From a mile run down State Street, to a half marathon along the waterfront, to a neighborhood four-miler on Thanksgiving, a 15-kilometer on Fourth of July and five- and 10-ks on New Year’s Day, the Santa Barbara area has an assortment of distance races throughout the year.
Except for one.
There hasn’t been a marathon staged on the South Coast since the mid-1980s.
Well, Merry Christmas. That all changes on Sunday when close to 3,000 runners line up at 6:30 a.m. at Ellwood School for the running of the inaugural Select Staffing Santa Barbara International Marathon.
The 26.2-mile race will take runners on a loop through neighborhoods in Goleta, over the Winchester Canyon overpass, along Cathedral Oaks, across the Los Carneros overpass to Hollister and around the Camino Real Shopping Center. They’ll head back to Cathedral Oaks and run to Turnpike Road, cross the freeway, head toward the bike path at the edge of Hope Ranch and go down Modoc Road to Las Positas. At that point, the runners will tackle a slight incline for a long stretch toward Cliff Drive, where, after nearly 24 miles, they’ll face their first significant elevation gain of the race. Once they reach the top at Meigs Road, it’s all downhill along scenic Shoreline Drive to the finish line at City College’s La Playa Stadium.
“The course was designed to showcase the beauty of the Goleta Valley and Santa Barbara waterfront and to highlight the many wonderful local running routes,” said local elite runner Rusty Snow, the co-race director, who, along with his wife and co-director, June, hatched the idea of putting on this race. “The backdrop for the race starts with beautiful scenery of orchards and mountains and finishes with stunning scenery of the Pacific, Santa Barbara waterfront and mountains.”
Snow said the course is fast, and he’s predicting the male winner to finish in 2 hours, 19 minutes and the female under 2:50.
One of the favorites in the race is Patrick Moulton, 27 of Providence, R.I. He’s already won two marathons this year in Washington D.C. and Hartford, Conn. He set a course record at the National Marathon in Washington with a time of 2:21.18. Moulton’s personal best is 2:15.35 at the Austin Marathon in 2006.
Robby Cherry
Another contender is Carlos Handler, 27, of Pomona, who has a PR of 2:23.44 in his marathon debut at the 2008 Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota. He recently ran 1:06 to win the Mission Inn Run Half Marathon in Riverside.
Robby Cherry, 23, the 2008 NAIA marathon champion from Westmont College (2:29.41), could also challenge for the title and a first-place cash prize of $1,000.
Second place is worth $500 and third place $250 for both male and females.
On the women’s side, the top contenders, according to Snow are Jennifer Derego, 30, of Brentwood, and locals Andrea McLarty, 32, and Chrystee Bradley, 39.
Derego has a PR of 2:41.26 from her 2004 Olympic Trials performance. She finished fourth in the 2007 L.A. Marathon with a time of 2:46.16.
McLarty won last month’s News-Press Half-Marathon in 1:22 while she was doing her hard training for this race. Snow said she enters the race in sub 2:52 shape.
Bradley is looking strong after a long absence from the competitive scene. She ran 1:25.04 in last month’s half marathon. Her personal best for the marathon is 2:55.
Snow said the race has created a buzz in the running community and beyond.
Andrea McLarty
“It is amazing to see so many people out running these days in Santa Barbara,” he said. “Every time I’m out on the course, I see someone running a section of the course. Our local running team (Santa Barbara Running & Racing) has experienced an extra 50 people for our coached workouts on Tuesday and Saturday. It reminds me of Boston in January, with so many people out training in preparation for the marathon.”
Sunday’s race will be a qualifier for next year’s Boston Marathon and the 2012 Olympic Trials.
The marathon is four years in the making. After moving to town from the east coast in 2003, the Snows saw Santa Barbara as an ideal place to stage a world-class marathon.
“There were many who thought it was impossible to make happen,” Rusty said. “Even we were a bit naive about what it would take to make this happen, but with much perseverence, local support and collaboration with the local entities, the inaugural event is looking to be quite the success.”
The Snows enlisted the help of a couple of people who had expertise in putting on a race of such magnitude. Rusty brought in his old coach from Maine, Dan Campbell, to be the technical director, and he got John Brennand, the Godfather of local road races, to handle the measurement of the course, among other duties.
Brennand helped put on the Santa Barbara Marathon, which had a 20-year history before ending in 1984.
As things progressed with the SBIM, more and more people came on board to help the Snows. Select Staffing stepped in as the presenting sponsor.
“Approximately 1,000 volunteers and numerous local agencies are involved to bring an international race to town,” said Rusty Snow. “In addition to the City of Goleta and Santa Barbara, the Red Cross, Santa Barbara Athletic Association and many local businesses have been critical in making this event a reality.”
Snow pointed out that there will be some temporary road closures and detours to ensure the safety of the runners, volunteers and spectators.
“We hope those inconvenienced temporarily will understand and look at the benefits associated with bringing in approximately 2,100 hotel nights and 65 percent out of town participation,” he said.
