Saori Imamura races for the win, while Mario Sanchez cheers. (SRN photo)
A big crowd of speedy women (and a few men) lined up in River Park this morning for the Buffalo Chips’ Susan B Anthony 5K.
The race, founded in 1976, is the region’s oldest women’s race.
Over the years, the times have waxed and waned, but this year the top times were pretty brisk.
Kim Conley (Photo courtesy of the SRA)
Former UC Davis standout Kim Conley, who now runs for the Sacramento Running Association’s Elite Team, ran a personal best Tuesday in the first round of the women’s 5,000 meters at this year’s Olympic Games, but failed to advance to the final.
Conley finished 12th in the second heat with a time of 15: 14.48–well ahead of her 15:19.79 previous best set six weeks ago at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene.
Conley’s teammates Julie Culley and Molly Huddle both advanced to the final, which will be run on Friday and shown at some completely random time on NBC.
The Start of the 2011 Susan B. Anthony 5K (Photo courtesy of Craig Newport)
If you were in River Park on Saturday morning, you were in for a treat as the Susan B. Anthony 5K, one of Sacramento’s oldest running traditions, showed it is as important as ever.
The Buffalo Chips have been hosting this race for 35 years, and Race Director Carol Parise has been at the helm for the past several of those years. This experience showed and the race continues to be a popular first race for many women in the region.
“We were really overwhelmed by the response for this year’s race,” said Race Director Carol Parise. “Our numbers were up significantly from last year’s event, so clearly, there is a demand for a well run, supportive, women’s race in Sacramento.”
Ladies! You’re at your local women’s running event (Susan B. Anthony 5K, Nike Women’s Marathon, Disney’s Princess Half Marathon, etc.) and you notice the five o’clock shadow on the person lining up next to you. You take a closer look.
We’re not talking about a vagueness of gender along the lines of Caster Semenya. We’re talking about a bona fide dude. It’s a guy that looks like a younger, fitter version of your uncle Louie.
Do you worry about him beating you? What would make a guy want to run in a women only race to begin with?
Would you make fun of him?
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.
