A pouring rain couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the participants as the Chicago Double Racing® Festival, Sun., June 14, brought Double Racing® to the Chicago area for the first time.

Chicago is called the Windy City, but it turned out to be the Rainy City when competitors had to run the opening 10K leg of the Chicago Double 15K in a pouring rain in the city’s western suburb of Villa Park, about 20 miles from downtown Chicago.

True, a lot of runners didn’t show up for the event due to the conditions, a tree fell over on the course about 30 minutes before the start, although it was removed in advance of the actual race, but those who did run seemed to genuinely enjoy the competition.

“From the comments I heard,” said Bob Anderson, creator of the Double, “a lot of people enjoyed the race despite the conditions.”

This was, of course, the first Double ever held in the Chicago area, but another bit of Double history was created on this soggy day as 17-year-old Griffin Mackey became the youngest runner ever to win both the Double 15K and the Double Victory Cup for best age-graded performance in the race.

Sloshing through the downpour during the opening 10K leg, with water collecting as deep as four inches in places, the teenager clocked 37:36 (6:02 per mile pace), which put him four minutes up on everyone else heading into the second stage.

Thankfully, the rain stopped during the Halftime, and in the concluding 5K, Mackey ran 17:56 (5:47 pace), giving him an aggregate time of 55:22 and an age-graded score of 77.84.

Yonathan Parra, 24, was the runner-up with a combined time of 1:02:57 (41:48/21:09), and another teenager, Evan Ostrander, who’s only 16, finished third as his splits of 42:06-21:50 gave him an aggregate time of 1:03:56.

The women’s winner – and the fourth-place finisher overall – was Hailey Krzyston, 23, who completed the 10K in 43:20 and the 5K in 21:51 for a combined time of 1:05:11.

Elana Abraham, 25, finished second in 1:15:12 (49:27/25:45), and Cristen Cademartori, 34, was third in 1:18:39 (53:13/25:26).

All three races at the Chicago Double Racing® Festival, which was produced by Neil Gates, a professional photographer, started and finished at the Odeum Expo Center. The facility also was the site of the Halftime – and what a relief it was to dry up on the Astroturf surface of the Recovery Zone after that drenching during the opening stage!

In both the 10K and 5K stages of the Double 15K, competitors started their run on city streets, then entered a park and ran around two ponds. During the opening 10K this wasn’t as scenic and pleasant as it might seem due to the rain, but runners could better enjoy the scenery during the 5K after the rain clouds had passed.

Diego Pizano, 22, won the Double 8K at the Chicago Double Racing® Festival with an aggregate time of 42:55 as he ran the 5K in 27:15 and the 3K in 15:40. The women’s winner was Katie Boothe, 28, who posted an aggregate time of 43:40 (27:25/16:15), which also placed her second overall.

Isaiah Ayala, aged 9, was the winner of the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup 1½ Mile in an aggregate time of 12:34 as he ran the mile in 8:39 and the half-mile in 3:55.

Bob Anderson, 67, competed in the Chicago Double 15K as he does in all of them (he finished 12^th overall and was first in his age group as he posted an aggregate time of 1:15:16). He said afterwards, “Weather-wise, this was the most challenging Double ever.” But he was also heartened by the comments he heard from many of the participants, including this statement: “I really enjoy the concept of Double Racing® and I definitely want to do another one.” []

Comments

Congrats to all our finishers at our first ever Double Racing event in the state of Ill. The weather added another challenge but we all handled it well. Let's do it again!
Bob Anderson 6/16/15 7:20 am