Sacramento Running News

Kirsten Schneider finishes 3rd at the Women's Fitness 5K. Photo courtesy of Randy Wehner.

There has been a lot of racing going on around here! With all the rain and mud we’ve been slogging through, it’s hard to believe that this is the beginning of the summer, short-distance race season–but it is.

At Sunday’s Kaiser Permanente Women’s Fitness Festival 5K, Caroline Kirui, of Auburn (by way of Kenya), smoked all comers with a 16:26. This was surely one of the fastest women’s 5K times we’ve seen in town lately.

Rounding out the rest of the top-three were two of Sacramento’s top masters talents–Mary Coordt, of Elk Grove, was the second finisher in 17:45, and Kirsten Schneider, of Sacramento, was third in 18:24.

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As with last month’s PAUSATF Grand Prix half-marathon in Humboldt, locals dominated at Clarskburg in both individual and team results.

This year, the traditional 30Km PAUSATF race was dispensed with, but there were still a boatload of overlapping races associated with this event. There was a 20-miler, a half marathon, a 5 Km, and a kids half-mile. With the half-marathon being the PA (i.e., faster) event and starting just 20 minutes after the 20 miler, half-marathon runners enjoyed the special thrill of weaving through the endless, and often clueless, ranks of slower 20-mile runners.

I was pleased to see locals–Kevin Pool of Folsom and Lindsay Nelson of Roseville–get the win in this PA race–both with solid times. Pool’s 1:07:56 would, in a typical local race, give him a commanding lead. Here, however, runner up Sergio Reyes was only seconds back in just over 1:08. In fact, there were eight men under 1:10!

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This past Sunday,  Paul Ngeny of Auburn (by way of Kenya) came to town and ran away with a commanding win of the now officially huge Urban Cow Half-Marathon.

Ngeny’s time of 1:07:51 was announced as a new course record, leaving this reporter confused as the race’s website lists Dennis Rinde’s 1982 course record as 1:05:38. (We promise to post an update when we figure this out.)

UPDATE: Race Director Rich Hanna explains that Dennis Rinde’s record is the “Race Record” set on the old Sacramento marathon course, but Ngeny’s time is the new course record for the Cowtown/Urban Cow course.

Following up in second and third were Chad Worthen of Sacramento and Ben Deland of Pleasanton, who finished in 1:13:17 and 1:14:35, respectively.

In the women’s race, masters runners dominated with Midori Sperandeo, of Folsom, picking up the win in 1:20:17, and Jenny Hitchings, of Sacramento, coming in second with 1:23:34.

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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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Over the past few years, the Race for the Arts 5K has managed to remake itself from a unique Friday evening, race in downtown to just another Saturday morning 5K in Land Park.

Still, Land Park is a great place to run a 5K and the weather was perfect, so a good crowd assembled to take on the event and support local arts organizations.

Did I mention the weather was perfect? For last year’s race, we “enjoyed” high temps and Gulf Coast-like humidity. This year, it was absurdly cool for late August–about 59 degrees at the start–and clouds filled the sky. It was a perfect fall morning, about a month early.

The overall event seemed larger this year, and the race organization made use of the park’s amphitheater for showcasing local performers. Young opera singers serenaded us as we warmed up and a rock-band was on the stage as we cooled down.

Many of the usual (fast) suspects were on hand for the start and once all the kids that went out at a sub-5:00 per mile pace faded, local speedsters Steven Schenck and Mike Styczynski battled it out for first.

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Once again the streets of River Park were filled Saturday with a happy mix of fitness enthusiasts and some of Sacramento’s fastest women at the Susan B. Anthony 5K. And just like last year, top local speedsters Midori Sperandeo and Mary Coordt battled it out and finished 1, 2 with only few seconds between them.   Although if you were looking for them to slow down you’d be disappointed as this year they shaved a dozen seconds off last year’s winning time, coming in at an eye-popping 17:33 and 17:36!

This being one of very few women-only races in the region, it attracts some of the top local talent.  There were 20 women running under seven-minute miles!

With seven finishers in the 70+ age bracket (including the always amazing Barbara Miller who finished in 23:51) you can guess the race caters to all participants and this year’s race was bigger than ever, with over 450 finishers. Complete results are here.

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