Sacramento Running News

Don’t procrastinate!

The trend for marathons these days is to fill up and fill up early.

It seems that the local, popular California International Marathon is no different.

The race filled up last year by August 22nd, and race management is reporting fewer than 1,000 of the total 8,000 entries remain available.

I guarantee you it will fill to capacity, so if you are planning to run the race–register soon.

This is a far cry from the good old days when we could sign up for the race at the expo!

If you are a faster runner (approximately able to meet Boston qualifying standards), there will be an additional window for registration between October 1st and October 15th for runners who can meet the Guaranteed Entry Standards.

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Ramona Sanchez (center, white shirt, bib 320) and others line up for the start of the 2013 SBA 5K (Photo by Steve Barbour)

On Saturday morning, nearly 400 women lined up for the start of this year’s Susan B Anthony 5K in River Park.

Now on it’s 38th year, the Susan B. Anthony 5K, hosted by the Buffalo Chips Running Club, is the region’s longest-running women’s race.

Racing in picture-perfect weather (for August), Ramona Sanchez, 36, of Sparks, Nevada, dominated the field to win with a speedy 17:23 finishing time.

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Kim Conley at the SacTown 10 (Photo by Sean Dulany/Freeplay Magazine)

By John Schumacher

Olympian Kim Conley returns to the international stage hoping for a breakthrough. Daniel Tapia eagerly awaits his first chance to wear a USA jersey.

The two Sacramento Running Association standouts head into the IAAF World Championships in Athletics beginning Saturday in Moscow, Russia ready to build on recent successes.

Conley, a former UC Davis standout, used an SRA training grant to step back from her duties as an Aggies assistant coach and focus more on her training. The result: a dramatic third-place finish in the women’s 5,000 meters at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and a trip to the Olympic Games in London, where she recorded a then personal-best 15:14.48 to finish 12^th in her heat.

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Kevin Cimini gets chased to the finish by Carol Parise. (SRN photo)

As I sat through the long awards ceremony after the Fab 40s 5K, the question that kept running through my mind was “Where are all these fast people coming from?”

For a 5K in flat-as-a-pancake Sacramento, it’s a somewhat challenging course–not just because it starts and finishes on the highest hill in Sacramento.

There are deceptive, rolling hills on that East Sac course, and yet, Saturday’s times were still quite fast.

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Alan Abbs on the Bench of Despair. (Courtesy Alan Abbs)

A couple of months ago, I was talking to Alan Abbs and he was jokingly urging me to join him for his run of the Last Annual Vol State Road Race, a race across the State of Tennessee.

Having been in Tennessee in July, I wasn’t feeling a strong urge to take him up on the suggestion, but it sounded kind of fun.

“I’m doing it unsupported,” he said. “So a lot of it is figuring out how to get all the aid you need from mini-marts.”

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Your author feeling a little worked after passing the “baton.” (Photo by Abe Underwood)

Each summer, about the time it gets really, really hot in Sacramento, I start to wonder where all these crazy bicyclists on the Parkway have come from. Then someone usually reminds me that Eppies Great Race is around the corner.

Eppies bills itself as “the worlds oldest triathlon.” I can’t tell you if this is true, but I can tell you it is easily the oldest in the area. Non-swimmers love it and traditionalists loathe it because instead of swimming, contestants must paddle a kayak (or some other boat) down the American River from Sunrise to River Bend Park (6.35 miles).

You can do the race as a relay team or “ironperson” style and competitors range from elite to “just off the sofa.” Some individuals and teams come back year after year, for decades on end.

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Runners finishing five miles in the heat. (SRN photo)

One of the longest-running traditions in the Sacramento running community is the Free Fourth of July 5 Miler. The race through River Park, hosted by the Buffalo Chips, has been celebrating America’s freedom with free running for the past 37 years.

This year, despite the heat, nearly 1,000 hardy souls showed up to take part–including representatives of most of the area’s running clubs and training groups.

This is a low-budget affair so there is no chip timing–just good old fashion stop watches. Here are the top finishers:

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On Sunday, Folsom’s Allison Maxson, 27, ran away from the field at the Kaiser Permanente Women’s Fitness Festival 5K, winning in a solid 17:19.

Her nearest competitor was Folsom’s Erin Wachter, 26, who came in second with a 18:03.

Rounding out the top three was Juliet Wahleithner, 35, of West Sacramento, who finished in 18:32.

The mother-daughter team of Stacey and Chase Worthen won the mother-daughter team competition with times of 19:14 and 21:47, respectively.

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Barbara Miller running strong (SRN photo)

On an uncharacteristically cool Memorial Day morning, several hundred runners and walkers lined up in Land Park for another running of the No Excuses 5K.

No Excuses is Sacramento’s original opportunity for fast young men to get their clocks cleaned by older, fast women and pre-teens in the age-graded results–a race within a race, so to speak.

In the age-graded results, winner Barbara Miller, 73, of Modesto continues to dominate by continuing to run pretty darn fast–age graded or not.

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Kim Conley on the way to the win (Photo by Sean Dulany/Freeplay Magazine)

By John Schumacher

Defending champion Tesfaye Alemayehu pushed hard from the start, daring anyone to stay with him in the third annual Credit Union SACTOWN Ten-Mile Run.

Olympian Kim Conley treated the race as a strength workout, taking a longer-term view as she prepares for an upcoming track season she hopes earns her a spot on the U.S. World Championship team.

Both strategies worked well on a mild, sunny Sunday morning, with Antioch’s Alemayehu and West Sacramento’s Conley winning individual titles in an event that serves as USA Track & Field’s Pacific Association 10-Mile Championship and helps raise money for Children’s Miracle Network.

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