Sacramento Running News

Chris Conwell and Mike French celebrate their finish

Leading up to this year’s Way Too Cool 50K, the buzz was mostly about the new “faster” course. P.R.s for everyone!

As race day approached, it became apparent another key factor for the runners would be water and mud on the course. Would the loss of 1,000 feet of climbing be offset by slipping and sliding through acres of deep and sticky mud, and countless, deep stream crossings? Well, maybe.

The historic course included several miles of two-way traffic, along narrow single-track trails, and seemed designed to provoke conflict between the fastest runners and the runners at the back of the pack. The new course eliminates all the two-way traffic and knocked out 1,000 feet of climbing.

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The race was fun, fast, and muddy.

Results are up at Capital Road Race Management.

More race details to come tomorrow. I’m tired.

The sun is out, the trees are blooming, the birds are chirping, and there is a buzz of excitement around here as 6,000 runners prepare to take on a couple of the area’s largest events.

Tony Lafferty and Rory Bosio take a break from volunteering at registration to check out a map of the new WTC course.

This year’s  Way Too Cool 50K will be run on what is anticipated to be a faster, new course featuring around 1,000 feet less climbing and no more two-way traffic.  (Sorry folks, it’s still 50Km.)

With nearly 700 registered runners, this will easily be one of the largest trail ultras in the country, and the

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Today’s Bee has a nice article on Quad Dipsea champ Caren Spore. The story, by Sam McManis, talks about Spore’s history and  training for Way Too Cool 50K.

It’s nice to see local runners getting some coverage!

Rumors abound that the Recreation and Parks Commission is looking to generate more fees from Parkway users.

One potential source of revenue that has been identified by County staff is “training groups” that regularly use the parkway.

The proposed fee structure appears to be approximately $1 per person, per day–on top of existing parking fees. Here is the agenda item regarding fee schedules that was approved at the February  Recreation and Parks Commission meeting.

I suspect they are targeting the larger training groups we see on the parkway. It will be interesting to see them try to collect the fee and differentiate between “training groups” and “groups of people that get together to train.”

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This rat may be damaging her heart.

Since it seems you can never really have too much to worry about, here is a nice article about how a life-time of intense training may cause damage to your heart–especially if you are a rat.

Read about it in the New York Times Well Blog.

The obvious point is that 99.99% of Americans exercise too little (or not at all) so this really applies to a vanishingly small segment of the population.

Regardless, don’t tell your mother!

Saturday morning’s early rain showers let up long enough for runners of Redding’s NorCal 1o-Mile race to enjoy fairly warm conditions on that beautiful, if hilly, course along the Sacramento River.

The NorCal 10 is the first race of the Pacific Association USA Track & Field 2011 Grand Prix, and typically sees a highly competitive field. This year was no exception. There were 37 runners finishing the ten mile course in under an hour, including women’s winner Jane Kibii, of Kenya/Auburn, who ran 57:15!

The men’s winner was Mario Mendoza of Bend, Oregon, who finished in 51:53. Tim Tollefson of Roseville, at 3rd overall in 52:24, was the top area man, and 50-year-old Iain Mickle, of Sacramento, was the top Masters finisher in 55:57.

Jenny Hitchings, of Sacramento, was 4th woman and 2nd master, with a 1:02:40.

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The lazy mouse is an old mouse

A recent article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that mice that exercised vigorously did not show signs of aging compared to mice that did not exercise.

The study used mice that were genetically unable to repair mitochondria and therefore aged rapidly. The New York Times article on the study reports:

By the time they reached 8 months, or their early 60s in human terms, the animals were extremely frail and decrepit, with spindly muscles, shrunken brains, enlarged hearts, shriveled gonads and patchy, graying fur. Listless, they barely moved around their cages. All were dead before reaching a year of age.

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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.

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The Saucony Peregrine in blue, cleaned up after a long, muddy run.

I’ve spent the last few months enjoying the roads in a pair of Saucony Kinvara, and I’ve come to appreciate their super light weight, soft ride and minimalist construction. I was looking for a shoe that was more accommodating to my increasingly fore-foot strike. I could feel the thick heel on my regular trainers interfering with the normal mechanics of my foot and Achilles tendon.

The Kinvara, with its lower heel feels much more natural to me. I’d be careful about them if you are a heel striker or need some motion control, as they are a completely neutral shoe. But as I said, I’ve been very happy with them, running distances of up to 22 miles.

But right now, I’m not training for a road race. I’m training for the Way-Too-Cool 50Km and the American River 50, both of which include a wide variety of trails—rocks, mud, technical, hills, etc. Whenever I’d hit the trails for training runs, I’d put on my Montrail Masochists.

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