Sacramento Running News

Gary Blanco (left) and Chris Knorzer, racing in the Rebels’ special holiday singlets, battle it out for ROUS points at Thursday’s Run to Feed the Hungry 5K. (Photo courtesy of Randy Wehner Photography)

Nicholas Spector, 24, of Sonoma, and Lindsay Tollefson, 31, of Mammoth Lakes, were the big winners in the Run to Feed the Hungry 10K, on Thursday.

The annual race, benefiting the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, has grown to be one of the largest road-races in the country and typically features some of the region’s fastest running times of the year.

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Chris Knorzer is the Masters Men’s Champion (SRN photo)

On a lonely stretch of the Avenue of the Giants, in Humboldt County, hundreds of Northern California’s fastest runners met up for the Humboldt Redwoods Half Marathon, a PAUSATF grand prix event and the PAUSATF Half Marathon Championship.

For a half marathon run through the scenic but empty redwood forest, the times are typically remarkably fast, and this year was no exception.

Largely running alone, San Luis Obispo’s Sean Davidson, 23, outran the field with a 1:05:21 performance.

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Three of the region’s top masters runners (L to R): Terry Baucom, Midori Sperandeo, and a cheering Rich Hanna. (Photo courtesy of Randy Wehner Photography.)

If you had been at the first Run to Feed the Hungry, you’d hardly recognize the massive event it’s grown into during the last two decades.

Ballooning from several hundred to 27,000, it’s become one of the largest races in the country and probably the largest Thanksgiving race period.

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There is a magic place, up on the top of California, where majestic giant redwoods tip-toe down the hillsides to peek at the Eel River as she lifts her skirts and dances out to the Pacific Ocean.

And every year, Northern California’s finest runners, and a bunch of the rest of us, line up there under the canopy of redwoods for the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon and Half Marathon.

The half marathon is part of the PAUSATF road grand prix, so many of Northern California’s top road racers make the long trek up to the great green north for this out-of-the-way event.

If you make the drive to the Humboldt Marathon and Half Marathon, or its spring-time sister race, the Avenue of the Giants, don’t expect cheering crowds or convenient lodging. But you can expect a fast and scenic run through one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

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The Rebels’ Marcelo Lerda works for the Masters win. (Photo by Sean Dulany)

The first race of the Pacific Association USATF Road Race Grand Prix took place this past Saturday in Redding, with the running of the  John Frank Memorial NorCal 10 Mile.

The race is a hilly and scenic out-and-back along the Sacramento River, finishing at Lake Redding Park. (If you ever figure out where the lake is at Lake Redding Park, let me know.)

The overall winner was the Aggies’ Phillip Reid, of San Luis Obisbo, who clocked an impressive 50:18 on this challenging course.  Finishing second was West Valley Track Club’s Alex Varner, of San Francisco, with a 50:28. Varner’s WVTC teammate, Malcolm Richards, also of San Francisco, finished third in 50:47.

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Is it the steeplechase or a marathon? (Photo courtesy of Randy Wehner Photography)

When we look back on the California International Marathon of 2012, what will first spring to mind is the Atmospheric River.

Over my decades of running, I have experienced some pretty intense weather. My one run at Boston was in the infamous nor’easter of 2007.

I ran most of the stormy 2001 CIM before crapping out and slinking away in my wife’s car at mile 17.

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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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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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Strictly speaking, the San Francisco Marathon isn’t a local race–but a lot of locals run it. For that reason, I’ll usually poke through the results to see if I recognize any local runners.

While I didn’t spot any familiar locals among the top finishers, I did notice something peculiar. There were a lot of ultrarunners in the top men and women.

The overall winner was Michael Wardian, who was only a few weeks off his 3rd place finish at Badwater.

Chris Knorzer, in 5th place, has also dabbled in ultrarunning and had run the Tahoe Rim Trail 50K on July 16th. (Actually, Knorzer can’t be a real ultrarunner because he doesn’t have a blog.)

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Each fall, I make an enjoyable visit to the Humboldt Redwoods for another go at one of my all time favorite half marathons.

This past Sunday’s aptly named Humboldt Redwoods Marathon and Half Marathon is the nearly identical twin (the stereoisomer really) of the Avenue of the Giants Marathon (AKA “The Ave”) with one major difference. The Humboldt Redwoods Half Marathon is part of the PAUSATF Grand Prix and therefore draws a very fast crowd. (Also, The Ave is run in April.)

This is how a small race that starts in a little turn-off of Highway 101 has 33 finishers under 1:20 and a woman running 1:18:19 comes in 2^nd.

The weather was perfect. The race was well organized. And this year, they replaced the usual terrible cotton shirts with pretty nice technical ones.

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