ABOUT SBRA

The Santa Barbara Running Association provides critical support to many valuable local running-related programs including the Club West Junior High School Cross Country Program, Special Olympics of Santa Barbara Track and Field athletes, maintenance of the Elings Park running trails, and the Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Santa Barbara High School Cross Country programs.  We bring the running community together at numerous events including four races (Resolution Run 10K & 5K,  Semana Nautica race on July 4th, Fox Fall Classic and the Elings Terrain Festival), community runs and socials and the highly anticipated end of year banquet and Grand Prix awards ceremony.

SBRA HISTORY

In approximately 1948 Marshall Booher reformed the Santa Barbara Athletic Club to provide summer competition and activity for the youth of the community, and over the course of time put on track meets, mostly during the summer, some in conjunction with the Santa Barbara City Parks & Recreation Departments. The Club, under Marshall’s genial sponsorship, also supported college athletes out-of-season, paying travel expenses to national and regional meets. Some of its athletes seem to have competed in road races in the Southern California/Los Angeles area in the early 60’s, and the Club (yes, still Club) had a major lucky find in 1962, when John Brennand arrived in town. A runner already, he was steered to the Santa Barbara Athletic Club by an L.A. runner, who was the first to tell John that the Club even existed. Contacting Marshall Booher, John gave up his treasured ‘unattached’ status and began running for the Club. Since his training runs from General Research frequently brought him to UCSB, he became acquainted with runners there, including Mike Maron, Bill Anderson, Mike Kimball, Jose Dones and others (I’m probably leaving some out, and I apologize). This nucleus, together with Jim Van Manen and Larry Pontinen from Ventura, was quite successful in team competition, winning several national team championships and many Southern California AAU team championships, and had some remarkable runners, including Mike Kimball, who made several U.S. national teams and at one time held the national one-hour record. The Club also took over sponsorship of the annual July 4 15K, a race run in conjunction with Semana Nautica, began the original Santa Barbara Marathon and its descendent, the Santa Barbara Half- Marathon, and participated in cross-country and track, never really fielding a full team in track, although it had some notable athletes in non-distance events. We also began the Winter Runs, subsequently the Chardonnay and now the Santa Barbara Winery 10-miler.

In about 1968 the Club became the Association that we know and love today, as a result of a Whoops! – a fictitious business name statement was filed with the County, reserving the club name, by a gentleman who proposed to open a bar under that name here in Santa Barbara, and since the Club had never protected its right to the name, that was lost. The bar never opened, and later on the naming rights were picked up by the present fitness enterprise down on Castillo Street. Pausing only to buy new jerseys, the SBAA soldiered on through the 70’s, as the Running Boom attracted more and more members, and the Association put on, or assisted in, more and more races. For a while, it seemed as though every charitable organization in the tri-counties was trying to raise money for various purposes through running events, and our dance card got very full. John Brennand and various stalwart club members, including Cally Brennand, Ethel Byers, Patsy Dorsey … put in countless hours either putting on these races or helping out. The Association grew also, as running became popular and new members joined the ranks. We had some notable Junior teams in the late 1970’s, including the Aguirre brothers, George and Richard, and fine women runners, including Elaine Campo, Anne Hayden (a California State Junior college champion at two miles), Dianna Hall, Mary Ryzner and Megan Riker (now Rheinschild) (if your name isn’t listed, don’t be hurt; we can’t mention everybody, and you are appreciated).

In addition to the competitive successes, large numbers of recreational and fun-runners joined, presumably drawn by the friendships, group runs & races. Although we have a few members living out of town, and even out of state, our primary interest is in the local running community, encouraging local races and activities, Tuesday track workouts, Saturday long runs and the Grand Prix series of races throughout the year.

This is, we hope, a never-ending Story, to be continued into the future. We have lots of members, lots of races, and have hopefully created an organization which, in a mostly invertebrate and undemanding way, seems to meet the needs of the local running community, and has outlasted and outlived many other running clubs without going bankrupt, becoming superannuated, or simply disbanding through lack of interest. Much of this history has been the work of John Brennand, of course, and this history is intended, in some small way, to acknowledge his great career as a runner, organizer, and go-to guy.