In an all-out effort to explore the limits of speed and endurance in the Double 15K (10K + 5K), Julius Koskei set a stunning new world record of 43:11 for the event at the Pacific Grove (Calif.) Double Racing® Festival, Sun., May 10.

The 33-year-old racing veteran from Nyaharuru, Kenya, bettered his own world record by a whopping one minute and 13 seconds as he ran the opening 10K leg in 29:11 (4:42 pace) and the concluding 5K leg in 14 minutes flat (4:30 pace). Ponder running those times with approximately a one-hour break in between!

It was an awesome achievement on a day when the weather was foggy, chilly and drizzly at the start of the 10K, and Koskei (pronounced Kos-kay) had no one to push him – he won by more than seven minutes on aggregate time.

However, he had come to Pacific Grove, next to Carmel-by-the-Sea, fit and determined to do something truly dramatic, which was not only to break his previous world record but do so by a huge margin. He was confidant he could do it whether he had anyone to push him or not – and he was right to say the least.

His previous world record in the Double 15K had been 44:24, set in Pleasanton, Calif., Dec. 22, 2013, when he ran the 10K in 29:45 and the 5K in 14:38. But what he did on Sunday in Pacific Grove was completely off the charts! He himself felt his performance was equivalent to a 1:01 half-marathon.

Finishing second in the men’s division at the Double 15K in Pacific Grove was Osamu Tada, 34, of Sacramento, Calif., who ran the 10K in 34:49 and the 5K in 15:50 for a combined time of 50:39.

Masters runner Jose Pina, 45, of San Jose, Calif., finished third in 51:38 (35:04/16:34).

The women’s race in Pacific Grove featured a tight battle between two Masters runners, one in her early 50s and the other just turned 60, and in the end Rosa Gutierrez, 51, of San Jose just got the better of Christine Kennedy, 60, of Los Gatos, Calif.

Gutierrez ran the 10K in 39:30, Kennedy finished in 39:33. In the concluding 5K there was a seven-second differential between Gutierrez and Kennedy as they ran 18:36 and 18:43 respectively. Therefore, the results on aggregate time were Gutierrez, 58:06, and Kennedy, 58:16.

Kennedy, however, won the prestigious Double Victory Cup for best age-graded performance as her 58:16 translated to a 100.00 score. It was the 10^th time in 11 Doubles that Kennedy has won the Double Victory Cup.  She also set a 60 and over women’s world record in the Double 15K. 

Gutierrez had an age-graded score of 91.19.

Actually the second-place finisher in the age-graded scoring on Sunday was … Julius Koskei. His 43:11 at age 33 translated to a 95.83 score.

Pacific Grove was Julius Koskei's fourth Double 15K. He set a new world record in three of those four races, but he had never done anything quite like this before!

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