Sacramento Running News

Ashley Carroll powers to the win at the Willow Hills XC Open (SRN photo)

Did you run cross country in high school and now miss the sport? Or did you never run cross country but wonder what it would be like?

Even if the rosy glow of youth is long behind you, you can still get in on the fun at some fast, local races. Prices are low, so don’t expect bands or swag bags, just good times and fierce competition.

Folsom was the place for the 5th Annual Willow Hill Cross Country Open, this past Saturday. This race is ably hosted by the Buffalo Chips Running Club and is part of the PAUSATF Cross Country Grand Prix, so top runners throughout Northern California were out in force and winning times on the hilly 5 Km were fast.

The women’s race was first to run, and the Impalas’ Ashley Carroll, 32, ran away from SRA’s Lea Wallace, 26, in the last mile to win in a time of 18:09. Wallace finished second in 18:19. Ibet Allan, 38, running for West Valley Track Club, was third with an 18:40 finish.

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Micah True (AKA Caballo Blanco)

Run Free: The True Story of Caballo Blanco, a feature-length documentary about ultra-running legend Micah True, will screen at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento on Monday, September 21 at 7 p.m. This one-night-only event is sponsored by the Buffalo Chips Running Club.

Micah True, better known as Caballo Blanco – the White Horse – was the focal character of Christopher McDougall’s 2009 best-selling book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen about the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico. Also known as the Rarámuri, or Running People, they are some of the best long-distance runners in the world.

Caballo Blanco was an enigmatic visionary who lived and ran with the Tarahumara after moving to remote Copper Canyon in the 1990s, and who created the fifty-mile Copper Canyon Ultra-Marathon to honor their running traditions and aid in their sustainability.

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Saori Imamura races for the win, while Mario Sanchez cheers. (SRN photo)

A big crowd of speedy women (and a few men) lined up in River Park this morning for the Buffalo Chips’ Susan B Anthony 5K.

The race, founded in 1976, is the region’s oldest women’s race.

Over the years, the times have waxed and waned, but this year the top times were pretty brisk.

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Laura Matz hams it up for the camera. (Photo by Abe Underwood)

Braving unseasonably warm weather–some might even say it was hot–several hundred runners gathered for the 39th annual Buffalo Stampede and the 18th annual Parrott Migration, this past Sunday.

The Stampede is the race and the Migration is a fun-run, which starts an hour earlier to give the slower runners more time to finish the course.

Starting and finishing at Rio American High School, the flat, ten-mile course winds through one of the region’s better neighborhoods, and includes some short out-and-back sections where you can see who’s in front and who’s behind you.

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Iain Mickle (#241) leads the Masters Men’s race. (Photo courtesy of Sean Dulany/Freeplay Magazine)

In Saturday’s first Pacific Association race–the women’s 5K–Lindsay Tollefson made it three years in a row with her win at Rebel’s XC Challenge, at Granite Park.

Tollefson, 28, of Roseville, took first with a 17:34 over Tanya Ferreira, 24, of Watsonville, who finished second in 17:58.

The third woman finisher was Madeline Kramer, 26, of Oakland, who brought it home in 18:00.

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Ramona Sanchez (center, white shirt, bib 320) and others line up for the start of the 2013 SBA 5K (Photo by Steve Barbour)

On Saturday morning, nearly 400 women lined up for the start of this year’s Susan B Anthony 5K in River Park.

Now on it’s 38th year, the Susan B. Anthony 5K, hosted by the Buffalo Chips Running Club, is the region’s longest-running women’s race.

Racing in picture-perfect weather (for August), Ramona Sanchez, 36, of Sparks, Nevada, dominated the field to win with a speedy 17:23 finishing time.

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Runners finishing five miles in the heat. (SRN photo)

One of the longest-running traditions in the Sacramento running community is the Free Fourth of July 5 Miler. The race through River Park, hosted by the Buffalo Chips, has been celebrating America’s freedom with free running for the past 37 years.

This year, despite the heat, nearly 1,000 hardy souls showed up to take part–including representatives of most of the area’s running clubs and training groups.

This is a low-budget affair so there is no chip timing–just good old fashion stop watches. Here are the top finishers:

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Meghan Arbogast on her way to a new American age group record for 50 miles. (SRN Photo)

If you were looking for a top finish at this weekend’s Jed Smith Ultra Classic, you’d better have brought your “A game” because some of the country’s top talent was there throwing down.

There are many (many!) ultras in California and they are all, for the most part, pretty long. Some of them are known to be beautiful. Others are popular, mountainous, hot, sadistic, and sometimes famously hard to get into. Jed Smith has always been about speed.

The Jed Smith Ultra Classic, put on by the Buffalo Chips for the past 34 years, includes three events–a 30km, a 50km, and a 50 mile race. They are all run on an accurately measured, 4.85 mile loop course along the American River that is ideal for setting records and running 100k team qualifying times–as long as the weather on the first day in February is fine.

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Masters men lead pack at Willow Hills XC (Photo by Craig Newport)

While you are no doubt aware there are thousands of dedicated road racers in the area, you may not realize there is also a smaller group of dedicated cross country runners churning up the turf at local and regional cross-country races.

For adults in Northern California, the major cross country grand prix is organized by the Pacific Association of the USA Track and Field. These are extremely competitive races–particularly in the open divisions.

In the 2011 Pacific Association’s Cross Country Grand Prix, the River City Rebels men remained a force in the region with many in the top ten.

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The end of 2011 is upon us so it’s time to check out the results of the major road race series/grand prix that local runners compete in.

Local

We’ll start with Sacramento’s own Buzz Oates RunSac Race Series. This year-long series of local races is a points competition with over $7,000 in prize money and bonuses. Points are earned based on age-graded performances in more than a dozen top Sacramento-area road races. There are awards for team and individual competition, and in 2011, there were several hundred individuals and eight local teams vying for the prize money.

The top placing individuals for 2011 were Janice Kesterson, 57, running for the Buffalo Chips, and Terry Baucom, 54, running for Fleet Feet Racing.

Second and third individual women were Karen Jeffers, 48, with the River City Rebels, and Stacey Worthen, 38, running for Fleet Feet Racing.

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