Snow, a local physiotherapist, and coach of the Santa Barbara Running and Racing team, is an outstanding distance runner in his own right. He qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2000 and won his age group at the U.S. Nationals in 2005.
June Snow was a 10-time All-American athlete at Brandeis University and continued to compete at a high level from 1992-2000. She was an assistant track and field coach at City College.
The work has been hard but the one thing that makes it all worthwhile for the Snows is seeing the number of runners who are entered.
They’re seeing a marathon in Santa Barbara was long overdue.
“We are very excited to have so many runners participate in our inaugural event,” Rusty Snow said. “Thirty-three percent of the runners are first-time marathoners and 50 percent of the first timers are locals.”
Festivities begin Saturday at 9 a.m. with a health expo and children’s expo at SBCC. Runners can enjoy a pasta feed at 3 p.m. at the school cafeteria, hosted by Sigma Phi Epsilon. The cost is $12, with proceeds going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Feeling that the PR work done for this was extremely lacking until after I called the City Hall at the beginning of the week and asked what was going on because there were signs out a week or 2 prior which gave no indication at all about what we would expect on Dec 6.
All the orange signs said was SPECIAL EVENT DEC 6. . Nothing else. We do not take the local paper. the SBNP which has been destroyed by its reprehensible owner, Wendy Mc Caw. As she also purchased our long time time GOLETA VALLEY VOICE, THAT SOURCE OF INFO has also been eradicated.. I was able to receive a map from a very helpful City of Goleta rmployee. I then emailed some of our City Council members with my complaint and by the next eve we had even received a brief recorded phone call. The information we received was helpful but I sincerely question the motivation and judgement of jamming our local main streets with a reported thousands of runners who will be out in the early morning cold./ While we are being told it will take place between 6 and 10 am. I seriously doubt they will all be gone from the local streets as if by magic at 10 am. There will likely be numerous people still in town throughout the day. While applaud their hoped for altruism, I am concerned about those or thir supporters who may become injured and need the aid of our medical professionals and hospitals. Hopefully some one has gotten this all 'WELL ORGANIZED.” and all will be taken care of along with our local residents.
I do however still wish to comment about the sudden funds being poured out on our streets. New sidewalks have been poured along Cathedral Oaks and road have been quite suddenly, resealed. I have questions about where all these funds came from….. who is paying the bill for that ? Well likely it is coming from Goleta City funds. That this work coincides with such a “SPECTACULAR ” event is more than just questionable. Such action makes me feel a lack of faith in our “decision makers” and their priorities.
It is now 3 am and i am going back to bed, will turn on my sound machine and sleep through this whole ” THING ” At least I hope so. Would like to know who is responsible for the decisions made “FOR US BUT NOT BY US” I sincerely hope all goes smoothly and that no one get sick or injured from all this ! At 6am it is still quite dark and as of now the temp out here near Winchester Cyn and Elwood is 40 degrees out.
Feeling that the PR work done for this was extremely lacking until after I called the City Hall at the beginning of the week and asked what was going on because there were signs out a week or 2 prior which gave no indication at all about what we would expect on Dec 6.
All the orange signs said was SPECIAL EVENT DEC 6. . Nothing else. We do not take the local paper. the SBNP which has been destroyed by its reprehensible owner, Wendy Mc Caw. As she also purchased our long time time GOLETA VALLEY VOICE, THAT SOURCE OF INFO has also been eradicated.. I was able to receive a map from a very helpful City of Goleta rmployee. I then emailed some of our City Council members with my complaint and by the next eve we had even received a brief recorded phone call. The information we received was helpful but I sincerely question the motivation and judgement of jamming our local main streets with a reported thousands of runners who will be out in the early morning cold./ While we are being told it will take place between 6 and 10 am. I seriously doubt they will all be gone from the local streets as if by magic at 10 am. There will likely be numerous people still in town throughout the day. While applaud their hoped for altruism, I am concerned about those or thir supporters who may become injured and need the aid of our medical professionals and hospitals. Hopefully some one has gotten this all 'WELL ORGANIZED.” and all will be taken care of along with our local residents.
I do however still wish to comment about the sudden funds being poured out on our streets. New sidewalks have been poured along Cathedral Oaks and road have been quite suddenly, resealed. I have questions about where all these funds came from….. who is paying the bill for that ? Well likely it is coming from Goleta City funds. That this work coincides with such a “SPECTACULAR ” event is more than just questionable. Such action makes me feel a lack of faith in our “decision makers” and their priorities.
It is now 3 am and i am going back to bed, will turn on my sound machine and sleep through this whole ” THING ” At least I hope so. Would like to know who is responsible for the decisions made “FOR US BUT NOT BY US” I sincerely hope all goes smoothly and that no one get sick or injured from all this ! At 6am it is still quite dark and as of now the temp out here near Winchester Cyn and Elwood is 40 degrees out.