11th annual Santa Rosa Marathon brings thousands of runners, festival to downtown

Some marathons end without much to do after crossing the finish line, apart from basking in gratitude and pride for pushing through the race. That was not so at the 11th annual Santa Rosa Marathon on Sunday.

Holding a plate of pancakes in one hand and a brisket sandwich in another, Paul Tran headed toward tables and chairs set up for a post-race festival at Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square for more than 4,500 runners and their supporters. A pacesetter for the event, Tran was ready for a feast, and he was about to have one.

“Santa Rosa is one of my favorites,” said Tran, 37, of San Jose, who has participated in more than 50 marathon events. “At a lot of other marathons, you don’t get anything at the end, not even a chair to sit on.”

The 26.2-mile full-marathon and the 13.1-mile half-marathon started and finished at the square. The route took racers west on the Santa Rosa Creek trail and along rural west Santa Rosa roads - with a short stint through the barrel room of DeLoach Vineyards - before returning downtown.

At the square, runners from 48 states and seven countries soothed their muscles with foam rollers, lay on tables as massage and physical therapists worked on their limbs, refilled bottles from a water truck, tasted beers and ciders from nearly two dozen breweries and grabbed plates of food.

With her first half-marathon complete, Blanca Herrera, 47, of San Francisco, massaged her calves with a roller next to her coach and friend, Yvette Black, 58, of Hayward. Herrera pushed through despite a history of serious back pain, and was proud to report it was her calves that were sore and not her back.

“It’s like a new start, a whole new life,” Herrera said.

The Santa Rosa event is sentimental for Black, who finished her first half-marathon here about four years ago. To date, she’s run seven.

Nearby in the grass, about a dozen men wearing blue “Front Runner” jerseys - plus one in a Spiderman suit - posed for a group photo. They were members of New York and Bay Area chapters of the Front Runners jogging group, which was formed in San Francisco in 1974 for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer athletes and boasts 10,000 members worldwide.

By the beer tents, Abbie and Joel Nilles, both 33 and from Denver, sipped their brews and discussed the food and wine they would try on this multipurpose trip to run a marathon and see Wine Country.

“It’s guilt free,” Joel Nilles said.

At the finish line, the announcer hooted and howled in support of Jessy Pacheco who sped up to cross the Fourth Street finish, waving her arms and with flowers in her hair. Pacheco, 33, of Salinas, ran with friend Edgar Peralta, 36, of Watsonville, whom she’d just met in March at a half-marathon in Santa Cruz. That the cheers were for her struck Pacheco as delightfully strange.

“It’s an amazing feeling, hard to explain,” Pacheco said.

But the announcer saved her loudest praise for local marathon stalwart Darryl Beardall of Santa Rosa, who at 82 years old has lost track of the more than 300,000 miles he has run over seven decades of footraces starting at Santa Rosa High School.

On Sunday, Beardall ran with a walker due to a pinched nerve, but he still finished at 4 hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds. A hip replacement surgery three years ago hasn’t slowed him down.

Beardall said he takes a minimalist approach to race recovery: no beer since he doesn’t drink and nothing fancier than water. He later planned to eat the beef sandwich waiting in his fridge at home.

Sonja Tollefsen, who finished the half-marathon at 2 hours, 5 minutes and 54 seconds, walked up and gave Beardall a high-five.

“You’re quite an inspiration,” said Tollefsen, 50, of Citrus Heights. “Age is just a number. Old is just a state of mind, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, and I’m just 21,” Beardall responded with a wink.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.