Come-From-Behind Victories in San Juan Bautista

Bihama Vedaste and Julita Baker each had time to make up in the second leg to emerge as the men’s and women’s champions in the Double 15K at the San Juan Bautista (Calif.) Double Racing Festival, Sat., Sept. 19.

Vedaste, who’s 25 and lives in San Jose, Calif., posted an aggregate time of 50:03 to win his first Double in his first start in the event.

Baker, who’s 33 and lives in San Ramon, Calif., had an aggregate time of 59:06 to win her second Double 15K in a row – she had also won the Double 15K in the San Jose Double Racing Festival, Sat., Aug. 22.

This is the first time ever both the men’s and women’s winners in a Double 15K had to make up a deficit after finishing behind in the opening leg. The usual pattern in the Double is that the competitor who posts the fastest time in the opening leg goes on to win this unique race in two stages. It was, therefore, unusual in San Juan Bautista that that didn’t happen, but it didn’t happen in either the men’s or women’s race.

It was a Masters stalwart, Robert Verhees, 49, of San Diego, Calif., who posted the fastest time in the opening 10K leg in San Juan Bautista, covering the distance in 33:40 (5:25 per mile pace), with Bihama Vedaste finishing two seconds behind him.

Another Masters runner, Jair Sanchez, 42, of Seaside, Calif., finished third in 34:45, with Osamu (Sam) Tada, 35, of Sacramento, Calif., finishing fourth in 34:57.

It turned out that in the concluding 5K leg, both Vedaste and Tada would leapfrog the Masters competitors who had finished ahead of them in the opening leg – and do so very convincingly.

Vedaste did it by running the 5K in 16:21 (5:16 pace), to finish 21 seconds ahead of Verhees, who ran 16:42. Thus they finished 1-2 on combined time – 50:03 and 50:22.

Likewise, Tada, a veteran of countless Doubles, ran the 5K in 16:50, compared to the 17:35 posted by Sanchez. He thus finished third on combined time, 51:47, with Sanchez finishing fourth, 52:20.

It was a similar pattern up front in the women’s race. The veteran Rosa Gutierrez, 51, of San Jose, who used to be a track star at the University of Oregon in her college days, ran the opening 10K leg in 39:16 (6:20 pace) to build an 11-second lead over Julita Baker, who finished in 39:27.

Christine Kennedy, 60, the great Masters runner from Los Gatos, Calif., who’s in the midst of a courageous comeback after a serious fall three months ago that resulted in a fractured skull, finished third in the 10K in 40:32.

In the concluding 5K leg, it was Julita Baker who proved clearly superior over the women’s field as she ran 19:39 (the same 6:20 pace Gutierrez had run in the 10K). This time Gutierrez could only run 20:08 (6:29 pace). Baker won her second Double 15K in a row, posting a combined time of 59:06. Gutierrez finished second with an aggregate time of 59:24.

Christine Kennedy ran the concluding 5K in 20:39 to finish third on aggregate time, 1:01:11.

Kennedy’s time translated to a 97.58 age-graded score, best in the competition, and gave her still another Double Victory Cup to add to her now extensive collection. Robert Verhees had the best age-graded score among the men – 92:12.

There were two other races on the schedule at the San Juan Bautista Double Racing Festival – the Ujena Double 8K and the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1½ mile.

Pedro Montes, 31, of Santa Cruz, Calif., was the decisive men’s winner in the Double 8K, running the opening 5K leg in 18:12 (5:52 pace) and the concluding 3K leg in 10:23 (5:34 pace) for a combined time of 28:35.

Masters runners occupied the next two places – Adolfo Rodriquez, 49, of Soledad, Calif., finished second in 32:49 (20:10/12:39) and Octavio Lucas, 56, of Monterey, Calif., third in 33:34 (20:42/12:52).

Isabel Alcantar, 37, of Marine, Calif., won the women’s race as she covered the 5K in 21:12 (6:50 pace) and the 3K in 13:16 (7:07 pace) for an aggregate time of 32:28.

Again, two more Masters runners rounded out the top three – Eliberto Madrigal, 52, of Salinas, Calif., was second in 34:55 (21:15/13:40) and Elizabeth Ramirez, 45, of Los Gatos, Calif., third in 35:04 (21:36/13:28).

The fastest aggregate time in the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1½ mile in San Juan Bautista was posted by 12-year-old Emily Minjares, 12, of San Jose, who ran the mile in 5:54 and the half-mile in 2:54 for a combined time of 8:48.

Fastest among the boys was Wesley Ku, 10, also from San Jose, who ran the mile in 6:32 and the half-mile in 3:07 for a combined time of 9:39.

This was the third annual San Juan Bautista Double Racing Festival, and once again everyone seemed to enjoy this unique and fun running experience in this quaint little town on California’s scenic central coast that includes Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Big Sur, etc. If you’ve never been there, you’ve missed something special. Ask those who have been there!     

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