Double Racing® is a new sport for runners that some competitors are calling the best running event ever, due to the unique and memorable experience of running it!

At San Juan Bautista, Calif., on Sat., Sept. 20, the event, the atmosphere and the experience all came together as never before. There were two live bands, an ongoing barbecue presented by one of the main sponsors, Peacock Acres, a not-to-be-believed fruit spread laid out by Driscoll’s, a local fruit company, all of this going on within and contributing to a truly superb atmosphere for a unique competition that seemed perfectly designed for a picturesque, historic little town like San Juan Bautista – and San Juan Bautista, in turn, looking like the picture perfect town to host such an event. An event called the San Juan Bautista Road Racing® Festival no less!

“More people need to see this,” one competitor said enthusiastically. “This is really exciting. I’ve never been part of anything like this!”

And lest we forgot, at the center of all the fun, excitement and camaraderie was an athletic competition featuring not one, not two, but three Double races – the Double 15K, consisting of a 10K and a 5K, the Double 5K (a 3K followed by a 2K) and the Kids’ Double 1½ Mile (a one-mile leg followed by a half-mile). If you haven’t already heard, Double Racing® is being promoted as “Running with a halftime.”

Darius Terry, a 23-year-old from San Jose, Calif., repeated as the winner of the Double 15K, a race he had also won at the San Jose Double Racing® Festival a month earlier. He survived a stiff challenge from Ivan Medina, 28, in the 10K, withstanding a strong move by the Hayward, Calif., runner at four miles, then pulling away at the end to win the opening 10K stage by four seconds as they clocked 31:16 and 31:20 respectively.

Darius then led all the way in the 5K as he ran 15:22. His aggregate time of 46:38 gave him a 11-second edge over Ivan Medina, who finished second, and ranks as the 13^th fastest time ever run in the Double 15K – and San Juan Bautista is hardly the easiest or flattest course in Double Racing®. 

Osamu Tada, 34, of Sacramento, a veteran of the Double (he’s now run five), used his experience to overcome a 26-second deficit to Reyes Morones following the 10K to ultimately finish third on aggregate time, 50:01 compared to Morones’s 50:19. Morones, who had finished third in the 10K leg (33:26), was running his first Double and apparently miscalculated his energy distribution somewhat in running the two-stage race.

Finishing in fifth place overall in the men’s race was Jose Pina, Sr., 44, of San Jose, who also was the men’s Masters champion, as he recorded an aggregate time of 51:11 (33:58/17:13).

In the women’s division of the Double 15K, the indomitable Rosa Gutierrez, another veteran of the Double, finally broke through to win the women’s overall championship in a Double. Running in her fifth Double 15K, the 50-year-old from San Jose strung together splits of 40:31 (10K) and 20:11 (5K) for an aggregate time of 1:00:42. 

Linda Sereno, 54, of Salinas, Calif., running her first Double, finished second with an aggregate time of 1:06:01.

Sharlet Gilbert, 63, of Richmond, Calif., was third with a combined time of 1:10:47 – and in the process unofficially clinched first place, and the $1350 prize that goes with it, on the 2014 Women’s Double 15K Leader Board.

The winner of the prestigious Double Victory Cup at San Juan Bautista for best age-graded performance was Brian Davis, 59, of Livermore, Calif. Another competitor who has run numerous Doubles, his aggregate time of 57:25 (38:18/19:07) translated to an 88.27 age-graded percentage, which was fractionally better than Darius Terry’s 88.24 score and Sharlet Gilbert’s 88.08 score. This was the first time Brain Davis has won the Double Victory Cup.

The Double 5K in San Juan Bautista was a repeat of the Double 5K in San Jose a month earlier as Pedro Montes, 30, of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Omar Pina, 13, of San Jose finished 1-2 again, posting aggregate times of 17:32 and 18:45 respectively. They had run 18:25 and 18:36 in San Jose.

Della Marquez, 55, of San Jose was the women’s winner in an aggregate time of 26:23.

Omar Pina, who’s the youngest son of Jose Pina, Sr., then came back to win the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1½ Mile as he had in San Jose, posting an aggregate time of 8:30 after running 5:31 in the opening one-mile leg. His aggregate time in San Jose had been 8:46.

This talented young man, who has now run two double Doubles in four weeks, will be eligible for one more Kids’ Cup Double 1½ Mile – and that will be in Pleasanton, Calif., December 21 – before he turns 14.

The girls winner in the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup 1½ Mile in San Juan Bautista was Natalie Mazaud, 12, of nearby Carmel, Calif., who posted an aggregate time of 9:36, running the mile leg in 6:19 and the concluding half-mile leg in 3:17.  She had won the event in San Jose with a combined time of 9:39. 

So there was a lot going on in San Juan Bautista in the run, fun, food and entertainment departments. Bob Anderson, the creator of Double Racing® and the original founder of Runner’s World magazine, said after the San Juan Bautista Double Racing® Festival, “It was great. It was really, really a fun event. A lot of people were saying this was the best Double ever.”

It’s safe to say Anderson will try to make the next Double Racing® competition even better. He is nothing if not a proud parent where this new sport and competition is concerned. 

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