Sacramento Running News

Folsom’s Kevin Pool, 28, ran a personal best at the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday  but his 2:19:34 finish time was a tantalizing few seconds shy of the sub-2:20 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time he was looking for.

It was good enough for a 12th place overall.

Auburn runner Brad Poore, 33, was also a top finisher, coming in 17th overall with a 2:22:05.

Rumor has it that local running empresario Michelle La Sala also ran a personal best at Twin Cities, in 3:06:31. La Sala is better known to many of you as the Race Director of the SacTown 10.

La Sala was the fastest Sacramentan listed in the results.

The overall race winners were Kenyan Sammy Malakwen in 2:13:11, and Ethiopian woman Yeshimebet Bifa with a 2:28:24.

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In the long history of the Sacramento Running News, I don’t believe we’ve ever “printed” a special correction to an article.

I have certainly edited and updated stories on the fly when I (or an alert reader) notice a typo or a factual error.

However, last week I wrote an article about the Rebels XC Challenge, and omitted the second place finish of Miguel Nuci. This is despite the fact I saw him and Kevin Pool in a sprint race to the finish.

Of course, in my defense, Nuci’s name didn’t show up in the published results for three days or so.

So, apologies to Mr. Nuci for ignoring him in the first article and congratulations to him for his 2nd place finish in 21:22–only two seconds off winner Kevin Pool.

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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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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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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Kevin Pool winning the 2010 Run to Feed the Hungry

Folsom’s Kevin Pool finished 9th overall in this morning’s 2011 Dodge Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon, running a personal best 2:19:52!

As of the time of this post, the only results I can find are the leaderboard, and individual tracking at Competitor.com.

Pool is also the director of the CIM Relay.

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Saturday morning’s early rain showers let up long enough for runners of Redding’s NorCal 1o-Mile race to enjoy fairly warm conditions on that beautiful, if hilly, course along the Sacramento River.

The NorCal 10 is the first race of the Pacific Association USA Track & Field 2011 Grand Prix, and typically sees a highly competitive field. This year was no exception. There were 37 runners finishing the ten mile course in under an hour, including women’s winner Jane Kibii, of Kenya/Auburn, who ran 57:15!

The men’s winner was Mario Mendoza of Bend, Oregon, who finished in 51:53. Tim Tollefson of Roseville, at 3rd overall in 52:24, was the top area man, and 50-year-old Iain Mickle, of Sacramento, was the top Masters finisher in 55:57.

Jenny Hitchings, of Sacramento, was 4th woman and 2nd master, with a 1:02:40.

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Kevin Pool wins at Run to Feed the Hungry (Photo by Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee)

On an icy Thanksgiving morning, thousands of runners who were not me lined up on J Street for Sacramento’s annual Run to Feed the Hungry.

While there is no longer big prize money drawing runners from across the country and around the world (especially Africa), there were some impressive times and this race easily remains Sacramento’s premier 10 Km road race. (In 2008, there were four finishers under 30-minutes.)

Kevin Pool, of Folsom, took the overall win with a spectacular 31:15. Brad Poore of Auburn and Alan Jackson of Sacramento finished 2nd and 3rd in 31:22 and 31:26.

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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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