People get ready
There’s a train a comin’
Don’t need no baggage
You just get onboard
The Impressions’ gospel-style hit was written by Curtis Mayfield and released in 1965- 18 years before the first running of the California International Marathon, a race now famous for the throngs of believers rolling at high speeds down Fair Oaks Blvd in the sunshine, in search of PRs, OTQs and validation of long and lonely miles of training.
Absent the international stars that grace the world majors at the height of their dominance, CIM has become known for being a place where stars are born and for being arguably the deepest marathon in the world. During the qualifying window, the CIM course felt the foot strikes of over twice as many 2020 Olympic Trials Qualifiers as Boston, Chicago and NYC combined. The spectacle of packs of 50 runners barreling over the rolling Sacramento hills at 2:17 and 2:40 pace, sharing bottles, encouraging one another through their spit-stained smiles, until the final 10k when the pack splinters and the racing starts is one of the wonders of the marathoning world.
It is The People’s Marathon.
This year, as CIM plays host to the USATF Marathon Championships on December 4th, there are over 200 men and women who have either run under the OTQ marks of 2:18 and 2:37 or are within clear striking distance. There are more with bigger dreams whose names we’ll know soon enough. They’ll come from every corner of the country to the city first made famous by an untrained prospector striking gold in the nearby hills.
Faith is the key.
Open the doors and board them.
There’s hope for all among those loved the most.
The hills are rollin’ and dangerous to the quads early on, but navigated with the people smartly, there’s gold in them.
Don’t need no ticket, just thank the pack.
- You do need to go through the proper registration channels
(Photo cred: Sacramento Running Association)
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