramento Running News

There is no escaping the inevitable!

Thursday morning’s Bee included one of their all time best running stories.

Ostensibly, the story is about Theresa McCourt and Paul Thomas, the winners of the inaugural Run to Feed the Hungry. But really, the story is a good discussion about the life-long practice of running and what to do when you are no longer at your physical peak.

Their paths illustrate the options facing fast runners post-racing-prime – to doggedly maintain near-peak fitness as long as possible in hopes of staying competitive, or to throttle back and run for the sheer joy of it.

There is, of course, a third option: not to run at all.

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St. Francis is going to State Championships. (Photo courtesy of St. Francis)

At the Sac-Joaquin Sectional Championships Meet this past Saturday, the St. Francis varsity girls outran Davis High to win 23-43. In the process of winning the meet, they also set a new team course record for Willow Hills.

The St. Francis Troubadors placed 5 runners in the top 10, and earned a ticket to the State Championship meet at Woodward Park, on November 24.

The overall winner of the varsity girls division 1 race was Davis’ Fiona O’Keeffe, with 18:08 on that hilly course. Following O’Keeffe in second place was St. Francis’ Lauren Larocco, in 18:22. Rounding out third was another St. Francis girl, Madison Rawson, who ran 18:34.

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I am deeply ashamed (Deeply!) to admit that I have been enjoying following the growing scandal surrounding General Petraeus and his relations with Paula Broadwell. Some of this enjoyment is no doubt due to election news fatigue. A lot of it has to due with the fact there seem to be few real victims (aside from the spouses, naturally) and a growing cast of really curious characters.

One of the interesting points of this story (to me) is what a hyper achiever Broadwell appears to be. High school valedictorian and homecoming queen. West Point graduate. Two masters degrees. Best selling author. Lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves. And Ironman triathlete.

Of course, all you people want to know about her is “How fast can she run?”

Lucky for you, the Wall Street Journal was able to find out for us!

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For as long as most of us can remember, you could count on a couple of things for about this time of year: the first of the Tule Fog and a long road race in Clarksburg.

The distances have changed a bit over the years (20 mile, 30 Km, etc.) but the Clarksburg Country Run has remained a Valley fixture.

Over those years, race distances have been added and there are now 5K, 10K, half marathon, and 20-mile races. Currently, the most competitive race is the half marathon. It is one of the Pacific Association USATF grand prix events and draws fast runners from throughout Northern California.

Winning the half marathon in a pretty speedy 1:05:40 was Daniel Tapia, 26, who is running for the SRA Elite. About 90-seconds back, also running for SRA Elite, was Kevin Pool, 29, who finished in 1:07:14. Miguel Nuci, 33, finished third in 1:07:31, making it a clean sweep for the SRA Elite men.

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Just imagine this running all the way to Freeport.

Sacramento was built at the confluence of two great rivers: the Sacramento and the American. They join near Discovery Park and then flow south as the Sacramento River past Old Sacramento, Miller Park, Land Park, and Pocket.

While you can run along the American River all the way up to Folsom Lake (and beyond if you are motivated), you can only run along the Sacramento River for a few miles before you run into the first locked gate (near the La Rivage Hotel).

In my decades of running in the Sacramento area, I’ve run along this locked portion of the levee at least twice. Once, many years ago, a friend and I simply climbed each fence in our way. We were yelled at by homeowners and I cut my hand on one of the tall, chain-link fences, but it was a fun and interesting look at what was possible.

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On the shoulder of Batizovský štít

In case you were wondering, I didn’t just give up on the Sacramento Running News. I have, in fact, been out of the country for most of the month of October and not able to post here.

I have been travelling in the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia where I was given the opportunity to be a guest lecturer on environmental topics.

In my down time, I had many interesting and peculiar adventures of the type you get when you can’t understand anything being said around you.

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While her time at the Nike Women’s Half Marathon isn’t likely to get her an entry to the 2016 Olympic Trials, it was nice to see that Roseville native Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Summer Sanders has taken up running.

Watch out ladies!

The Bee’s Bill Lindelof has the story.

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The internet and email was burning up today as the New York Times ran a story about runner Christian Hesch admitting to using performance enhancing drugs.

Then came the Runners World Newswire story that was a considerably more critical and provided a little more background information.

Christian Hesch could best be described as a dominate local runner, living in Southern California, so why is this important to us in Sacramento?

If you’re a competitive racer, even an age-grouper, the odds are good he has cheated you personally. I looked him up in Zinsli’s database and found Hesch has regularly competed in local and regional Pacific Association USATF races.

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You still have a chance to get in!

The California International Marathon–known lovingly here as CIM–met its apparently semi-official cap of 8,000 runners in August.

But for those of you speedy enough to meet the CIM’s time standards – five minutes slower than the Boston Marathon age-group qualifying times – you can still register until October 15th. See the website for details.

Can you run a qualifying marathon this weekend?

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Christopher Tori Smith (photo courtesy Washoe County)

Christopher Smith, the driver awaiting trial for the killing of Robert and Linda Mathis in Incline Village on December 30th of last year, has been arrested this past Sunday for allegedly assaulting a man in the restroom at ATT Park, during a Giants game.

According to reports, Smith approached his victim and started hitting him, knocking him to the ground. Smith allegedly continued attacking the man even after he had fallen to the ground.

Smith fled the scene but was captured by police who have stepped up patrols in response to prior violence at the park.

There is no information as to a motive for the assault. Smith is being held for battery, vandalism, and public intoxication.

Smith’s court date for the death of Robert and Linda Mathis is scheduled for next May.

Robert and Linda Mathis were local race directors, who managed a large calendar of road and trail races.