Sacramento Running News

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.

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Lukas Temer nabs the win in his first 100 mile race. (Photo by Agnès Pommier)

Every summer, a million words are spilled in honor of the big, local hundred mile race: The Western States 100. Under the shadow of so much reporting, it would be easy to miss the region’s other, smaller, long-standing hundred mile race: The Rio Del Lago 100.

This race had been Norm Klein’s baby for many years, and last year he passed the baton to new Race Director Molly Sheridan.

This year, Sheridan reconfigured the course significantly—eliminating the loop around Lake Natoma, and replacing the lost mileage with a repeat out and back from Twin Rocks to Cardiac. “This part of the course is so cool that we wanted you to experience it again!” says the race website.

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