Santa Barbara Athletic Association

Sunflower power Research on sprinting mice suggests that diet high in sunflower oil can increase their maximum attainable speed. Sadly, it only seems meaningful for sprints and not long-distance runs. (2 Jul)

Trails There will be a meeting of Front Country Trails Task Force on 1 July at 5:30. Among other things this meeting will discus when and whether to reopen the trails or some of the trails closed by the Jesusita fire. (29 Jun)

Reef and Run is hosting the first of Reef and Run Extreme Events. June 30th is the first with a 1 mile swim/4 mile run Duathalon. There are more planned this year. (28 Jun)

Semana Nautica 15K Don't forget to register for the 15k! Online registration until midnight July first. More expensive registration on race day, July fourth. (28 Jun)

Nite Moves, GP#1 A sailing race on the ocean. Swimmers racing in the sea. And finally the first Nite Moves Grand Prix! Beautiful sunny afternoon after a cloudy drizzly morning. Todd Booth, Connor Mellon and Ricky Ho won the men's race, with Drea McLarty, Sara Dillmen and Michelle McToldridge (in matching shoes!) winning the women's race (Laura Turner a close fourth). Drea also managed a PR and an updated entry in the club records. A beautiful run, almost enough to make one believe in fairies. � Results. (25 Jun)

Nite Moves Pictures by SB Pix. Don't forget that next week is the first Grand Prix Night Moves event (rescheduled due to fire). (18 Jun)

Nike at Santa Barbara Running Goleta Santa Barbara Running will be hosting a Nike day at the Goleta location Sat.the 13th at 7:00am. Reps from Nike will be driving up the Nike van with product to test, come on out and do a run with us in a pair of shoes with a swoosh...These guys will have some pretty cool stuff to show off.... (11 Jun)

Vicki's The results are finally up! Apologies for the long delay. (8 Jun)

Carpinteria All-Comers Track Meets are back this summer. Roughly every other Friday, 6:30PM at Carpinteria High School. First will be 26 June. Many different track and field events, culminating in a 5K. (8 Jun)

Surf & Turf is over now. The season's results are at SB Timing. (6 Jun)

Calendar page Got hacked. I don't know how. Fixed now. (6 Jun)

State Street Mile No course records broken, but plenty of PRs today. A foggy drizzly morning. I saw at least one runner slip and fall as she was warming up, but people seemed to have better luck once the races started :->.
Results Denis's View Santa Barbara Pix. (31 May)

Paula Waldman For a number of reasons, it is fitting that the June Profile feature Paula Waldman. Paula lists among her best races her win (#1 woman finisher) in the 2003 State Street Dog Mile and her very recent Big Sur Marathon, where she qualified for Boston. (Note also that she admits that she had problems even walking after her SSM win in 2003 and qualified at what has to be one of the toughest marathons around-Big Sur-..think this woman is competitive?)
If you know Paula, you will see her Profile really does reflect her personality, her many accomplishments and her love for simple pleasures (like pushing herself to her limits with a smile on her face). Paula sent us some great race photos to choose from, but we had to pick her photo with co-winner Smudge in the 2003 SSM Dog Mile. (29 May)

National Trails Day On June 13th, volunteers will work on recovering the five trails that were damaged during the Jesusita fire. Although Forest Service Hot Shot crews have been clearing brush and a small group of MTC and SBMTV volunteers have worked lower Tunnel, there is still a considerable amount of brush, rock, and ravel (burned top soil) to remove from the trails. You are encouraged to participate - the larger the number of volunteers, the sooner the trails will be open to the public and the safer it will be for all of us to use.
Meet Sat 6/13, 8:00 am, Scofield Park. Work until 2:00 pm.
^* Current and former "Trail Bosses" and crew leaders wanting to participate, please contact me (chris.orr@sbmtv.org) or Kerry Kellogg at ASAP. - Flyer and additional information in the next week... (28 May)

Nine Trails Once again fire has destroyed the route of the Nine Trails race. Luis is getting permits to run 50K and 50M races in Montana De Oro State Park on the traditional day. (25 May)

Volunteer trail work The US Forest Service has reopened the forest after the fire, but not the trails. Jesusita, Tunnel, Rattlesnake and the West fork of Cold Spring have sustained significant fire damage. (East fork of Cold Spring is OK and should be open now). The Multiuse trail coalition is organizing volunteer trail cleanups, check their site for more info. (24 May)

