I consider you, a reader of B-Mail, someone with upper echelon running IQ. In honor of this assumption, lets go on a journey. 

This year was stacked with race moments that stole the show — and rightfully so. We were all here for Tokyo, Boston, London, Chicago, Berlin, New York, Copenhagen Half, USATF Trials, the Bandit Grand Prix. These are the weekends that stand alone on the calendar. The running universe orbits around them.

But there’s a final weekend — quietly becoming must-see TV. It’s for the elite ball knowers, but we’re always here to drop free game.

December 7th hosts both the Valencia Marathon and the California International Marathon (CIM). Two races that have matured into money-back-guarantee opportunities to mint a PR or punch a qualifier. To riff on Aristotle’s Rule of Three, these races serve up opportunity, redemption, and control. Let’s get into it.

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OPPORTUNITY

•  Guaranteed Entry 

No bib chasing, no fundraising, no number crunching.

• • Valencia is built for scale — about 35,000 spots and ~36,000 entrants this year.
  • CIM keeps it boutique-fast at under 10,000 runners. If you want to run it, you can (and people do).

• Ride The Wave
  

These races are just flat-out fast.

• • Valencia is arguably the fastest marathon on Earth. The course is dead-flat, sea-level, and set up for perfect December running. It’s not just the winners either — the field is a conveyor belt of heaters, pumping out historic waves of sub-3s.

  • CIM is a point-to-point, net-downhill, major-course-certified. I mean, what else do a have to say. There is a reason its a hot bed for Boston & Olympic Trials Qualifiers alike. 

REDEMPTION

• December is the end of the racing year, sure — but more importantly it’s six weeks after the last Major. If Berlin, Chicago, or New York didn’t go how you wanted, you don’t have to sit with that story all winter. Many people rewrite it. 

• CIM and Valencia sit at the very end of the US Olympic Trials qualifying window each cycle. For those that dream big and may have fallen short - these races are the buzzer beaters of their dreams.  Watch that link please. 

CONTROL

If another coach tells me “control what you can control”… I might actually listen and book CIM.

• Small fields = clean racing.
  No corral wrestling. No 40-seconds-slow first mile. No bobbing and weaving. It’s get-down-to-business from the gun.
• Weather that stays out of your way.
  Early December in Sacramento and Valencia typically means cool, calm, highly agreeable marathon conditions. Cool temps = cool new PRs.