Sacramento Running News

The lead pack after 8-miles: Gary Gellin, Rich Hanna, Shaun Martin and Sam Robinson

This past weekend featured two of the regions most popular races.

On Saturday, over 700 ultrarunners, including some of the top names in the sport, lined up near the Cool Firehouse for a go at the remarkably dry Way Too Cool 50K.

This was the second running on a new and designed to be faster course. For last year’s debut of the new course, mud was the theme of the day and thigh-deep stream crossings kept a lid on the pace.

(more…)

Huh?

I’m not sure how I missed a race that encourages you to run in your underpants, but there it was in today’s Bee.

I’m happy to see the Bee covering a local race–but kind of sad it has to be because of a gimmick like running in underpants.

Oh well.

Results are here.

The Napa Valley Marathon was this morning and if you were hoping for a top-spot, you had better have brought your long-game. A quick survey of the results shows a surprising number of the region’s top ultrarunners among the top finishers.

The winning woman was San Francisco’s Devon Crosby-Helms, whose 2:39:37 appears to be a new course record. According to my March issue of Ultrarunning, Crosby-Helms is also the woman who ran the fastest 100Km in the North America last year. (7:46:33 at the Mad City 100Km)

I don’t recognize any of the other top women, but the men’s field was stacked with some of the top ultra guys.

(more…)

Meghan Arbogast on her way to a new American age group record for 50 miles. (SRN Photo)

If you were looking for a top finish at this weekend’s Jed Smith Ultra Classic, you’d better have brought your “A game” because some of the country’s top talent was there throwing down.

There are many (many!) ultras in California and they are all, for the most part, pretty long. Some of them are known to be beautiful. Others are popular, mountainous, hot, sadistic, and sometimes famously hard to get into. Jed Smith has always been about speed.

The Jed Smith Ultra Classic, put on by the Buffalo Chips for the past 34 years, includes three events–a 30km, a 50km, and a 50 mile race. They are all run on an accurately measured, 4.85 mile loop course along the American River that is ideal for setting records and running 100k team qualifying times–as long as the weather on the first day in February is fine.

(more…)

You are probably by now aware that the Olympic Marathon trials were held in Houston this past Saturday.

During your long run this morning, you may have asked your running buddies something like, “I wonder how that woman from our club did? I think her name is Susan. Or maybe it’s Suzanne. I’m not quite sure but, you know, she’s has kind of brown hair and is kind of skinny? You know who I’m talking about?”

No. I don’t know, but I did look through the results and tried to pick out as many locals as I could find and collected their results here.

(more…)

Masters men lead pack at Willow Hills XC (Photo by Craig Newport)

While you are no doubt aware there are thousands of dedicated road racers in the area, you may not realize there is also a smaller group of dedicated cross country runners churning up the turf at local and regional cross-country races.

For adults in Northern California, the major cross country grand prix is organized by the Pacific Association of the USA Track and Field. These are extremely competitive races–particularly in the open divisions.

In the 2011 Pacific Association’s Cross Country Grand Prix, the River City Rebels men remained a force in the region with many in the top ten.

(more…)

Hitchings nearing the finish at the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville

This morning, Sacramento’s Jenny Hitchings won the Huntsville, Alabama Rocket City Marathon.

After a near miss earlier this year in Eugene (2:46:10), Hitchings was aiming for an Olympic Trials qualifying time at last weekend’s CIM.

Fairly early in the race, she was off pace and knew it was not going to happen, so she dropped at the half-marathon point. Later that day, she joked a bit with me about finding another marathon to run the following weekend, before the qualifying window closes.

(more…)

Kevin Pool at the 2010 San Diego Half (Photo courtesy of Kevin Pool)

Local speedster Kevin Pool stormed Philadelphia this weekend and wound up taking 2nd overall in the Philadelphia Marathon–just 6-seconds behind Ethiopia’s Folisho Tuko.

Tuko’s winning time was 2:19:16.

The winning woman was Mariska Kramer, of the Netherlands, in 2:35:46.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

We are in the heart of the fall marathon season and there are many stories to choose from! Here is a sample from around the world.

Major

This past weekend was the Bank of America Chicago Marathon where Ryan Hall was due to a) win, b) set an American Record, and/or c) set a course record.

Unfortunately for Ryan Hall, there were some other fast guys out there on the course, too.  After hanging with the lead pack for 14 miles, Hall faded to 5^th (no small thing there!) and Kenyan Moses Mosop was the one to (barely) set a new course record of 2:05:37.

Liliya Shobukhova of Russia was the women’s three-peat champion, with a smoking fast 2:18:20. This is the 4^th fastest marathon time ever by a woman.

(more…)