by Dave Prokop, Ujena Fit Club editor

Anyone who wondered how the inaugural Double Road Race™ in American history would play out on the streets of the beautiful city of Pleasanton, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 23, now has the answer: It was an unparalleled success and an unmistakable signpost to the future, despite the intermittent rain and sometime gusty winds that made conditions for the hundreds of runners entered less that ideal.

Considering this was the birth of a new sport, you could even say it was a success of almost moon-landing proportions! For indeed the Double Road Race™ has landed on the American sports scene with a kind of sonic boom in our collective consciousness, and runners all over the country have had their competitive universe expanded and transformed forever.

First Photo: Fernando Cabada won the Yellow Jersey in the 10k leg and finishes first also in the 5k leg.  Daniel Tapia right behind.  This Photo: Start of the Double 5k Leg.  Photos by Catherine Cross for Ujena Fit Club

Bob Anderson, creator of the Double and former publisher of Runner’s World magazine, can now rest assured that his invention works as a valid athletic competition and, equally important, runners love it!

That, indeed, was the big story at the Pleasanton Double Road Race™, although the hardy runners, which included many world-class performers, who competed in the event were really the ones who made this glorious new history a reality. In years to come, no doubt, those who competed in the Pleasanton Double will find themselves saying with pride, “I competed in the first Double.” That is the significance of the history these runners set in motion by what they did in Pleasanton on Sunday.

Those who did it fastest – this was after all an athletic competition, a race – were Fernando Cabada and Tina Kefalas, who were the men’s and women’s winners respectively, each shattering the world record (seven trial Doubles had previously been held in Mexico) and Christine Kennedy, who won the Double Victory Cup for the best age-graded performance.

Bob Anderson also was a big winner at the event, not only because his brainchild matured into a fully grown sport and competiton even as he was running in it, but because he completed his 50-Race Challenge at Pleasanton  (50 races in 50 weeks) – and did it in style, running 11 seconds under seven-minute pace for the two legs, although that left him an agonizing 23 seconds short of his stated goal of averaging under seven minutes per mile for the entire series of 50 races - a total of 350 miles!

Photo: Bob presenting Bill Rodgers with a check for $4,000 and the Bob Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award.  This award will be presented to at least one runner each year at the Pleasanton Double.

Hall of Famer Bill Rodgers, four-time winner of the Boston Marathon and four-time winner of the New York City Marathon, ran in the Pleasanton Double  -- on a day he celebrated his 65^th birthday and received the Bob Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award after the competition. He finished third in the 65-69 age group.

On this day, Fernando Cabada was king of the road! The tall, slender (6’2”, 150-pound) native of Fresno, Calif., who has lived in Boulder, Colo., for the last six years and makes his living as a professional runner, was using the Pleasanton Double as a high-quality tuneup or training session for the Houston Marathon in two weeks. He hopes to break 2:10 in Houston.  His plan at Pleasanton was to run the opening 10K leg of the Double in 30 minutes, then come back after the recovery break and run 14:30 for the concluding 5K leg, thus giving him an aggregate time of 44:30.

He ran with the lead pack for the first two miles of the 10K, running close to five-minute pace, then took  the lead. By the end of the first lap of the two-lap course the competitors ran in the 10K, he was 15 years clear of the field and just flying, with Daniel Tapia, fine young marathoner from the Salinas area, desperately chasing. Rain started falling during the second half of the 10K, which isn’t necessarily a problem for road runners, but wind is, and the wind started kicking up as the runners headed towards the finish of the 10K. The last mile would be run into the wind.

Photo: Fernando Cabada finishing the 10k leg.

Still looking strong and smooth, Cabada crossed the finish line in 30:31, some 31 seconds short of his goal, although the wind certainly had to slow him down as it did the other runners.

Daniel Tapia, apparently recovered from his magnificent effort in winning the California International Marathon in Sacramento three weeks earlier, finished second in 31:01, and Tyler McCandless,  two-time winner of the Kauai Marathon, who also lives and trains in  Boulder. Colo., came across the line third with a time of 31:41.

With a  winning margin of 30 seconds, Cabada not only donned the leader’s yellow jersey for the 5K but had apparently secured the victory in the Double. Talent will out, and Cabada has plenty of that. In fact, Tyler McCandless later said of him, “I think Fernando is the most naturally talented distance runner in America.”

Photo: The Double Road Race Recovery Zone...running first half time

As the weather deteriorated, runners kept streaming across the finish line and heading towards the Recovery Zone in the gymnasium of Hart Middle School to get out of the rain as much as to recover. It wasn’t long before the auditorium became a mass of humanity as runners gathered together to recover, refuel and reflect on the 5K still to come. A tremendous spirit of camaraderie and shared purpose permeated the gymnasium, for all these runners, who had already run 10 kilometers, would be going out and doing it all over again, only this time covering half the distance. It was an assemblage and atmosphere unlike anything anyone associated with running had ever experienced before. 

