If you’ve been reading race reports here you’ve noticed I am constantly amazed by the racing dominance of a handful of local masters women.
Sam McManis profiles these local speedsters in today’s Sacramento Bee. The article is titled: 40-It’s the new fast. Be sure to check it out! Try not to be intimidated.
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.
This weekend, Mary Coordt of Elk Grove, known to many local runners as “that woman in front of me” finished 2nd place in Sunday’s IAU World 50Km championships.
The race, held in Galway City, Ireland, included a deep field of the world’s best ultra distance runners.
In the process of her silver finish, Coordt, 41, has tentatively set a new American masters record of 3:28:30, besting Oregonian Kami Semick’s time of 3:29:47 from last year’s championship on the island of Gibraltar.
The weather was fine up until race day which brought wind and rain, says Coordt. “But the worst was the cars and exhaust…and I got almost hit twice, had to stop. And no one to run with for the entire 50k!”
The top woman was Susan Harrison of Great Britain, who finished in a rather brisk 3:15:42.
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.
