Altitude-trained and racing-fit Sarah Crouch, 24, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., set a new women’s world record in the Double Road Race™ on Saturday, Sept. 28 by posting an aggregate time of 52:23:57 in the San Juan Bautista (Calif.) Double.

She ran the opening 10K leg in 35:02 and came back to run 17:21 in the concluding 5K leg to break the previous world record by 14 seconds.

The previous women’s world record in the Double had been 52:38:06, set by Russia’s Liudmila Stepanova in the Indianapolis Double, where she ran 35:26 for the 10K and 17:12 for the 5K.

Crouch, a 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, led from start to finish in both the 10- and 5K to win by a sizeable margin over Tina Kefalas of Hillsborough, Calif., a previous world recordholder in the Double, who posted an aggregate time of 55:24 (37:30/17:53). Kefalas, who represented Greece in the marathon at last year’s London Olympics, had won the women’ race in the  Pleasanton Double last Dec. 23, the first Double ever held in this country. Her winning time in Pleasanton had been 54:03 (35:55/18:07).

Monica Jo Nicholson of Salinas, Calif., finished third in San Juan Bautista in 57:49 (38:36/19:13).

Daniel Tapia, 26, outstanding young marathoner from nearby Prunedale, Calif., now training in Colorado Springs, Colo., handily won the men’s race in San Juan Bautista.

Charles Matheri, 28, newly arrived from Kenya, led the first two miles of the 10K, then Tapia went in front, urging the Kenyan to go with him. Matheri couldn’t respond, and from that point on Tapia, the second American finisher at this year’s Boston Marathon, just pulled farther and farther away. He finished the 10K in 30:28, led all the way in the 5K, crossing the finish line in 15:12. This gave him an aggregate time of 45:40, fifth fastest time ever in the Double. Tapia had run 46:05 in finishing second in Pleasanton.

The men’s world record in the Double is 44:31:09, held by Julius Koskei of Kenya, who ran the 10K in 29:48 and the 5K in 14:43 in winning the Indianapolis Double on August 11.

The runnerup in San Juan Bautista was Adam Roach, 29, from Monterey, Calif., who posted an aggregate time of 47:41 (32:17/15:24). Matt Duffy from Mountain View, Calif., finished third in 49:54 (33:50/16:04), and Charles Matheri from Kenya, who had led early in the 10K, finished fourth in 50:05 (33:18/16:46).

Christine Kennedy won the Double Victory Cup – again! – for the best age-graded performance. The 58-year-old Masters standout from Los Gatos, Calif., posted an aggregate time of 59:10 (39:30/19:39) in San Juan Bautista for an age-graded score of 98.7 percent. Finishing 12^th overall and the fourth fastest female, she has now won the Double Victory Cup in five of the six Doubles run in America thus far!  

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