Sacramento Running News

Kirsten Schneider on the way to a 50K win. (Photo courtesy of Gold Rush 100K)

McDonald, Schneider earn Gold Rush 50k victories

By John Schumacher

Paulo Medina and Jen Pfeifer took the long way home to individual titles and Mike McDonald and Kirsten Schneider ran point-to-point for their victories on a pleasant, picturesque Saturday in the second annual Gold Rush 100k/50k.

Orangevale’s Medina won the men’s 100k, completing the course that began and ended in historic Folsom in 10 hours, 6 minutes and 2 seconds. He ran conservatively for most of the course that followed the American River and Folsom Lake into the foothills before catching leader Brian Miller of El Dorado Hills with 12 miles to go and pulling away.

Miller finished second for the second consecutive year, this time in 10:22:56.

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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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The leaders of the open men's race at around 1.6 miles. (Photo by Craig Newport)

In Folsom last Saturday, the hills were alive with the sound of running. The weather was ideal for a day outside, so why not a little cross country?

The 3rd Annual Buffalo Chips’ Willow Hills XC Open saw runners from all over northern California join local racers for this Pacific Association of the USA Track and Field Grand Prix event.

There were three 5K races making up the event: Women (for open and masters women), Masters Men, and Open Men.

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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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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.

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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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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