Supplement confusion Running (and other exercise) increases insulin sensitivity, which is good. (Type II diabetes is flatlining on insulin sensitivity.) Running also generate free radicals. All those antioxidant drinks and supplements (vitamins C and E) are meant to minimize damage from free radicals. Michael Ristow et al (U. Jena) had 40 people work out for 85 minutes a day, five days a week, for four weeks. Half the group took vitamins C (1000 mg) and E (400 IU); the other half, not. At the end of the four weeks, the supplement group showed no increase in free radicals in muscle tissue, while the no-supplement group doubled levels. So the supplements worked on the free radicals. However, the no-supplement group showed a significant increase in insulin sensitivity, but the C + E group did not. Ristow and team conclude that antioxidant supplementation may interfere with improved insulin sensitivity, a central beneficial effect of exercise.
There's a huge market for antioxidant supplementation, and many people take supplements regularly; our own formerly-local FRS is an antioxidant drink. But the empirical evidence for cell damage from free radicals is from Petri dishes, and we are aware of few longitudinal studies that show beneficial effects of antioxidant supplementation (though some major studies that show no benefit, e.g., vitamin E supplementation and rates of heart attack). Insulin sensitivity is critical to health. It would be one of life's too-many sad ironies,if a high percentage of health-aware regular exercisers were, by supplementing, sabotaging a significant element of benefit.
(Original research in PloS; reported in New Scientist.) (24 May)

Nite Moves GP The rescheduled Nite Moves GP race will be Wednesday, June 24. (17 May)

Some trails open Romero, San Ysidro (McMenomy) and Hot Springs trailheads are all open (though they have signs: �Hikers Beware!�)
Most trails closed Cold Spring still has a �Trail Closed� sign. I presume all front country trails west do too. (15 May)

Deena Kastor says: My husbands running club, The High Sierra Striders, has targeted the Santa Barbara marathon in December as their focus event for the year.��I thought it may be fun to have an exchange program with your runners.� We have multiple events here in Mammoth throughout the summer and fall for any of your athletes that would like to come and partake.� On a first come first serve basis, our athletes could host your athletes for two nights during the race weekend.� In exchange, later this year some of your runners can open their homes to our athletes wishing to race the Santa Barbara Marathon.� We are estimating between the relay and the marathon we would have about ten runners.� The High Sierra Striders put on four races:

Trail Closures The USFS (Forest Service) has posted a press release here. (12 May)

Marathon Analysis Interesting statistics about the changing state of who runs marathons in the US and the world, comparing from 1980 to the present.

Sarah Mandes If you frequent local races and don’t know Sarah by name, check out her picture……..you are certain to recognize her. If you are a local triathlete, you probably will know her as the seemingly always happy competitor who is typically near the front of every event you participate in!
Sarah had what could have been a career ending bike crash in October as she competed in the Duathlon- a car ignored the cones and turned directly in front of her. She not only bounced back quickly, but displayed remarkable patience by not attempting to train too hard too quickly…..yet still managed to run the Las Vegas Marathon in December and set a PR. She shows wisdom beyond her years (31) and a zest for running and life.- Go SJ…aka IronMandes!!! (11 May)

Wine Country Results are finally out. (11 May)

Surf & Turf New race series at UCSB, Fridays at 6:00pm (check-in starts 5pm) 5/15. 5/22, 5/29 & 6/5. 500m swim and 5k trail run. Swim starts at Campus Pt., footrace around the UCSB lagoon. (11 May)

Trail Closures All front country trails are now closed. (10 May)

Results Nite Moves. Since it wasn't a GP the results aren't here, but can be found on active.
Reef and Run: On SB Timing (10 May)

Wine Country Half Still on for tomorrow. At the moment air quality is not an issue in the San Ynez valley. Be warned that 154 is closed, so those planning to attend must take 101 -- which is a longer route so allow more time. Check the website for last minute info. (8 May)

More Trail Closures It looks like Cold Spring and Hot Springs trails are now closed. San Ysidro and Ramero might still be open, but all other front country trails are probably closed. (8 May)

But not GP Although Nite Moves went off last night, it was not a Grand Prix event. The Grand Prix night moves will happen sometime later this summer (after the fire goes out, for instance). Anyone who registered for the last night's GP run will be re-registered for the real event when it happens. Date to be determined... (7 May)

Nite Moves come Hell or Fire Despite high temperatures, ferocious winds, fire and a pall of smoke, the first Nite Moves of the season went off. Blue skies to the west, brown murk to the east. A waxing gibbous moon hidden behind the smoke... But the air below seemed clean... (6 May)

Trail Closures All trails between Cator water treatment plant and Gibraltar are closed. That is: Jesusita, Arroyo Burro, Cathedral Peak (several), Seven Falls, Tunnel, Rattlesnake and any of the innumerable unnamed trails in that region. This closure extends all the way up to Camino Cielo. Cold Springs, San Ysedro, Ramero trails are still open (though considering the amount of smoke that appears to be blowing in that direction I'm not sure who'd want to use them.
Inspiration Point has burned, and there is no longer any vegetation on the point. (6 May)

Orange County Marathon Jenny Mintz won her age group in the Orange County Marathon with a time of 3:32. (6 May)