Almost 5 ½ minutes after Fernando Cabada crossed the finish line of the 10K, the first female finished -- Tina Kefalas, with a time of  35:55. Kefalas lives in Hillsborough, Calif., across the bay from Pleasanton, and she represented Greece in the women’s marathon at the London Olympics earlier in the year. She and Bill Rodgers, to the best of our knowledge, were the only two Olympians who competed in the Pleasanton Double.

Photo: Kefalas at the half way mark of  the 10k leg.

Kefalas led the 10K from start to finish.  Michelle Meyer, originally from Carmel, Calif., now living in San Francisco, who would finish second in the 10K with a time of  36:23.  Meyer let an early gap develop between herself and Kefalas, then they ran approximately the same pace from then on -- except they were about 20 seconds apart.

“I knew I couldn’t keep up with her,” Meyer said later, a reference to the fact Kefalas has much superior personal bests in the 5- and 10K. “Besides, I was running my own pace. I was running hard (in the 10K), but I didn’t know how hard to run.”

The third-place finisher in the women’s division of the opening 10K was Meyer’s  teammate, Heather Tanner, who ran 37:23. Tanner, who lives in Menlo Park, Calif. stayed with Meyer for the first mile or so of the 10K, then dropped back to run her own pace.

Photo: Bob Anderson trying to stay under 7 minutes/mile.

Bob Anderson, running with tremendous focus to complete his 50-Race Challenge and get as far as possible under seven-minute-per-mile pace as he could, was considerably over seven-minute pace at the end of the first lap (or half) of the 10K, but he rallied in the second half to hit the line in 43:25, which was about six seconds under seven-minute pace. His dream was still alive, his goal to average under seven minutes per mile for the entire 50-Race Challenge still within reach.

The question up in the air about the Double Road Race™, if you were an analyst of these kinds of things, was whether the competitors would pace themselves well enough and recover sufficiently during the rest break so the concluding 5K leg would be run in a form and style one might associate with the word “race,” or whether the competition would deteriorate into a slow-motion ordeal as worn-out runners struggled to finish the 5K.

The answer to that question was evident almost immediately after newly elected Pleasanton mayor Jerry Thorne sounded the horn to send the assembled runners off in a now steady rain for one final lap around the loop course to complete the 5K and the Double Road Race™.  Led by the elite young male runners, the field bolted from the line at an even faster speed than before. These people were here to run, to compete, to race, not merely survive.

At that moment, the Double Road Race™ was validated as a legitimate athletic competition that runners of any ability level, age, sex, or perhaps even fitness level could successfully negotiate to produce a quality effort in both the 10- and 5K legs. In other words, the Double Road Race™ was born when the runners left the starting line in Pleasanton at 7:45am to start the opening 10K leg; it came of age when the runners left the starting line at 9:30am for the concluding 5K leg.  Runners could obviously do this and do it well. The proof was right out there in full view on the roads in Pleasanton.  

Photo: Over 1000 runners finished the Double Road Race, Christmas 5k and Kids Christmas 1 Mile.  Lots of good feedback at: http://www.doubleroadrace.com/deefkcab.php

  In the 5K it was Matt Duffy of Mountain View, Calif., who went to the lead right from the start, with Daniel Tapia, Fernando Cabada and Australian Tyson Popplestone  following. The weather conditions had really started to deteriorate –  heavier rain, gusting winds.

Duffy led for about 1½ miles, then Tapia moved to his shoulder. At about 1.7 miles Tapia took the lead, Cabada, wearing the yellow jersey, went with him, and Duffy could only watch as the two marathon standouts moved away from him, all of them now running into the wind. Cabada would hang on to Tapia until they approached the finish line. Then, starting his kick just before the left-hand turn into the short finishing straight, Cabada powered past to edge Tapia by one second, running 15:02 compared to Tapia’s 15:03, and assure himself of victory in the men’s division. His winning aggregate time was 45:34, a new world record!  Tapia finished second with an aggregate time of 46:05, also under the previous record.

Behind them some unnoticed drama was unfolding. Tyler McCandless had finished third in the 10K, working his way up from sixth at the midway point to third at the end. The runner he ultimately passed at the end of the 10K was Cheyne Inman, and finishing right behind Inman, and gaining on him, was Matt Duffy. Thus Duffy would wind up finishing fifth in the 10K, about nine seconds behind McCandless.

Duffy knew he would have to make up those nine seconds on McCandless in the 5K if he was to move up to third place, and as a very good 1500-5000 meter runner, he thought he could do it. That’s why he went out so hard in the 5K.

