California International Marathon

Pre-Race

My final race of the year was Sacramento's California International Marathon. I'd run it twice before: once in grad school on little training when I had a goal to run a marathon every year but didn't much care about my time (I've since upped that goal to a 100-miler), and in 2021 when I trained for it fairly seriously and set a PR of 2:59:18. 

The West has two types of marathon courses: hilly ones and downhill ones, and then there's CIM, which is mostly flat. There's slight rollers through 15 miles or so, but the biggest is probably 30-40 feet at most, so you can still run any mile with a hill at roughly the same pace, and there's a net drop of ~350 feet. 

Anyway, it's a really good course to run fast: so much so that I believe it produces the largest number of Olympic Trials Qualifiers and Boston Qualifiers of any race. That means the race is relatively crowded at the front. Here are the percentages of finishers who ran in under 3:00:00 at a few marathons in 2025. Is there another race (other than the Olympic Trials) where such a large percentage of people run so fast? I'm not aware of one. 

NYC: 2,374/58,973 (4%)

CIM: 1,423/8,181 (17%)

Oakland: 22/980 (2%) 

Chicago: 4,069/54,326 (7%)  

Grandma's: 519/7,555 (7%)

This is partly a self-fulfilling prophecy, since people know it's a fast race, faster people choose to run it, and I assume most people believe (like I do) that it's easier to run in a pack (as long as it's not too packed) than alone.  (Side note: collecting data on the whole distribution of a bunch of marathons' times would be a fun little project. Has anyone already done that?)

Anyway, that's partly why I wanted to run it again. Of course, Reno and Sacramento are close, so it's an opportunity to see my partner and friends. I flew to Reno, spent a day on an unexpected house project, and then drove to Sacramento with a stop in Auburn for the Western States 100 lottery. They randomly select three spots to runners in the lottery who are present in person, so in addition to a nice chance to see runner friends, showing up marginally improves your chance of getting in. I didn't get selected for Western States, but as I walking away and about to part ways from M & Y, a friend texted me congratulations on getting into Hardrock! So I'll be running in the San Juans in the opposite direction next year. (More on that in a future post.)

Pre-Race Expo

 

We stayed with friends in Fair Oaks, CA, closer to the start than any of the bus collection points, so Amy just dropped me off at an intersection near the start, allowing me to sleep in a little later. (The website and all official race information correctly states that you cannot drive to the start, but you can drive here, the intersection of Greenback Ln and Folsom-Auburn Rd, then walk the 1.25-1.5 miles up the closed-for-the-race Folsom-Auburn Rd to the start. Folsom-Auburn Rd doesn't have sidewalks so it wouldn't be that fun or safe walking it with normal traffic, but it was closed for the race so it was fine.)  

The Gun Goes Off 

After the customary being cold waiting in the port-a-potty line, I joined the 2:50-3:05 corral. I was happy to see a 2:55 pace group. It was a pleasant surprise to see a pace group that fast--I thought 3:00 would be the fastest--but it makes sense since 2:55 is now the Boston qualifying time for young men. Right before the start the announcer read out the names of the pace group leaders, and one of the 2:55ers was Tim Tollefson, a well known pro ultrarunner who I'd just seen helping run the Western States lottery the day before. Right after the race started I ran over to him and introduced myself (I got into Hardrock yesterday!), thanked him for pacesetting, and figured I'd try and stay a minute or two ahead of his pace for as long as I could.

The start went well. I crossed the start about a minute after the gun, and could immediately go my pace without having to spend extra energy dodging folks. I ran 6:39s for the first 5K, then 6:36s from 5K-10K, then 6:43s from 10K-15K, then 6:41s from 15K-20K, and 1:27:11 overall for the first half. Pretty much exactly where I wanted to be, on track for a 2:55 race. I was ahead of the 2:55 pace group for several miles, but close enough that I could always hear people cheering for them. Tim Tollefson grew up nearby, so people know him, plus it's the first pace group and the BQ group, and they've got a sign, and it's nice to hear pretty much anything specific from spectators along the route.

I held steady with 6:43s from half through 25K. I was in front of the 2:55 group by a few seconds, then behind, then ahead. Then around mile 15-16 grabbing and eating a gel didn't go so well, and I ran my first 6:50-or-slower mile. The 2:55 pace group sped away. 

25K to 30K with 6:51s. 

I ran the next mile on pace, but immediately repeated a 6:50, then 7:01, then 7:08. Dammit! I'm losing it! Nearly 30 seconds per mile! How long till the 3:00 pace group passes me? I can't let that happen! Come on, come on, come on, keep it together!   

30K to 35K with 7:14s.

The bridge over the American River, literally the only non-strip mall landmark on the course. I put in headphones hoping the tunes could save me. I ran by Amy cheering me on. I was dying. People were passing me. 

35K to 40K with 7:11s.

So close. The 3:00 group hadn't passed me yet. Finally, we're almost there. 

Let's go, finish strong, you can still set a PR!

40K to the Finish (42K) with 6:47s, for a finish time of 6:58:48, a PR by 30 seconds, and my third time breaking three hours!

(Pretty cool splits data and visualizations from myrace.ai. My Strava activity here.)  

Instantly I was cold, and in a lot of pain. I rendezvoused with Amy, M & Y, and congratulated another Berkeley econ PhD (he was faster by 4 minutes!) I limped to lunch, then we drove home to Reno.

All in all, a good race. Of course I would have loved to be more consistent and finish with the 2:55 group, but I can't be that disappointed with a PR at age 46. If I'd just hung with the 2:55 pace group from the start could I have hung on to them longer? Maybe, but when I was right in there with them it felt a little claustrophobic and I might have had to spend energy avoiding getting tangled up with other runners.

I enjoyed training. I put in the speed work, consistently doing 800 and mile repeats on my lunch break, and getting consistent volume by running to and from work. Relative to training for a mountainous hundred, marathon training is easy because it takes so much less time--my weekend long runs take 2.5 hours instead of three times that. 

I'm sure I'll be back, though I don't know when. It's not a pretty course, but it's fast, and that's probably what matters most with a road course--if I want scenery I'll run trails.

Gear, Fueling, Boring Notes for the Future

I started the race with a head buff that I ditched a couple miles in. I took off my arm sleeves after a few miles, but tucked them into my waistband and put them back on towards the end. (The fog never lifted and the race stayed cold and pretty close to ideal racing conditions.) I ran the race in my old Nike Vaporfly Next% 2's, which now have 103 miles on them, and probably one or two more races left. I did most of my training in Asics Novablast 5, which have a delightfully bouncy foam for daily training. I wore Patagonia Strider Pro shorts, which did OK at holding my gels, but after the race I had chafing on my lower back from the drawstring bouncing and chafing. Thankfully my brain didn't even report this to me until after the race, but perhaps in the future I should try to train with gels in my shorts to simulate race conditions. (I did all my long training runs with a vest to carry water, gels, and my phone.) I had a little upper thigh chafing, so I'm intrigued by the possibility of a 1/2 length tights to avoid that (but ones that somehow also carry the gels?) Lastly I think it helped a lot to train with the gels I used on race day, but I didn't train wolfing them down while running a 6:40 pace. When I'm stopped at a stoplight, I can carefully roll the gel up like a tube of toothpaste getting every last drop, then unroll and reroll it a second time for the true last drop. Doing that at race pace is another matter entirely. I probably only got 1/2 to 2/3 of the contents of each gel out, and had to supplement with the race-provided gels. 

None of that is a huge deal, but it might add up to a few seconds next time.