Like many of you, I heard about Micah True going missing via Facebook and I prepared myself for the worst.
It looks like the worst has come to pass as his body was found Saturday evening in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest. No news yet as to the cause.
The ultrarunner Micah True was also known as Caballo Blanco and was introduced to the world in Chris McDougall’s bestselling book, Born To Run.
Tesfaye Alemayehu on his way to victory in 47:34. (SRN photo.)
There was a time in the not too distant past, where 60-minutes for a ten mile run was the demarcation line between serious and non-serious runners. The local Buffalo Stampede 10 mile race would produce a bushel of sub-60 minute finishes, and the Stockton’s California 10 wouldn’t even give you a shirt unless you broke 60-minutes.
While local races still usually deliver a few speedy times, the crowd is pretty thin when you get under six minutes per mile.
As I’ve written before, a little prize money goes a long way. Now, with this year’s $15,000 prize purse and PAUSATF grand prix status, the Sactown 10 delivers as a serious, competitive race.
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.
Last week, I wrote about some repairs of the parkway around the 3 mile mark. The work was supposed to have finished by now, but there have been delays.
The notice from the Sacramento County Regional Parks said:
Beginning Thursday, March 1, the American River Parkway Bike Tail will have a short detour near Mile 3 while work is being performed to repair damage (undermining) to the trail by beavers. The detour will take trail users off the paved tail for less than 100 feet and onto the adjacent unpaved maintenance road. The detour will be in effect until the repairs are completed.
Huh?
I’m not sure how I missed a race that encourages you to run in your underpants, but there it was in today’s Bee.
I’m happy to see the Bee covering a local race–but kind of sad it has to be because of a gimmick like running in underpants.
Oh well.
Results are here.
Proponents of barefoot running often speak of the improved efficiency of barefoot versus shod running, but for some reason we still don’t see many barefoot runners at a competitive level.
Why is this?
A recent study published online in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise worked to minimize the possible confounding factors that have plagued prior research.
To tease out the differences that could be attributed only to the shoes or lack of shoes, the researchers worked with experienced barefoot runners and all the runners in the study were midfoot strikers–with or without shoes.
Then, the researchers added weight to the feet of both the shod and barefoot runners and found, not surprisingly, that people use more oxygen as the weight of the foot or shoe increased.
Huh?
Last Sunday morning, Scott Downard pinned on a race bib for the Cowtown Marathon (the one in Fort Worth, Texas) and ran 2:31:40 and was the first across the finish line by six minutes.
The trouble was that the bib Downard was wearing was actually that of a friend who couldn’t make the race.
In what was no doubt an awkward moment for everyone involved, Doward, according to the Star Telegram, admitted “without any prompting” that the bib wasn’t his.
Race management disqualified Downard for not being a registered runner and instead awarded the win to Kolin Styles, who was the next to finish in 2:37:53.
While this seems to be a pretty odd story, apparently the exact same thing happened at the 2003 race!
Read the whole sad story in the Star-Telegram.
Time to plan for 2012!
We’ve just added many more races to this year’s calendar–bringing us to more than 100 for your racing pleasure.
Start planning!
Do you have what it takes to go to London?
In case you’re wondering, Flotrack has the qualification standards up on-line.
How hard could it possibly be? (Hint: Pretty hard.)
If you’ve ever run in one of our many, wonderful parks, you’ll appreciate this essay from McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies.
If you’ve never surfed over to McSweeney’s, you owe it to yourself to check it out. There is some fabulous writing there and some of it is really, and truly hilarious.
To begin, let me go on record as saying that you are, undoubtedly, the fastest jogger at the park. You burst out of the wooded thicket and into my sight like a firework of sweat and sleevelessness amidst Sunday’s leisurely banality.
I don’t know if the writer, Eric Torres, is a runner or not, but he puts his literary finger on the experience of watching that person weaving, perhaps obnoxiously, through the crowded foot traffic in the park. (more…)
