Photos from the 2017 Oakland Marathon: Semereab Gebrekidan and Katherine Klymko win

SEMEREAB GEBREKIDAN

Semereab Gebrekidan (bib #260), a 32-year-old from Oakland won the 2017 Oakland Marathon with a time of 2:35:54.  Katherine Klymko won the female field with a finishing time or 03:09.02.   Semereab has won a number of other running events, including the Treviso marathon in Italy last year.

KELSEY GURGANUS

Katherine Klymko (#344) of Berkeley won the womens field.  She’s barely visible here, hidden behind the 2nd place finisher, Kelsey Gurganus (#276) of Indianapolis and the 5th place finisher, Jacqueline Sloves (#778) of Oakland.

 

Gabrielle Maudiere (#657) of Larkspur, pictured here with the 3:20 pace group,  finished 3rd among women.

EAST BAY ATHLETIC CLUB Oakland Running Festival - 2017

The East Bay Athletics Club men’s relay team (#9226) was first at mile 5, and finished 3rd overall with a time of 02:36:28.

SFRC RACING TEAM Oakland Running Festival - 2017

The SFRC racing team (#9224) won the mixed relay with a finishing time of 02:24:13, good for a 5:30 pace.

EXCEL Oakland Running Festival - 2017

The Excel men’s relay team (#9034) finished 1st for the men’s relay with a time of 02:26:51.

PIMP MY STRIDE

Mixed relay team Pimp my Stride (#9174) finished 3rd with a time of 02:54:24.

Ivan Medina at the 2017 Oakland Marathon

Perennial contender Ivan Medina (#417) of Hayward finished 2nd overall with a time of 02:39.03.

STRAWBERRY CANYON TC Oakland Running Festival - 2017

The Strawberry Canyon Track Club men’s relay team (#9219) finished 2nd with a final time of 02:31:44.

DENNIS LEFBOM Oakland Running Festival - 2017

And as always, Dennis Lefbom (#686) ran with his Hawaiian shirt.

 

 

Photos from the 2016 Oakland Running Festival Marathon and Marathon Relay

Oakland Running Festival 2016

This year’s 7th Oakland marathon took place on a cloudy morning.  It started raining around noon, so most runners just escaped the rain.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

A runner (9119) from the Olympic Club male relay team was the first runner through at mile 4, escorted by a few cyclists.  They finished in 1st place for the male relay category, with a time of 2:21:44.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

This runner (bib 9181) from the SFRC Racing team was the second runner through at mile 4, they finished 2nd in the mixed relay category with a time of 02:41:43.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Carrying the baton for Shabo TC, this runner (9186) helped his male relay team capture 3rd place in their category.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

After the first batch of relay runners, we started to see the marathon runners, seen in the lime-colored bibs.  This is Alex Battaglino (217) and Patrick Donnelly (924),  both of El Cerrito, within footsteps at mile 4.  Alex eventually won the race, and increased their separation from a couple of feet to 8 and a half minutes by the end of the race.  Alex Battaglino won with a time of 02:34:51, and Patrick Donnelley finished 3rd with a time of 02:43:25.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Oakland Running Festival 2016
Oakland Running Festival 2016

Ivan Medina of Hayward is a perennial top finisher at the Oakland Marathon.  This year, he finished in 2nd place, with a time of 02:41:25.  He ran it quite a bit faster in 2015, having finished that race with a time of 02:30:07, which would have been good enough to win this year.

]Oakland Running Festival 2016

Here’s a runner from the Habitat for Humanity team, who ran in the mixed relay.  They finished with a time of 4:16:37.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Christopher Jackson of Berkeley finished the marathon in 6th place, with a time of 02:55:17.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

The #GUforit with the That’s Fine Track Club finished first in the mixed relay.  Here’s one of their runners at mile 4.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Rob Nachtwey, of Berkeley, is another perennial contender who is easy to pick out because of his pink hat.  He finished 2nd in 2014, and this year finished 4th, with a time of 02:50:55.
Oakland Running Festival 2016

This is Patrick Madigan of San Francisco, who finished in 13th place with a time of 03:05:36.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Team Worse Chemistry (9048) from Berkeley finished with a time of 03:24:05, good for 6th place in the Mixed Relay.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Team Soil Joggers, from Oakland, finished 8th in the Male Relay with a time of 03:26:34.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Runner 462 is Spenser Talkington, who ran an amazing 03:05:13 at only 17 years of age!  Congrats, Spenser!  Fernando de Samaniego Steta of San Francisco (960) finished in 5th place with a time of 02:54:34.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

The Strawberry Canyon Track Club Women of Berkeley finished 3rd in the female relay with a time of 02:59:21.

