Sacramento Running News

Kevin Pool gets the win. (SRN Photo)

It always seems like summer is finally winding down when cross country races pop up on the calendar.

This year, for your running pleasure, there are three PAUSATF Grand Prix cross country races in the Sacramento area. These races are quite competitive as they draw talented runners from across Northern California.

It was a little hot, but there was a good crowd on hand as The River City Rebels hosted the first of these races today in Granite Regional Park: the First Annual Rebels XC Challenge

Today’s race followed the usual format, with separate races for women, masters men, and open men. For this race, the women ran 5K and the men ran 7K.

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Coach George

By George Parrott, Special to SRN

In the Western U.S., we have only the Prefontaine Meet in Eugene in May that hosts any of the world’s top track and field athletes. The May date is too early for much in the way of top performances, but it is a chance to see what track and field might, and used to, be in this country.

In NYC, the Adidas Grand Prix is also part of the Diamond League schedule, and this year saw a sub 4-minute mile in the high school invitational race.

But in Europe, track and field, or “athletics” as it is termed there, is still a major sport. Appearance fees, performance incentives and end-of-season bonuses bring out the absolutely best the world has to offer in athletics for the Diamond League in the major European events on the 14 event overall schedule.

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The Start of the 2011 Susan B. Anthony 5K (Photo courtesy of Craig Newport)

If you were in River Park on Saturday morning, you were in for a treat as the Susan B. Anthony 5K, one of Sacramento’s oldest running traditions, showed it is as important as ever.

The Buffalo Chips have been hosting this race for 35 years, and Race Director Carol Parise has been at the helm for the past several of those years. This experience showed and the race continues to be a popular first race for many women in the region.

“We were really overwhelmed by the response for this year’s race,” said Race Director Carol Parise. “Our numbers were up significantly from last year’s event, so clearly, there is a demand for a well run, supportive, women’s race in Sacramento.”

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Jenny Hitchings after the 2011 Eugene Marathon

Local speedy master, and Buffalo Chips Race Team coach, Jenny Hitchings gets the Age Group Ace treatment in the June issue of Running Times magazine.

Check it out!

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The Pacific Association of the USA Track and Field has posted a reminder of the new requirement for teams competing in their Grand Prix events.

As of March 1, 2011 PA/USATF clubs are required to have a minimum number of certified USATF officials (with an LDR/XC specialty) on their club roster to score team points on the PA Road and Cross Country Grand Prix circuits.

This only applies to teams with 25 or more athletes competing, which is pretty much all the big local clubs.

Clubs fielding 25 to 49 runners need one official. Clubs fielding 50 to 99 need two, and 100 or more need three. Details of the requirement are posted here (PDF).

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As we say goodbye to 2010 it’s time for those of us who care to look back and see which local runners ended up on top of the heap.

There is probably a way that some industrious person could analyze all the results of races run by local runners and come up with a ranking that no one could understand, kind of like NCAA football. Unfortunately for you, I am not this industrious. Fortunately for all of us, there are actual races with results and a few really competitive race series that you can test yourself in.

The big daddy of regional competition for  amateur athletes is the Pacific Association USA Track and Field Grand Prix. The PAUSATF region is much more than Sacramento–running north to the Oregon border down to San Luis Obispo, and from the coast to just beyond Reno, Nevada. There is a lot of talent in that pool (including Kevin). There are team and individual results and you can look up your favorite runners’ results here.

I am not going to break out the individual results because there are too darn many due to all the age, distance, and gender divisions. There are many local runners, from the big local teams, landing in the top-ten of their respective divisions.

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Dan Weintraub chases Marie Sample to the finish line.

It’s been a week since the marathon and it seems like a good time to  finally wrap up the news on the event. Hopefully it was worth the wait as we’ve got a bucket-full of fun facts for you!

The weather was close to perfect for this time of year. Although the streets were wet from the previous night’s deluge, the rain quit before the start and waited to resume until later in the afternoon.

Dylan Wykes, a Canadian, led wire-to-wire for the win in 2:12:39. Ethiopian Buzunesh Deba, the defending women’s champion, was first woman in 2:32:13.  Read what the Bee’s John Schumacher has to say about it.

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Hopefully it won't be too rainy for us!

Looks like it might rain.

The Sacramento Bee promises “start to finish” coverage of the event. Evidently, they are tired of getting scooped by the Sacramento Running News.

This year, the California International Marathon is offering “Live Results” and athlete tracking. If you are spectating or supporting  a loved one, you can use this feature to minimize the amount of time you’ll be spending in the rain.

The CIM has posted the list of runners, relay teams and race numbers here. If you are spectating, be sure print out the list so you can shout out the names of random runners as they come up the street. It confuses them. This is good. It can take their minds off the pain and get them wondering about something other than “What was I thinking?”

Also, be sure to check out CIM’s spectator information.

Whether you are running or not, be sure to check out the CIM Expo. They usually have some deals and fun merchandise to check out. As an added bonus, you can meet me at the Buffalo Chips booth this afternoon, where I’ll be weighing in the Clydesdale and Athena runners.

Good luck if you are running tomorrow! I look forward to seeing all of you on the starting line.

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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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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