By Nate Seltenrich

With more than 1,300 participants across three distances, Clo Cow is the biggest event on the Petaluma running calendar. The 14th annual running happens this year on Sunday, Oct. 11. 

The tough half-marathon (13.1-mile), 10K (6.2-mile), and 5K (3.1-mile) routes up Western Avenue and through the hills of rural west Petaluma draw runners from across town and well beyond. The women’s and men’s half-marathon course records were set in 2012 and 2013 by professional trail runners living in Marin County and San Francisco, respectively.

Yet the real draw of the event is not the competition, but the community. Residents along the route cheer from front yards as runners, joggers, and walkers of all ages and abilities stream past, some in costume. Families, friends, neighbors, and colleagues team up to train or run together. And the atmosphere at the start and finish line on Kentucky Street is always electric. 

I’ve participated four times: twice in the 10K by myself, once in the 10K with my son, and once in the 5K with the whole family. This year, I’ll complete the hat trick with the half marathon. 

The occasion inspired me to learn more about some of my fellow racers, so I put out the call: are you running Clo Cow this year? Would you like to share your training and goals with all of Petaluma? Four brave souls said yes (all of whom happen to be parents of young kids). Here are their stories. After the race, I’ll check back with them to hear how it went.

Tiffany Harbin, 5K

Harbin, 47, and her daughter Coral, 10, will be running the 5K together, as part of a larger group of friends in town taking on Clo Cow this year. 

“[My friend] and I ran the 10K a couple of years ago, and then we were talking about how it would be fun to do a 5K with our daughters,” Harbin said. “She and I and a couple of the other moms who are involved have daughters who are starting fifth grade. We were feeling like they're at an age where we want to get them into an exercise routine and just being active.” 

When Tiffany tackled the 10K in 2024, Coral ran the 5K with her dad. Now Tiffany and Coral are preparing for their first 5K together with one or two practices per week, including Sunday-morning on-course training runs with other moms and daughters. 

“I just want to finish,” Coral said of her goal for race day. “That’s pretty much it.”

Tiffany said her hope for the group is that everyone has fun, no one is injured, and that, ideally, they run and finish together. “And for the kids, I hope that they have a positive experience that motivates them to keep doing this kind of thing.” 

Kera DeMars, 10K

DeMars, 38, is part of the same circle of friends, but will race the 10K. She calls their Clo Cow text thread an “accountability group” and also stays in touch with other runners and training partners in town to share miles and excitement. 

“We do it all year long,” she said. “We just text each other when we exercise. It really is so motivating.”

DeMars is a longtime runner with about 20 years of experience, she said, and consistent training over the last five. 

“I had my first baby in 2020, and so I started by walking him everywhere in the stroller,” she recalled. “It was just a great activity for us, and then that sort of progressed into running, and now I'm totally hooked and addicted.”

You might say it’s in her blood. DeMars’ grandmother was a pioneering female marathoner, and her mother ran, too. “So I grew up around really strong female athletes, and running a marathon has always been on my bucket list,” she said.

Last year she spent months training for the Clo Cow half-marathon before withdrawing due to injury. This summer, she’s been running evenings after the kids are in bed to prepare for a goal sub-hour finish.

“I go out with my lights strapped to my body, and it’s so joyful,” she said. “The sunsets are so gorgeous this time of year.” 

Wes Weber, half-marathon

Weber, 35, is a married dad of four and a youth pastor at Calvary Chapel Petaluma. “Every parent finds that getting that time to actually stay healthy, stay active, gets harder and harder,” he said. But three years ago, after his youngest was born, he found a way.

“I work at a church right by Shollenberger Park, and I started by just going out and taking a lap around the park on my lunch break,” he said.

He’d log about 10 miles a week, here and there, until last year, when he set a goal of running 100 miles throughout the summer. “That was when I really started to consider myself a runner,” he said. “I started to enjoy it, started to set some goals.” In fact, he even hoped to compete in the San Francisco Marathon with some friends – but his schedule just didn’t allow for it.

More recently he has aimed for 20 miles per week, in preparation for what will be his first-ever running race as an adult, the Clo Cow half-marathon. 

Like many aspiring finishers, he’s putting in some time on the notoriously hilly course. “I went and did the first three miles, out and back, and there’s a lot of elevation on that,” Weber said. “It’s fun to get out there. It felt good.” 

Diana Jex-Weese, half-marathon

Jex-Weese, 45, is preparing for her half-marathon debut at Clo Cow after running the 10K two times before. She’s ready to take on the challenge of the longer route and the bigger hill, climbing up and over Middle Two Rock Road before turning around to summit again and then head back toward the roaring crowd downtown.    

“I remember doing the 10K, and we would go up this one street, and it was pretty hilly,” Jex-Weese recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh, thank God we're turning around.’”

She’s run a number of other local road half-marathons before, but to prepare for this particular challenge – just a mile or two from her home, no less – she’s putting in extra time on the course.

“I’ll run out and do a bit of the course, just so I can mentally get my head around the hills and what to expect on the turns,” Jex-Weese said. 

The Nike Run Club app has proved a valuable training partner, helping her build speed, pace properly, and recover well. Yet her goals for race day are still all about the shared experience and the opportunity to try her best, she said: “I love the atmosphere of runs and find them energizing. Lots of people are in it with you, and lots of people are cheering.”

Nate Seltenrich is an editor and reporter at Petaluma Voice. He can be reached at nseltenrich@petalumavoice.org.