HISTORY IN SAN JOSE

A new era in Double Racing® dawns at the San Jose Double Racing® Festival, Sat., August 23.

By David Prokop

History was made on Saturday in San Jose, Calif., at the San Jose Double Racing® Festival as – for the first time ever! – all three events on the program were Doubles: a Double 15K (traditionally known as the Double Road Race®), a Double 5K and the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1½ Mile.

So while it can be said that the sport of Double Racing® was born in Pleasanton, Calif., on Sun., Dec. 23, 2012, with the staging of the first Double Road Race® in America, Double Racing® shed its transient identity to reveal its true identity Saturday in San Jose as a full-blown sport incorporating a wide array of Doubles over a variety of distances and even a variety of terrains (see below). In short, it’s a whole new dawn and a whole new deal, one that all runners, who vary in their fitness levels and distance preferences, will presumably welcome.

A total of almost 700 participants toed the starting line in the three races at San Jose on Saturday, and the competitors who shone the brightest on this historic day were Darius Terry, Tori Tyler, Christine Kennedy, Peter Magill, Pedro Montes, Liv Breashears, Omar Pina and Natalie Mazaud.

Incidentally, one of the reasons why this was the first time there had been multiple Doubles in one competition is that heretofore Double Racing® had consisted of only one event – the aforementioned Double Road Race®, which is a 10K, followed by a recovery break, and then a concluding 5K.

However, Bob Anderson, creator of Double Racing®, and the Double Road Racing Federation (DRRF), governing body of the sport, have now introduced an entire range of Double races over a variety of distances, in addition to the Double 15K. These include (from the shortest to the longest), the Kids’ Double 1½ Mile, the Double 5K, the Double 10K, the Double 21K (half-marathon distance) and even the Double 42K (marathon distance), all conducted on the basis of the Double Racing® format – first leg the longest, followed by a recovery break, then a concluding shorter leg, with the final finishing positions determined on the basis of combined or aggregate time. The San Jose Double Racing® Festival was the official unveiling of this new format, thus its historical significance.

To further set itself off as the new sport of Double Racing®, the DRRF has also announced that in the future all events at Double Racing® competitions will be Doubles. Furthermore, many of these Doubles will be run over different types of terrain, not just on paved roads as has been the case previously.

Darius Terry, 23, of San Jose was a convincing winner of the Double 15K in San Jose Saturday as he ran the 10K in 31:57 and the 5K in 15:27 for an aggregate time of 47:24. His performance was a substantial improvement on the aggregate time of 50:08 he posted in finishing second in the San Jose Double 15K back in February, but his time on Saturday fell just short of the course record of 47:18 Malcolm Richards posted in winning that previous San Jose Double. Terry, who led from gun to finish of both stages on Saturday, was ahead by more than a minute after the 10K, so the outcome of the men’s race was never really in doubt. Second place in the men’s race went to Kota Reichert, 31, of Los Altos Hills, Calif., who posted an aggregate time of 49:19. Osamu Tada, 34, of Sacramento, Calif., finished third in 50:34.

The women’s winner in the Double 15K was Tori Tyler, 27, of Danville, Calif., who ran the 10K in 36:22 and the 5K in 17:56 for a combined time of 54:15. Finishing second was Allison Maxson, 28, of Folsom, Calif., who was 24 seconds behind on combined time – 54:44. Liza Hitchner, 26, of Los Altos Hills, Calif., posted an aggregate time of 55:32 to finish third.

The extraordinary Masters runner Christine Kennedy of Los Gatos, Calif., who’s 59, was the fifth female overall in the Double 15K, and her combined time of 1:01:02 (40:55/20:07) gave her a 96.48 age-graded score and earned her the Double Victory Cup – her eighth in Double Racing® -- for the best age-graded performance in the race!

Certainly, one of the highlight performances of the day was registered by Peter Magill, 53, of South Pasadena, Calif., who obliterated the men’s 50-59 age-group world record in the Double 15K by running the 10K in 34:27 and the 5K in 17:08 for an aggregate time of 51:35. That translates to an average pace of 5:31 per mile, which is certainly impressive running for a man in his 50s. The old record had been 52:50, set by Alan Reynolds last Dec. 22 in Pleasanton.

The San Jose Double Racing® Festival marked the first time the Double 5K and the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1½ Mile were ever contested; thus the times of the winners automatically become the world records for those events.

Pedro Montes, 30, of Santa Cruz, Calif., was the men’s winner of the Double 5K as he posted an aggregate time of 18:25 for the 3K and 2K legs of the race. That’s an average pace of 5:56 per mile.

Perhaps the bigger story was the performance of 13-year-old Omar Pina of San Jose, who finished second with a combined time of 18:35, and then came back to win the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1½ Mile in a combined time of 8:46. In other words, this talented young man from the remarkable Pina running family, which includes father Jose Sr. and Omar’s older brother Jose Jr., literally ran two doubles on the same day, winning one and finishing second in the other!

Aaron Young, 29, of Sunnyvale, Calif., was third in the Double 5K, men’s division, with a combined time of 18:40. Liv Brashears, 15, of San Jose, who trains with the Pina family, was the women’s winner in the Double 5K, posting a combined time of 21:10, Yvette Felix, 17, of San Juan Bautista, Calif., was second in 21:25 and Rebecca Hernandez, 40, of San Jose third in 22:25.

The girls’ winner in the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup 1½ Mile was Natalie Mazaud, 12, of Carmel, Calif., who posted a combined time of 9:39 for the two legs of the race -- a mile and a half-mile. As mentioned previously, Omar Pina was the boys’ winner.

The team with the most finishers total, counting all three events, was Bertrand Newson’s Taji 100 team from San Jose. The team had 49 finishers and took home the Most Fit Team Award.

In terms of number of participants, this was the third largest Double ever, ranking only behind the two Pleasanton Doubles held in late December of 2012 and 2013. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time, there were two live bands on hand, one deejay, and the weather was all but perfect for running – 52 degrees at the start of the Double 15K, with just a little bit of a breeze during the 10K, and 70 degrees by the start of the second leg of the Double 15K

The San Jose Double Racing® Festival truly marked a big step forward for Double Racing®. From the time the Double Road Race® (the Double 15K) was first introduced in December of 2012, it had typically been promoted as an event with something for everyone. Now, with the introduction of all these new Doubles over such a variety of distances, Double Racing® truly becomes a sport with a distance for everyone!

A new dawn indeed!

Comments

San Jose was our first Double Racing Festival. The format adds to the excitement to the whole event! Congrats to all our winners. Double 15k performance medals and prize money is being mailed out this week.
Bob Anderson 8/25/14 5:56 pm