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UjENA FIT Club 100 Interesting Running Articles

Best Road Races and the UjENA FIT Club is publishing 100 articles about races, training, diet, shoes and coaching.   If you would like to contribute to this feature, send an email to Bob Anderson at bob@ujena.com .  We are looking for cutting edge material.

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Pleasanton: The Masters of Double Racing
Posted Wednesday, February 11th, 2015
By David Prokop Pleasanton, Calif., may be a quiet, relaxed community across the bay from San Francisco, but where Double... Read Article
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Champions of the Double
Posted Monday, September 15th, 2014
Peter Mullin has taken Double Racing® by storm. He broke the 60-64 age group world record in the first Double... Read Article
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Double Racing Has Truly Arrived!
Posted Monday, September 22nd, 2014
by David Prokop (Editor Best Road Races) Photo: Double 15k top three Double Racing® is a new sport for... Read Article
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Pritz's Honor
Posted Sunday, May 11th, 2014
By David Prokop, editor Best Road Races The world’s most unusual race met the world’s most beautiful place, in the... Read Article

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KOSKEI LOWERS HIS OWN WORLD RECORD!
Monday, December 23rd, 2013
Kenyan Julius Koskei set a new world record in the second annual Pleasanton Double Road Race
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By David Prokop

Julius Koskei (bib 118) is now a perfect two for two in the Double!

He’s run two Doubles, won each one and set a new men’s world record each time out.

Sunday, Dec. 22, at the second annual Pleasanton Double, on a day that dawned frigidly cold but soon warmed dramatically from the benevolent rays of the sun in a cloudless sky, Koskei (pronounced Kos-Kay) broke his own world record in the Double Road Race™ by seven seconds.  How fitting that the man who’s emerged as the star of the Double would get his second record on the very same course and at the same place where the Double was born almost exactly a year earlier.

A short, slight, slender man with long legs for his 5’5” height, he ran the first two miles in a lead group of three with Ethiopian Tesfaye Alemayehu (pronounced Tes-fie Al-a-my-yo), who now lives in Antioch, Calif., and Koskei’s fellow Kenyan, Charles Matheri. Then Matheri dropped back and it was Koskei and Alemayehu, who are old but friendly rivals, on their own.

At the end of the first lap of the two-lap course, Koskei was pushing the pace with the taller Ethiopian gliding along behind him, yet seemingly under some duress to hold the pace.

Alemayehu would hold on for another mile, but then the quadriceps strain that had forced him to drop out at 21 miles of the California International Marathon two weeks earlier began to re-surface. He let Koskei go.

Now on his own, Koskei pushed on to finish the 10K in 29:45:20 – three seconds faster than he had run the 10K in the Indianapolis Double when he set the world record.

Alemayehu would finish the 10K in 30:26:00, almost 46 second behind Koskei, with Daniel Tapia, 27, of Prunedale, Calif., in the Salinas area, finishing third in 31:14:71. The second American finisher at this year’s Boston Marathon, Tapia is a very good runner,  but he was never with the leaders on this day.

At Indianapolis Julius Koskei had run the concluding 5K leg of the Double in 14:43. So after his opening 10K in Pleasanton, all he would have to do to break his world record is run 14:46 for the 5K.  No ordinary challenge, especially after running a 10K, but then he’s no ordinary runner.

He and Alemayehu had no problems recovering after the 10K – and later they both agreed, “The fitter you are, the quicker you recover.”

In the 5K leg, temperatures were perhaps 20-25 degrees warmer than at the start of the 10K, Koskei went off the starting line hard, with Alemayehu going with him. They were together for about 1 1/2 miles, before the 28-year-old Ethiopian, wary of re-injuring his right quadriceps, backed off.

Koskei drove onward and had no difficulty meeting his target of running 14:46 or faster. He would finish the 5K in 14:38:81, giving him an aggregate time of 44:24:01 (his previous record had been 44:31:09), although he admitted he really had to push the 5K because he couldn’t be sure how fast he was going or how he was doing in comparison to his previous record pace.  

In setting his new record at Pleasanton, his average pace per mile in the 10K was 4:47 and his average pace per mile in the 5K was 4:43! This provides a clear picture of how fast you have to run to set a record of this caliber.

