Sacramento Running News

The World Masters Athletics Championships (AKA World Masters Track and Field Champs) are a little more than a month away and there is excitement in the air. It’s a little like you’re a kid waiting for Christmas, except maybe you’re hoping that Santa Claus is going to bring you that massive track meet you’ve always wanted!

(I suppose I should task the interns with rounding up some better metaphors.)

Most of the venues are pretty easy to figure out. One world-class track is pretty much the same as another. The critical question for most of the events is: What’s the weather going to be like? (It’ll be July in Sacramento so the odds are good it will be warm and sunny.)

The question I’ve heard most often is “Where are they going to run the marathon?”

The WMA website says:

The WMA marathon will be held over five loops on the three-meter-wide asphalt trail along the American River Parkway. This was the site of the 1981 U.S. National 20k Championship. The flat, tree-lined course starts and ends on the Sacramento State campus near the primary stadium.

If you look at the maps (PDF) posted by the race organizers, you’ll see that they only show the campus portion of the route.

I was a bit confused by this so I contacted race director John Mansoor for the scoop.

You'll cross this bridge five times.

The route will start on (the) CSUS campus just south of the Guy West over crossing. It will circle CSUS once going counter clockwise and go onto the bike trail at Almuni Grove. It will then go counter clockwise to the Watt Ave bridge crossing on the west side of Watt Ave bridge to the bike trail to Guy West bridge, crossing Guy West and repeating this loop four more times (five total). On the fifth loop, when crossing Guy West, you go over the skyway down to the quad area and finish.

If you ran this year’s Jed Smith Ultra Classic, the WMA marathon course (aside from the loop on campus) should sound remarkably familiar.

Mansoor also says the miles and every 5K will be marked, AND there will be aid every mile. Start time is 0500.

John Mansoor is the race director for the California International Marathon, so you should be in good hands.

And in case you are curious, the fastest seed time I could find in the list of registered athletes was that of Kenyan Kipkemboi Cherop, who was listed with a 2:17:33. Good luck!