It almost worked! McCandless would later say that when he saw Duffy, running up ahead, go past a turn on the course at about two miles of the 5K, he checked his watch, and then timed himself to see how long it took him to reach the same spot. It was then he realized Duffy was 20 seconds ahead of him!

So it was that in the last mile of the 5K, which was run into the wind, McCandless had to use his marathoner’s strength to the maximum to close the gap between him and Duffy by 13 seconds.  At the finish line Duffy was third in 15:24, and McCandless fourth in 15:31, but McCandless took third overall on aggregate time – 47:13 to 47:15 for Duffy.

Photo: Matt Duffy looks behind at the finish of the 5k leg.

“I made a mistake in the 10K,” McCandless later said. “After I got into third place in the 10K I didn’t exactly cruise to the finish line, but I should have kicked the last quarter mile so I would have more of a cushion and wouldn’t have had to run so hard in the 5K.”

As for Matt Duffy, who’s only 22, a recent graduate of Brown University, where he was a 1500-5000 specialist (he’s run 3:49 for the 1500 and 14:01 for the 5000), his performance in the Pleasanton Double in running so aggressively in the 5K after he had already run a hard 10K – remember, this is a 1500-5000 specialist! – was a tour de force.

Photo: This was not just a world-class event but a family christmas event.  Over 400 ran the Christmas 5k and nearly 100 kids completed the Kids Christmas 1 mile.

Be sure to check out David's story on the Double. Lots of World Class times with tons of Christmas spirit. Met many families. The mood in the Recovery Zone was magical...at least for me!!!!
Bob Anderson 12/27/12 11:23 pm

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At the least he deserves a special commendation for a courageous, magnificent effort. But for the strong headwind he had to run into in the last mile of the 5K, plus the fact he was being chased by a very strong, determined, intelligent runner in Tyler McCandless, he very well could have made up those nine seconds McCandless had on him and snatched third place away on aggregate time. As it is, the battle McCandless and Duffy waged on the streets in the Pleasanton Double, finishing only two seconds apart on aggregate time, provides the best example of the drama, subtlety and complexity the Double can provide.

Both ran and competed magnificently, and thereby provided the most competitive moment of the Pleasanton Double.

By virtue of his overall victory in the men’s division, Fernando Cabada, who is 30, also won the 30-34 age group -- and rather handily. In the Pleasanton Double, medals were awarded to the top five men and women in the under-19 age group, the 20-24 age group,  the 25-29 age group, the 30-35 age group, etc., and cash awards were given to the fastest three runners, on aggregate time, in the 40-49, in the 50-59 category and so forth.

Photo: Jose Pina ran the fastest time 40 plus for the day posting 51:55.

 Jose Pina of San Jose, Calif. was the winner in the 40-45 age group with an aggregate time of  51:55 (a 34:04 10K and a 17:51 5K). His precocious son, Jose Jr., who’s only 15 but already much taller than his father, won the under-19 age group with an aggregate time of  54:20 (35:58 in the 10K and 18:21 in the 5K).  But both father and son had serious problems to contend with in the Double, which resulted in their pace in the shorter 5K actually being slower than it had been in the longer 10K. Jose Jr. explained later that he had developed a stitch/cramp in the 10K, but it really got bad in the 5K. His father, who’s also his coach, decided to run with Jose Jr. at the slower pace for a good part of the 5K. Plus the father had developed a stiff calf during a training run about a week before the Double, and the calf, which wasn’t really a problem during the 10K, had stiffened up on him during the recovery break at Pleasanton. Thus father and son, both hampered by problems, ran the 5K slower than they otherwise would have, but they’re so good, they were still able to win their respective age groups.

If there had been a  spirit and commitment award at the Pleasanton Double, it probably would have gone to Marcielo Soto. Having just turned 60, the tanned, muscular Soto drove overnight and through a snowstorm from his home in Eugene, Oregon to get to Pleasanton on Saturday morning. 

Photo: Marcielo Soto posted the best time for runners 60 plus.  He finished in 56:37.

Running like a man on a mission in the Double the next morning, he won the 60-64 age group by running the 10K in 37:38 and the 5K in 18:59, for an aggregate time of 56:37.  Then he got in his car and drove back to Oregon right after the race.

Terry McCluskey of Vienna, Ohio, normally a favorite to win the 60-64 age group wherever he runs, finished second this time with an aggregate time of 58:24  (38:46 for the 10K and 19:37 for the 5K). He said afterwards he just ran too conservatively in the 10K, and he was caught off the mark at the start of the 5K and had to scramble to get on the road and into the race after the front runners had already left.

Of course, no one in the Double had a greater sense of mission and purpose than Bob Anderson, the race creator, who had gone into the Double needing to run at least 34 seconds under seven-minute-per-mile pace to complete his 50-Race Challenge and achieve his objective of averaging under seven minutes per mile for all 50 races.