Alemayehu finished the 5K in 15:02:52, for an aggregate time of 45:28:52, which placed him second overall.

Daniel Tapia would finish third, running the 5K in 15:29:85 to give him an aggregate time of 46:44:56.

After his record performance at Pleasanton II, Julius Koskei now holds several firsts in the Double. Among them: 1) He’s the only one who has run under 30 minutes in the 10K of the Double – and he’s done it twice, 2) He’s the only one who has held two world records, overall, in the Double, and 3) He’s the only man who’s been the overall champion at two different Doubles.

Comments and Feedback
run There were six world Double Road Race records set in Pleasanton. Congrats to all our finishers!
Bob Anderson 12/23/13 10:56 pm
,,,,,

Julius Koskei, who’s 31, lives in Nyaharuru, Kenya with his wife Emily and their two sons, Roger, 8, and Eugene, 5. He was planning to fly back to Kenya, departing on Tues., Dec. 24, and would arrive home on Dec. 26. His one regret: “This is the first Christmas I’m not going to be home.” But no doubt he’ll be returning home bearing gifts for his family – not the least of which is a new world record in the Double … his second!

The women’s winner in the second annual Pleasanton Double was Chantelle Wilder, 28,  originally from Canada, now living in Los Gatos, Calif. Previously hampered by injuries, but now rounding into the form which made her a star runner at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., she ran the 10K in 36:13:21 and the 5K in 17:40:00 for an aggregate time of 53:53:21.

This is a new course record for the Pleasanton Double, surpassing the time of 54:03 Tina Kefalas ran last year to win the women’s race at the inaugural Pleasanton Double and set the (then) world record. Wilder’s time also becomes the new Canadian women’s record for the Double – she had previously run 55:14 (37:12/18:01).

Tina Kefalas had been scheduled to compete at Pleasanton, but she had to withdraw at the last minute due to a health situation.

The women’s world record in the Double is 52:23:57, held by Sarah Crouch, 24, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., who ran the 10K in 35:02 and the 5K in 17:21 in winning the San Juan Bautista Double on September 28.

Tori Tyler, 26, of Danville, Calif., finished second in the women’s race at Pleasanton with an aggregate time of 55:24:32 (36:48:67/18:35:65). And the third-place finisher was 19-year-old Natalie Dimits of Livermore, Calif. Running the 10K in 38:23:46 and the 5K in 18:59:60 for an aggregate time of 57:23:06, she became the youngest person ever to finish in the top three overall (men’s or women’s division) in any of the Doubles held thus far.

On a day of fast times and great weather (once the sun rose in the sky), with an enthusiastic group of  nearly 1000 runners doing their best on a fast course, no fewer than six world age-group world records in the Double were broken at Pleasanton:

o Julius Koskei, of course, surpassed the previous men’s 30-39 age-group record he had held since he set the overall men’s world record at Indianapolis last August.

o In finishing third female overall at Pleasanton, Natalie Dimits obliterated the women’s world record in the 19 and under age group. Her aggregate time of 57:23:06 was almost six minutes faster than the previous record of 1:03:15, set by Alyssa Horning, 18, also from Livermore, Calif., who ran 42:20 and 20:54 last year at Pleasanton. 

o Alan Reynolds, 50, of Sausalito, Calif.,  broke the world record in the men’s 50-59 age group, posting an aggregate time of 52:51:55 (35:23:65/17:27:90). The previous record had been held by Silvano de la Cruz, 52, of Mexico, who had run 53:06 (35:43/17:22) in a developmental Double in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on June 16, 2012. That had been the last world record from any of the developmental Doubles in Mexico still on the books.

o Peter Mullin, 63, of Houston, Tex., the 2013 Ujena Fit Club Male Runner of the Year, looked very impressive in setting a new world record in the men’s 60-69 age group. He ran 37:07:14 and 18:48:81 for an aggregate time of 55:55:95. This surpassed the old record – and a good one it was! – of 56:37 set by Marcial Soto, 60, of Eugene, Ore., last year at Pleasanton when he ran the 10K in 37:38 and the 5K in 18:59. No one had even come close to breaking Soto’s record until Mullin’s performance in Pleasanton II.

