Tornado warnings, torrential downpours and icy rain blowing into your face for most of the 26 miles. Previous runners of CIM say this is typical. Crowd and volunteer support was incredible due to the conditions. The course is great minus the water soaked potholes. Once was enough.

Just a little hard to get on the starting line but great race overall

This year's CIM (2000) was my first time doing this race. I was looking for a fast, well organized race with mild weather to go for a sub-3:10 to qualify for Boston and I got it! The race starts in a rural area outside of Sacramento and looses 350 feet elevation over the course. There are a few gentle uphills along the way and the elevation loss is very gradual and not going to beat up your quads. The spectator turnout was good despite the rural areas that the course runs through and the turnout gets even better as the course approaches the finish area on the grounds of the state capital. Support for this race was top-notch, with two volunteers at each mile-marker, one calling out elapsed time and the other calling out average pace per mile, and sometimes calling out predicted finish times. Turnout for this race is pleasantly small (3800 finished this year) making the start and finish areas easy to navigate. All in all, a great event!

If you are looking for a PR, this is your race. I traveled from Nashville just to run in this race(12/3/2000) and it was worth it! They have a nice expo and the organization is superb. Buses take you right near the starting line from the expo hotel. All streets are completely blocked, so that there is no traffic in either direction on the entire course. It is a very gradual downhill almost the entire way. The few 'hills' are of short duration and make a nice change to the downhill (net 325 ft drop). The finish line was also very well organized, with lots of food and medical support. This was my 14th marathon and it was relatively easy to PR by 1 1/2 minutes!

I've run this race the last two years. Then I ran The Boston Marathon this year. (2000) CIM is very similar to the Boston course in that it is predominatly down hill to rolling hills for the first 17 to 18 miles. Then unlike Boston it flattens out. In both races you don't want to get sucked into going out too fast... and it's very easy to. I paid the price the first year I ran it and it wasn't pretty or comfortable!! Try to hold back on the early miles and you'll be rewarded with very fast time. It is a very fast course. Some people prefer flat courses to try to PR on, I feel the rolling hills and the net elevation loss works better. It allows you to use and rest muscle groups through out the race instead of stressing the same muscles for an entire 26.2 mile flat race.
One thing to keep in mind is the weather can be a bit unpredictable in Northern California in December. It can be cold, (32 degree two years ago) or it can be raining (very hard down pour three years ago) or it can be perfect like last year (1999, upper 40's and a slight tail wind)

This marathon is a net downhill run with few rolling hills. The aid stations are well-manned and all volunteers are helpful. The time of year usually makes it a cool run, sometimes with rain.