IMG_2360m

Rohit Mitter (478) from New York finished 18th, with a time of 03:12:12.
Oakland Running Festival 2016

Joshua Lerner of San Francisco won the Masters category with a time of 02:49:50.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Eric Obeng (686) of San Francisco finished 11th place with a time of 03:04:13.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Alexander Kramer of Calpella (858) finished 19th with a time of 03:13:06.   Nelson Osaky (448) finished 382nd with a time of 04:41:12, and it appears that Holly McIlvaine dropped out of the race or her timing chip didn’t register.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Joshua Bornstein (135) of the Tamalpa Running Club from San Rafael finished 7th with a time of 02:58:35.  Erik Donohue finished 26th with a time of 03:18:16.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Andra Enoiu from Richmond finished 63rd overall, but 4th among women, with a time of 03:34:06.  She won her age group.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

This guy (9212) ran for team StephCurry4Prez.  !

Oakland Running Festival 2016

Hawaiian Shirt guy!  I love seeing runners who do this race nearly every year.

Oakland Running Festival 2016

I think this is the same guy who ran with a hemp shoulder back back in 2011?  Nice to see him running again.

Oakland Marathon 2015

Jesse Cherry wins the 2015 Oakland Marathon

 Congrats, Jesse Cherry from Oakland for winning the 2015 Oakland Marathon!

Jesse Cherry wins the 2015 Oakland Marathon

Congratulations to Jesse Cherry for winning the 2015 Oakland Marathon!  Here he is at mile 4.  He looks fast even drinking water.  Jesse finished in 2:25:14.  The weather looked great for it – mildly overcast and pleasantly cool.

 

Ivan Medina finished 2nd with a time of 2:30:07 and 3rd place was Ryan Neely, who was only 5 seconds behind Ivan.  At the 2011 Oakland Marathon, Ivan finished 5th with a time of 2:44:33.

Ivan Medina at the 2015 Oakland Marathon

Here’s Ryan Neely:

Ryan Neely, 3rd place finisher at the 2015 Oakland Marathon

Devon Yanko won for the women, with a time of 2:56:02.  She set the womens’ course record in 2013.

Devon Yanko wins the 2015 Oakland Marathon

Oakland Running Festival – Marathon 2014

We stepped outside around 8 this morning to catch Oakland marathon runners around mile 5.

Oakland PD motorcycle marshaling the frontrunners:

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

This guy from the Oakland-based Bay Area Track Club relay team was minutes in front of anyone else at this point.  Not surprisingly, they went on to win the relay with a final time of 2:20:54.

IMG_1oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

 

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

 

These guys did very well too – “That’s Fine Track Club” from San Francisco finished second in the relay results, with a time of 2:24:31.

 

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

 

 

 

 

A small pack of solo-marathoners came next.  Here’s Rob Nachtwey from Berkeley in the pink hat, with Chris Mocko close behind, wearing the red headband.   Chis had won the marathon in 2012 with a time of 2:28:09, but apparently dropped out of the race and registered a DNF this year.  Rob Nachtwey went on to finish second place with a time of 2:41:00 – his second straight second place finish.  Well done, Rob.  It’s neat that the official race results show splits – Rob appears to have spent the entire race consistently in second place.

IMoakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

 

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

This is Eulogio Rodriguez from Whittier, who was only footsteps behind in the pack.  He hung out in 3rd for a while, but was up by more than 2 minutes by mile 12, and finished the race 10 minutes and 37 seconds ahead of Rob Nachtwey, with a time of 2:30:22.21.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

 

 

Boone Ebel from Foster City finished a solid 4th.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

Colorful Kindy Tice, bib #728, was a bit behind at this point (maybe 5th or 6th place) but was able to make his way into 3rd by mile 12 and stayed there til the end, finishing with a time of 2:43:13.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

This is Robbie Salazar, of Pueblo, Colorado who finished in 6th place.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

This guy didn’t have a bib, but made up for it with a black Raiders cape.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

This guy blue himself.  – Team Reservoir Dogs from Oakland.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

 

 

 

The woman on the right is Jen Bakula, who finished 6th among women.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

Verity Breen won the half marathon in 2011 and returned this year to finish in 2nd place among women, with a time of 3:22:13.  She was in 4th, or maybe even a bit further back at this point, but made her way up to second within a few miles.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014

And of course, Hawaiian shirt guy was running again.

oakland running festival - oakland marathon 2014