The American River at the Guy West Bridge
It looks like the local flood control guys are worried about this storm coming through and are increasing flows from Folsom Dam.
It remains to be seen whether this will impact the trail or the upcoming Shamrock’n Half Marathon.
The Sacramento Bee has some info.
Here’s the press release from the Bureau of Reclamation.
Tuesday’s Bee has the strangest story about a local Hash House Harrier run gone seriously, epically, sideways. Apparently, some hashers were allegedly caught on Aerojet property and Aerojet security allegedly roughed them up went all “Guantanamo” on them.
Reportedly, the security guards generally went nuts over the flour the hashers were using to mark the route (HAZMAT!!!) and hilarity ensued.
Some of the hashers sued and in response, naturally, Aerojet filed a counter-suit. Two years of intense legal wrangling were followed with–silence from all the interested parties.
Some of the details in the Bee story seem to be a bit off –in particular identifying the Doughnut Dash as a “hash. It just happens to be listed on the club’s bulletin board.
Here is some good news about the long term prognosis for those of you who are facing possible knee replacement surgery: the long-term prognosis is pretty good.
A long-term study of knee replacement patients, presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Diego, found that most patients were doing very well 20-years later–even those who had broken all the rules and ran or played tennis.
A majority of the patients could walk indefinitely, and about the same number were “pain free.”
It is important to note that these patients were pretty old, as the average age at time of surgery was 64. So being pain free and highly mobile 20-years later (with one or more knees replaced) is a pretty sweet deal!
Time to start planning!
You will be pleased to learn I finally got around to performing a thorough update of the race calendar for 2011. There are now around 40 events listed. These are generally limited to within 50-miles of the Capitol, but some significant regional races are also included. Go crazy!
I’m not done adding events. (Well, I’m done for the evening.)
I’m no longer including start times because I figure runners should check the actual race site for that level of detail.
If you’ve been isolated from your email and the internet for the past few days, you might not be aware that the Boston Marathon has finally made changes to its registration process.
These changes are an attempt to address complaints about the race filling too rapidly and faster runners getting shut out by the overwhelming number of slower runners.
As written about here, and elsewhere, the 2011 Boston Marathon sold out in eight hours. This led to immediate speculation about whether the qualification standards were too loose.
The BAA chose to leave the qualifications standards intact for the 2012 race, but will open up registration earlier for runners with qualifying times well below the standard.
After years of solid performances in shorter, regional races, local speedster Iain Mickle knocked out a really fast marathon at Rock and Roll Arizona last weekend.
Mickle’s 2:38:54 was good enough for 19th overall, first in his age group, and a life-time personal best. He just turned 50. The Bee’s Bob Shalit gives him a shout-out in the business section.
For weeks now, my copy of California Track & Running News has been languishing in the bottom of the old Gatorade bucket where all the bills go after the postman shoves them through the mail slot of the Sacramento Running News world headquarters. When I finally dug through the layer of Final Notices to retrieve it, I was delighted to see Joey Bonfiglio’s photo gracing the front cover and again on page 16.
Bonfiglio is not so local now that she is living and tearing up the roads around San Diego, but for a while there she was abusing the Sacramento running scene and even kicking me down in the last 400 meters of the 2008 Buffalo Stampede. (Not that I’m bitter or anything.)
Apparently, she is running the XC circuit for Team BSK/Running Center–whatever that is–and won the City College 10K, took 3rd at the Bonita Stampede 8K, and won the Cougar Challenge 5K. Nice!
While I don’t think that LaLanne was really a runner, he certainly was ahead of his time with regard to promoting the value of a healthful diet and exercise.
Rather linking to a news article about his passing, I thought I’d share a couple of clips from his show. Here he is, sometime in the late 50s or 60s, ranting about diet and exercise as the fountain of youth and happiness.
Glassy water on Lake Natoma
For all my rowing friends!
The Pacific Association of the USA Track and Field has posted a reminder of the new requirement for teams competing in their Grand Prix events.
As of March 1, 2011 PA/USATF clubs are required to have a minimum number of certified USATF officials (with an LDR/XC specialty) on their club roster to score team points on the PA Road and Cross Country Grand Prix circuits.
This only applies to teams with 25 or more athletes competing, which is pretty much all the big local clubs.
Clubs fielding 25 to 49 runners need one official. Clubs fielding 50 to 99 need two, and 100 or more need three. Details of the requirement are posted here (PDF).
Rock pile on the AR50 trail
Most of us spend so much time on the river below Folsom that it is easy to forget there is a beautiful world just upstream from the Folsom Dam.
This photo was taken this afternoon, just a couple of miles from the end of the paved bike path at Beals Point. You should check it out some time.
