Sacramento Running News

Ryan Hall should be running in Redding soon. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

In case you haven’t heard, Ryan and Sara Hall are moving to Redding.

Expect a new course record at the NorCal 10.

Coach George

By George Parrott, Special to SRN

In the Western U.S., we have only the Prefontaine Meet in Eugene in May that hosts any of the world’s top track and field athletes. The May date is too early for much in the way of top performances, but it is a chance to see what track and field might, and used to, be in this country.

In NYC, the Adidas Grand Prix is also part of the Diamond League schedule, and this year saw a sub 4-minute mile in the high school invitational race.

But in Europe, track and field, or “athletics” as it is termed there, is still a major sport. Appearance fees, performance incentives and end-of-season bonuses bring out the absolutely best the world has to offer in athletics for the Diamond League in the major European events on the 14 event overall schedule.

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Pistorius in 2007 (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

While on this very day, Oscar Pistorius will be running in the 400 meter semi-finals of the World Championships, over at the Science of Sport, Ross Tucker continues to dig into the research on whether those’ prosthetic lower legs give him an unfair advantage. (Hold onto your hat! Tucker posts five lengthy and interesting analyses of the science and politics.)

While Pistorius won the right to compete in the World Championships through a legal appeal, I have my doubts about whether he (or anyone else on these prostheses) will be allowed to compete in open competition for very much longer.

I have always viewed cross-training as something to help prevent injury. Some claim it can make you faster. The science on this has been sketchy at best, and some new studies (as reported by the New York Times) do not really clarify anything.

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Phil Oppenheim: December 31, 1944 – August 17, 2011

This past week, the Sacramento running community lost a good friend and staunch supporter.

Whether you knew his name or not, the chances are beyond good that you’ve been helped by him at a local race. If there was a race in town, Phil would likely be giving his time to make it better.

Whether it was working pre-race packet pick-up or the finish line at your local 10K, Phil would be there enthusiastically pitching in. Capital Road Race Management lists Phil on their website as “Race T-shirt Distribution Engineer.”

When I took up the challenge of this website, Phil became a loyal reader, supporter, and regular source of information and encouragement.

Phil was never, to my knowledge, a fast runner, but he had tremendous respect for those who were and for the work they put in. Most of all, he was a believer in the transformative power of exercise.

I will miss the frequent news tips and updates that Phil sent my way, but mostly I will miss his greeting as we pass along the trail through Discovery Park during our weekday runs, and his obvious pleasure in just being out there.

Jesse Barragan took 3rd in the 50K despite a bad stumble that had him walking the last mile or so. (Photo courtesy of Scott Sandow)

Sunday’s Run on the Sly trail races continue a long tradition of August trail racing along Jenkinson Lake in El Dorado County. This year, more than 600 runners completed the various races.

In the 50K, Palo Alto’s Cameron Berg ran away with the overall win in a smoking 3:57 on that hilly course.

The next three in were locals. These were Lincoln’s Michael Fink, finishing in 4:17 (only a couple minutes off his age group course record), Folsom’s Jesse Barragan, with 4:30, and the women’s winner Jen Pfeifer, of El Dorado,  in 4:33.

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We’re all waiting for Skynet to become aware and enslave the humans, but they still need to work on the design for the bipedal robots to do their dirty work.

Here is an early prototype that is capable of running 6.8 miles per hour. The fusion power source is still in development, so it can only run in circles–so far.

Look for it at a 10K in your neighborhood–soon. Better start training!

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.”

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This seems gimmicky as anything, but I can’t help hoping it will come to Sacramento some day.

It’s a Zombie Infested 5K Obstacle Course!

Will they be slow zombies (as in Dawn of the Dead) or fast zombies (as in 28 Days Later)?

A mob of the usual suspects at the Kaleo 5K. (photo courtesy Capital Road Race Management)

On Saturday morning, a couple hundred of the usual suspects showed up at the Sacramento Sheriff’s Training Academy for the Kaleo 5K.

Sacramento speedster Mike Styczynski made a rare appearance in a local race and ran away with the win in 16:40. The second man in was Folsom’s Daniel Kinsella, who finished in 17:06. The third man in was Sacramento’s Geoff Butler, who finished a couple minutes back in 19:51.

The winning woman in the 5K was 16-year-old Jillian Brown, of Sacramento, who finished in 20:37. Next in was Sacramento’s Christi Cantle, with a 21:45. Rounding out the top-three was Wendy Schmitt, also of Sacramento, who finished in 21:57.

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Happy finishers (Photo by Matthew Perry)

There was hard work and there were challenging trails, but the weather was fine at Sunday’s Blood, Sweat and Beers Trail Run.

There is a long course (10.5 miles) or a short course (5.9 miles) and the race directors promise “a challenging mix of single track mountainous trail, a totally cool canal system, unimproved dirt roads with just a hint of paved roads to keep things interesting.”

Sounds like a good time!

In the long course, Chris Vargo led the way to win in 1:07:24. He was followed in by Matthew Twietmeyer , who ran 1:12:30. The 3rd place male was Eric Peterson, in 1:15:22. All were from Sacramento.

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