SUPERIORITY TIMES TWO!

It was a repeat victory, but without the world records this time, for Julius Koskei and Liudmila Stepanova in the Indianapolis Double.

By David Prokop

There were no world records this year, but Julius Koskei and Liudmila Stepanova were so dominant at the second annual Indianapolis Double Road Race™, Sun., June 1, they made up for it with a bunch of other firsts in this unique 10K-5K event.

Koskei (pronounced Kos-kay), a 32-year-old road warrior from Nyaharuru, Kenya, had set a men’s world record in the Double last year at Indianapolis, running the 10K in 29:48 and the 5K in 14:43 for an aggregate time of 44:31. He subsequently improved on that record at the second annual Pleasanton (Calif.) Double last Dec. 22, running the 10K in 29:45 and the 5K in 14:39 for a combined time of 44:24.

Sunday at Indianapolis, he ran the 10K in 30:14, which left him 29 seconds behind his record pace in Pleasanton. He came back very strong, however, in the 5k, running 14:39 to equal his 5K time in Pleasanton, which also happens to be the fastest 5K ever run in the Double, to post an aggregate time of 44:51. This was the fourth fastest time ever recorded in the Double, ranking only behind his two previous world-record times and the 44:48 American record posted by Joe Moore when he won the Manhattan (Kan.) Double last year (30:04 10K/14:44 5K).

Stepanova, 30, who’s from Cheboksary, Russia, had set a new women’s world record at Indianapolis last year, running the 10K in 35:21 and the 5K in 17:12 for a combined time of 52:38. The record has since been lowered twice – first by Sarah Crouch, who ran 52:23 in the San Juan Bautista (Calif.) Double last year (35:02/17:21), and subsequently by Molly Pritz, who posted an aggregate time of 52:13 (34:39/17:34) only three weeks ago in the Pacific Grove (Calif.) Double.

On Sunday in Indianapolis, Stepanova was specifically focused on Pritz’s record, but when she ran the 10K in only 35:52, any hopes she had of breaking the record vanished. Still, she ran the 5K in 17:39 to finish with an aggregate time of 53:30, the sixth fastest time ever, and more importantly (or is it impressively?) she would finish second overall in the race, the only runner finishing ahead of her being Julius Koskei.

While Julius Koskei and Liudmila Stepanova failed to break the world records in the Double at Indianapolis, they did achieve a bevy of firsts:

They became the first runners to win the men’s and women’s overall titles in three Doubles – Koskei won in Indianapolis, Pleasanton and now Indianapolis again, Stepanova won in Indianapolis, then San Jose and now in Indianapolis a second time.

The margin of victory by the two of them in their respective divisions at Indianapolis was the biggest in the history of the Double, Koskei won the men’s race by 10 minutes, 30 seconds – Terry Wyatt, 50, of Hebron, Ky., finished second in the men’s race, running the 10K in 36:50 and the 5K in 18:32 for an aggregate time of 55:21; Chad Carver, 31, of Kokomo, Ind., finished third in 55:36 (37:23/18:15). Stepanova won the women’s race by six minutes, 39 seconds – Lauren Manuel, 31, of Indianapolis finished second in 1:00:09, running 40:40 for the 10K and 19:31 for the 5K; Masters runner Cindy Harris, 45, also of Indianapolis, finished third in 1:09:06 (46:08/23:00).

Stepanova became the first female in the history of the Double to finish as high as second overall! In other words, if her teammate Julius (they have the same agent in the United States, Larisa Mikaylova) hadn’t run this race – and he originally wasn’t planning to run it – Stepanova would have been the overall winner!

Julius Koskei had won the first two Doubles he ran in world record time, but this was the first time he won the prestigious Double Victory Cup for best age-graded performance – his aggregate time of 44:51 gave him a 92.01 age-graded score. Paul Carlin, 68, of Indianapolis, who set an age-68 world record for the Double in Indianapolis as he ran the 10K in 41:37 and the 5K in 21:14 for an aggregate time of 1:02:50, had the second best age-graded score – 87.56.

The race was run under near perfect weather conditions – the temperature was in the low 60s at the start of the 10K, around 70 degrees at the start of the 5K, with moderate humidity.

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