o Sharlet Gilbert, 61, of Richmond, Calif., improved on her own world record in the women’s 60-69 age group which had also lasted for an entire year less a day since she ran 1:11:21 (46:48/24:23) last year at Pleasanton. At Pleasanton this year, she ran 1:07:22 (44:53:51/22:29:08).

o Finally, Melody-Anne Schultz, 72, of Ross, Calif., broke the women’s record in the 70 and over age group. Her time of 1:13:29.6 (49:23:34/24:06:27) surpassed the previous record of 1:15:20 set by Libby James, 77, of Fort Collins, Colo., who ran the 10K in 50:26 and the 5K in 24:54 at the Manhattan (Kan.) Double on Nov. 9.

The prestigious Double Victory Cup for the best age-graded performance at this year’s Pleasanton Double went to Christine Kennedy, 58, of Los Gatos, Calif., who posted an aggregate time of 59:06:62 (39:34:83/19:31:79) for an age-graded score of 98.24 percent. She has now won the Double Victory Cup in six of the nine Doubles staged since the Double was first held on U.S. soil, Dec. 23, 2012, but this time her margin of victory was the smallest ever, for the aforementioned Melody-Anne Schultz, whose aggregate time of 1:13:29 in setting a new women’s world record for the 70-79 age group gave her a 97.76 age graded score.

The Double is often advertised as a family fun event and a world-class competition all rolled into one. The remarkable Pina running family from San Jose – father Jose, sons Jose Jr. and Omar – certainly made it both and then some!  Jose Jr., who’s only 16 and a huge talent, dominated the 19 and under age group with an aggregate time of 51:13:04 (34:44 for the 10K and 16:28 for the 5K). Father Jose, who’s 43, was a runaway winner of the 40-44 age group, posting an aggregate time of 51:01:52 (34:05/16:55:85), more than eight minutes faster than the runner-up in that age group. And Omar, who’s 12, won the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup One-Mile in a time of 5:50:52.

The Christmas long 5K Run/Walk (3.25 miles) held in conjunction with the opening 10K leg of the Double,  was also part of the program at Pleasanton. The men’s winner of the Christmas 5K was Jason Noriega, 36, of Dublin, Calif., who ran 17:39.19. The women’s winner, in a time of 18:23:81, was Sasha Blum, 40, of Walnut Creek, Calif.

The race weekend of the Pleasanton Double was set in motion Friday night with the premiere of the two-hour documentary, A Long Run, at the Firehouse Art Center in Pleasanton. An inspiring film which interweaves several story lines simultaneously –including a history and examination of running, Bob Anderson’s 50-Race Challenge in 2012 celebrating his 50 years of running, and the story of how he founded Runner’s World magazine as a high school senior and went on to publish it through the years which ushered in the running boom  -- the movie was so well received by the audience in its initial public showing, it promises to become one of the most popular documentaries on running ever made.

On Saturday evening before Sunday’s Double, the 2013 Double Road Race Leader Board  Awards were presented at the Club Sport Fitness Center in Pleasanton. Throughout the 2013 season, the Double Road Race Federation had maintained both a men’s and women’s Leader Board ranking competitors in terms of money won and points earned throughout the year. At season’s end the top 10 on both the men’s and women’s Double Road Race™ Leader Board would win cash prizes from a total pool of $10,000. Bob Anderson and Christine Kennedy finished atop the men’s and women’s Leader Board respectively – not only because of the many Doubles they ran (Bob ran all eight, Christine ran six), but because of how well they performed in their age groups, race in, race out.

Of course, Bob Anderson, the creator of the Double, was a participant in the second annual Pleasanton Double, finishing second in the 65-69 age group with an aggregate time of 1:06:17. He is the only person who has run and finished all the Doubles ever held!

The Most Fit Team award (the group who had the most finishers between the three races) went to Fleet Feet Pleasanton, who also was the running store sponsor.  The third annual Pleasanton Double, Christmas 5k Run/Walk and Bob Anderson's Kids Cup Mile will be held December 21, 2014.   

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Double Road Race