Nite Moves On Fire appears past its peak, and air quality is good. (6 May)

~~Mother's Day Family Fesitval~~ Canceled (4 May)

Vancouver Marathon Ed Mitchel finished in 2:57:54 (a PR), and Karen Beerman won her age-group with 3:30. (4 May)

Nite Moves Updates Jake wants everyone to know that he posts updates and specials at http://www.runsantabarbara.com/blog/s_line_frame.html. (3 May)

Blue Canyon Trail Run 50K, 50M, 100K race in the Santa Barbara back country on 6 June. This race is now a fund raiser for the Los Padres Forest Association; instead of race fees a donation is requested to LPFA. Still spots for runners, and volunteers are needed! (3 May)

Law Day Kids Run The Kids' Run scheduled for May 2nd has been canceled. Apologies. (1 May)

Comments It is now possible to leave comments to posts on the website, or it is possible once you have logged in.
Some people don't like comments, so there is now a link at the top right of this column you can use to turn comments on and off. Your browser will remember this setting and the next time you visit the site it will be as you last set it. (26 Apr)

Logging in Some time ago José asked me if I were the webmaster, and explained that he didn't know anyone's name just what they looked like. So it occurred to me that it would a good idea to let people post a picture of themselves to the website.
Some of you may already have noticed that it is possible to login to the website. Once you have done that a button will appear on the main page called [User Settings]. This will let you provide an image.
Unfortunately you can only upload images smaller than 1Meg, and most modern cameras produce bigger images than that (Sadly there's nothing I can do about this). You will probably need to manipulate your image before you can upload it. (26 Apr)

Gaucho Gallop Exuberant dogs can sometimes run faster than their owners. Andrew Maxwell lost his dog who decided to run with Aaron instead. Aaron's dog didn't like having to share and slowed down to display his displeasure. Meanwhile the kid's mile was a hard fought battle between Vaughn Forte and Spencer (des Jardins) Clark.
Results Kevin Steele's race pictures (25 Apr)

Big Sur
Some talk of Boston's races, while some at London squeeze,
Of Berlin and Chicago, and such great runs as these,
But of all the world's great races, there's none that can compare-
with Big Sur. Some may like the crowds and excitement of the big marathons, or the caché of running Boston, but for sheer beauty there's nothing like running through the redwood forests of Big Sur and then along the California coastline.
� � This year I know of four local runners choosing this course: Sara Dillman, Laura Turner, Paula Waldman and Betsy Spaulding. Have a beautiful run! (23 Apr)

Boston Qualifying Time I gather my post the other day was confusing. I was trying to say two things: Boston Qualifying time for men is (roughly) correlated with age graded decline, but the women's qualifying time is easier for young women and much harder for older women. (22 Apr)

Boston Finishers

Boston Qualifying Time The Boston qualifying time is not completely fair -- that is -- as an age-graded percentage it fluctuates with age. For young men the qualifier is about 66%, while for young women it is 62% -- so it looks as though women have it easy. But as we age, the qualifying standard gets progressively harder for women while getting slightly easier for men. At 70 a man needs to run 63%, while a woman must run 73%. Fifty year olds are almost equal: 64.9% for men and 65.2 for women.

I've also included indication of the qualifying times for the Olympic trials (which are harder in 2012 than they were in 2008). For men there is only an "A" standard, at 2:19:00 or 90%, for women there are both "A" and "B" standards: 2:39:00 or 85% for the "A" and 2:46:00 or 82%. (20 Apr)

Chardonnay Results Dennis's Pictures A picture perfect morning. Cool, and the wind that has been so annoying for most of the week was quiet. Patrick Russell from out of town won the men's race, followed by Aaron and Micah. Jennifer Santamaria from San Diego won the women (could she be the Jen Denkins who came in second last year?), followed by Laura Turner and Amy Alzina. (18 Apr)

Chardonnay The little village of Chardonnay nestles above the Rhône River in southeast France. A village so small it has no café (though it does have a wine tasting area, but that did not satisfy my father). (16 Apr)

Boston The (somewhat bigger) village of Boston nestles around the estuary of the Charles river, and a group of local runners (Susie Adams, Jamie & Michael Allison, Gary Clancy, Carrie Dent, Nichol des Jardins, Eric Forte, Claire Krock, Brooke Powell and Peter Skylar) have chosen to do some race out there rather than run our own ten miler. No accounting for taste, I guess. (16 Apr)

Eric Forte Eric Forte is the guy who shows up every weekend to win all the local races and then drives off to purgatory in Boise. Unfortuately, due to the amount of time he spends driving, he was unable to write his profile, and it has been ghostwritten by an anonymous individual. SBAA assumes no responsibility.
Eric leads the SBAA contingent at Boston this Monday coming. (15 Apr)