Report California International Marathon(CIM) 
                             on December 8, 1996
                           Folsom Dam to Sacramento 

                         Author: Christoph F. Eick

I enjoyed running the course of CIM; it is a smoothly rolling, 300 feet 
drop, point to point course, which is relatively fast. Only last 5 miles
of the course are flat, except that you have to go over a bridge near
mile 22. According to my evaluation the course is only slightly slower 
than the Houston Tenneco (now Methodist) course (about 1-2 minutes for a 
3:20 runner), but is significantly faster than the New York City Course 
(4-10 minutes for a 3:20 runner depending on where you start in New York). 
The good thing of the rolling course is that, subjectively, the time passes 
faster; moreover, because uphill and downhill are about 2:1(the course 
drops 305 feet) it gives you the chance to relax on the downhill. The bad
thing about this kind of course is that it is hard on your legs; several
runners, including myself, didn't feel their legs in the second half of
the marathon.

The bus-transportation, the water stops and calling of split time were
very well organized this year. Moreover, I will remember this race for seeing
the largest number of non-police horses when running a race. Moreover, when 
a spectator played Hawaii 5.0 on his music box, we all had to laugh: going 
down from the foothills into the flat lands in waves (possibly not
Hawaii size): small hill after small hill. 

Unfortunately, my training for the race (my third marathon) was not perfect: 
due to some heel problems which prevented me from doing any running at
faster speed and on hills. However, somewhat surprisingly, my heel
problem got much better about two weeks before the race. 
I set two goals for myself for the race. The ambitious goal was to 
run under 3:21 (7:38 pace), and the not so ambitious goal was to
run under 3:25 (I ran my second marathon in 3:27:45). 

The race conditions on Dec. 8 were okay, but not very good. The temperature
was 60, the humidity 70-80%, and in the second half we faced some head wind.
After the race started the first 8 miles were run on a very wide
course and passed very fast; my speed was 7:37 which I considered
to be too fast: consequently, I intentionally slowed down at miles 8-12. 
My pace at mile 12 was 7:44. Unfortunately, my calves started to become very
tied at mile 10. I managed to speed up between mile 12-17 getting down
my pace to 7:41; I become optimistic and ran mile 18-20 in a 7:40 pace,
planning to run 7:30's in the last 6.2 miles on the course. The good thing 
was that, finally in my third marathon, I still felt good at mile 20. 
Unfortunately, since mile 13, I did not have too much feeling in my legs 
left. At mile 22, after running two 7:50s now, it became clear that I had
no chance to run under 3:21 on this day. Consequently, I took it easy
on the last 4.2 miles (already thinking about my chances of running the 
Houston Marathon 5 weeks later) running a 8:18 pace over the last 4.2 
miles --- already celebrating the recovery of my heel, and the fact that I 
finally managed to run a marathon without walking most of mile 25. My race 
pace over the complete course was 7:48, and I finished under 3:25 in 
3:24:43.

The crowd support in the small towns and suburbs at the beginning of the race
was respectable; the few people along the course made a lot of noise, which
I enjoyed. However, the crowd support in the second half of the course 
was not existent; the only exception was the last 200 yards to the finish line. 
I never have experienced such a "quiet" group of spectators in a race,
watching runners going by... Moreover, with the exception of one big band
at the beginning of the race, there was no hoopla along the course.

In summary the race itself was well organized. However, the organizers have 
to do a much better job in advertising the race, in generating events (e.g. 
a pasta party, events for out of town runner, a better expo, or other things 
(there was not any CIM-merchandise to buy, not even a mug or a tyvek jacket) 
that surround the race, and in having better crowd support. Moreover, not 
having a WWW-homepage is unacceptable for a marathon of this size. The 
attendance of the 1996 marathon already dropped from nearly 4000 to 3000. 
If CIM does not do a better job in advertising, marketing, partying, and in 
making the race attractive for out of town runners, it will definitely drop 
out of the list of the top 30 marathons in the US quite soon.