Sacramento Running News

Erin Wachter enjoying the perfect trail conditions. (Photo courtesy Erin Wachter)

What’s the recipe for course records and fast times on a long-running trail race? Perfect conditions and and a stacked field, clearly.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to be out there in person for this year’s Way Too Cool 50K, but as the results were coming in via text and Twitter, it was immediately apparent that something special and amazing had taken place.

First off, Patrick Smyth’s winning time of 3:04:48 is insane. That is a sub-6:00 pace over a hilly trail run, and a four minute improvement over Max King’s record 3:08:50 that was set in 2013.

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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.

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The sun is out, the trees are blooming, the birds are chirping, and there is a buzz of excitement around here as 6,000 runners prepare to take on a couple of the area’s largest events.

Tony Lafferty and Rory Bosio take a break from volunteering at registration to check out a map of the new WTC course.

This year’s  Way Too Cool 50K will be run on what is anticipated to be a faster, new course featuring around 1,000 feet less climbing and no more two-way traffic.  (Sorry folks, it’s still 50Km.)

With nearly 700 registered runners, this will easily be one of the largest trail ultras in the country, and the

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