Sacramento Running News

Asics Aggies’ Reyes and SRA’s Kibii prevail at the NorCal 10

The PAUSATF Road Grand Prix kicked off with the NorCal John Frank Memorial 10-Mile today in Redding. For the men, Sergio Reyes, 32, from Los Osos, out-kicked the field to win in an impressive 48:51. Meanwhile, Auburn’s Jane Kibii, 28, won handily amongst the women with a 58:42 finish.

The top local man was Lincoln’s Tim Tollefson, 28, who finished 3rd overall in 51:21.

Full results are here. Read the rest of this entry →

The dust has settled and USATF has reinstated Gabrielle Grunewald as the indoor 3000 meters National Champion.

In my admittedly inexpert opinion, based on repeated viewing of the available video, Grunewald didn’t deserve a DQ. Track–particularly indoor track–is a physical sport. Elbows are thrown and minor jostling is commonplace.

Truthfully, I can’t really fault Salazar for protesting or even appealing the initial dismissal of his protest. It’s pretty normal for a coach to advocate on behalf of his athlete, even to the point of obnoxiousness. What was disturbing to me (and many other observers) was that there seemed to be an extra-legal process that led to the disqualification, and that Salazar got deferential treatment.

If Grunewald had simply been DQed, there would have been complaints. There would have been accusations of favoritism, but if it appeared the rules had been followed the disturbance would have passed. But instead, the protests grew in volume. “USATF corruption” was a trending hashtag on Twitter.

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Hanna (left) and Pommier lead the pack. (Photo by Joe McCladdie)

There is a certain appeal that has kept one of the regions oldest ultras going year after year. While some races tout scenic or difficult routes, the Jed Smith Ultra Classic, hosted by the Buffalo Chips, is where ultrarunners go to be fast.

The race features two ultra distance races–50 mile and 50 km–as well as a 30 km and new 13.1 mile “fun run.” All of these are run on a 4.9 mile loop course along the American River, between Watt Avenue and the Guy West Bridge at CSUS.

This year, despite being early February, the weather was more like fine spring day, which made for pleasant running, spectating, and volunteering.

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If you can think of any ultrarunners who have enjoyed the level of domination that Ann Trason experienced at her prime, please share because I cannot think of any.

She won the Western States 100 an astonishing fourteen times.

She won the Comrades Marathon (South Africa) and turned around and won Western States a couple weeks later–twice (96 and 97)

While many lesser runners have gone on to make money with endorsements and public speaking events, Trason has largely avoided the public eye. For this reason, this interview of Trason on Ultrarunner Podcast is a real treat.

If you want more, check out Meghan Hicks’ article and interview about Trason at iRunFar.

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The River City Rebels masters men’s team ended up on top of the team standings in the 2013 PAUSATF Road Grand Prix!

That’s an impressive feat in this competitive grand prix. Rumor has it that West Valley Track Club will be gunning for the Rebels in next year’s competition.

Complete team results for the Road Grand Prix are here.

In cross-country, the Rebels also took top honors in both men and women’s senior (50+) standings!

Complete team results for the XC Grand Prix are here.

Geoff Butler ran every day in 2013 and made a pretty cool video about it.

And based on the video, he seems to have avoided rain for most of those runs. Well done!

He traveled around a bit (more than a bit!), but much of this is shot in some of my favorite local running venues. Check it out!

In her marathon debut, Becky Wade runs 2:30:41 for the fifth fastest time by an American this year.

While I am not one of those crazy CIM “streakers,” this year I marked my 11th CIM finish, and 13th start. Many of them were cold–especially at the start–but none were as cold as this one.

How cold was it? It was so cold that some of the buses at the starting line were capped with snow–snow that wasn’t melting despite the buses’ heaters running.

It was cold enough to ice over the Power Aid in the paper cups at the aid stations.

And it was also cold enough for the spilled water and electrolyte drink to freeze on the ground, turning the road along the aid stations into crazy, jostling ice rinks.

I’m sure RD Michelle LaSala has added “road salt” to the aid station supply list, something no previous race director has ever had to worry about.

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Unlike road races that can accommodate thousands of runners, popular trail ultras are often limited to many fewer runners than would like to participate. As a result, lotteries are becoming a common theme.

You may already know the Western States Lottery is closed and the “lucky” runners will be drawn this weekend.

There are, coincidentally, a couple other big lotteries underway right now, too.

The Way Too Cool 50K lottery is currently open and closes on the 8th.

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Looks like the Blue Devils girl’s cross country team is on its way to Oregon for the National Championships.

Anchored by the speedy Fiona O’Keeffe’s, the Blue Devils came in 2nd in the State Championships in Fresno leading to an at-large invite to the Nike Cross Nationals.

O’Keeffe’s time of 16:58 was good enough for the overall win, and fastest ever sophomore time.

The Davis Enterprise has the story.

Flotrack has the video:

Watch more video of Fiona O’Keeffe on flotrack.org