Sacramento Running News

By Ellen Moore, SRA

For the elite American runners in this year’s California International Marathon field, there is an added incentive to run fast – a $5,000 incentive to be exact.

The Sacramento Running Association, organizers of the California International Marathon, added an American Performance List bonus to its $50,000 prize purse for the 34th annual CIM on Dec. 4 and the result has been early commitments from many top U.S. runners.

Standout Stephanie Rothstein Bruce and 2012 CIM winner Daniel Tapia were among the first elite athletes to enter the race and headline the deep American fields.

“I chose CIM because the course, the weather in Sacramento in December and the passion of the city can’t be beat,” said Bruce. “The bonus structure that CIM implemented is a great step forward in encouraging Americans to elevate their performance in the marathon and strive for fast times.”

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Asics Aggies’ Reyes and SRA’s Kibii prevail at the NorCal 10

The PAUSATF Road Grand Prix kicked off with the NorCal John Frank Memorial 10-Mile today in Redding. For the men, Sergio Reyes, 32, from Los Osos, out-kicked the field to win in an impressive 48:51. Meanwhile, Auburn’s Jane Kibii, 28, won handily amongst the women with a 58:42 finish.

The top local man was Lincoln’s Tim Tollefson, 28, who finished 3rd overall in 51:21.

Full results are here. (more…)

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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Tesfaye Alemayehu on his way to victory in 47:34. (SRN photo.)

There was a time in the not too distant past, where 60-minutes for a ten mile run was the demarcation line between serious and non-serious runners.  The local Buffalo Stampede 10 mile race would produce a bushel of sub-60 minute finishes, and the Stockton’s California 10 wouldn’t even give you a shirt unless you broke 60-minutes.

While local races still usually deliver a few speedy times, the crowd is pretty thin when you get under six minutes per mile.

As I’ve written before, a little prize money goes a long way. Now, with this year’s $15,000 prize purse and PAUSATF grand prix status, the Sactown 10 delivers as a serious, competitive race.

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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.

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Some of us seem to be outrunning Father Time!

There are a few “age related” running stories for you today.

At Sunday’s Toronto Marathon (flat, fast and festive!), 100-year-old Fauja Singh became the first  centenarian to finish a marathon. His 8:25:16 wasn’t a particularly speedy time, but I think by the time you reach his age (You should be so lucky!), you’re a winner just by making it through your training! See a video of him finishing here.

Meanwhile, at that same race, while Fauja Singh was still working his way to the half-marathon mark, Ed Whitlock was wrapping up his marathon in 3:15:54. What makes this spectacular is that Whitlock is 80-years-old. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that he won his age group. It was also a new world record. Of course, the record he broke was his own that he’d set six-months prior.

Incidentally, Whitlock was in Sacramento this summer for the World Masters Championships, where he set new age-division world records in the 1,500 and 10,000 meters. His times were 5:48 and 42:39, in case you are curious (Wow!).

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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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