He had fought hard to run 43:25 in the 10K, which was six seconds under seven-minute pace. But in the 5K, dealing with stronger winds and heavier rain, he was unable to completely close the remaining gap. He finished the 5K in 21:38, which left him 23 seconds short of achieving his goal.  A mere 23 seconds short over the course of 50 races and 350 miles!.

His aggregate time in the Double placed him fifth in the 60-64 age group (he’ll turn 65 on Dec. 28). Attesting to the quality of the field in Pleasanton, at least in the 60-64 age group, this was only the fourth time he had finished out of the top three in this age group during the entire 50-Race Challenge.

Photo: Cheyne Inman was the first Ujena Fit Club Elite Racing Team to finish.  He placed fifth overall in 47:33.

Photo: The Open Men's Team award was won by the Ujena Fit Club Elite Racing Team.  Cheyne Inman, Ivan Medina and John Van Metre posted the best team time of the day - 2:25:34.

  It turns out the Challenge is not over, however.  Countless times Bob Anderson has said of the Double: “It’s not two races in one day. It’s one race with two legs.” Although he was going to count the 10K and the 5K of the Pleasanton Double as his 49^th and 50^th races, he ultimately had the option of regarding the Double as one race and his aggregate time as his performance for that race. Given the wind and rain he and the other competitors encountered in the Pleasanton Double, he has decided to exercise that option, counting the Double as one race, and will, in fact, run a 50^th race Saturday, Dec. 29, to complete his challenge and hopefully shave those remaining 23 seconds and perhaps more off  his cumulative running time to achieve his goal. Followers of Bob Anderson’s 50-Race Challenge, documented in the movie, A Long Run, stay tuned!

A little known statistic is that there were actually more women than men – many more! --entered in the Pleasanton Double. So what’s this we’ve been hearing about the weaker sex? And the women provided some of the best performances in the competition.

Photo: Tina Kefalas won the Yellow Jersey and also was first in the 5k leg.

Having previously won the 10K, Olympian Tina Kefalas, this time wearing the yellow jersey as the women’s race leader, ran an equally strong 5K, crossing the line first in 18:07, to give her an aggregate time of 54:03 and a new world record. The previous record had been 55:05.

Michelle Meyer, who had finished second in the 10K (36:23), also finished second in the 5K, running 18:19, to give her an aggregate time of 54:42. The second-year medical student from San Francisco also was under the previous world record.

Heather Tanner, Meyer’s teammate on the Impalas, a San Francisco-based women’s racing team, finished third in the 10K (37:23), third in the 5K (18:50) and third on aggregate time (56:14) among the women. She tried to run six-minute pace all the way, which is the pace she hopes to run in the Houston Marathon, two weeks from now.

Heather Tanner won the 30-34 age group, and Tina Kefalas won the 30-39 age group, as well as posting the best aggregate time in the 30-39 category.

Photo: Verity Breen won the 40-49 age group. 

The 40-49 age category was won by the amazing endurance athlete Verity Breen, who made her reputation in Australia, and is adding to it in America now that she’s living in San Francisco. Breen, who has competed in 120 triathlons and almost 100 marathons, ran 39:05 for the 10K and 19:55 for the 5K, giving her an aggregate time of  59:01 – and she did this while suffering from a bad flu!  So much for women being the weaker sex…

Michelle Meyer, Heather Tanner and Verity Breen won the women’s team prize.

Last but certainly not least, the incomparable Christine Kennedy, who is 57 but apparently her legs and mind don’t know it, was a dominating first in the 50-59 age category. The women’s world marathon recordholder for her age, she ran the 10K in  39:14 and the 5K in 19:19, giving her an aggregate time of 58:34. As mentioned earlier, she won the Double Victory Cup for best age-graded performance in the Pleasanton Double. Next April at the Boston Marathon, Christine Kennedy, who owns a running shoe store, Best Performance, in Los Gatos, Calif., will shoot for the women’s world marathon record in the 55-59 age group.     

Photo: Christine Kennedy always pushing for every second.

After Kennedy collected her shiny new trophy at the awards ceremony in Pleasanton, several kids who were winners in the Kids One-Mile came up and ran their fingers admiringly over the golden surface of the beautiful Double Victory Cup. She said to them, in an encouraging, motherly tone “If you work hard, someday you can win a trophy like this, too.”  Then she left for San Francisco Airport to pick up her two grown daughters who were arriving from London, England for the Christmas holidays.

At Pleasanton there were two other events on the program besides the inaugural Double Road Race™.

The Christmas 5K was won by Kyle Robinson  from Oakland, Calif., who ran 16:13, and Pamela Kennedy from San Francisco won the women’s section with a time of 19:54.

The aforementioned Kid’s One-Mile (10 and under), which was run last, just when – alas! – the rain was heaviest, was won by Natalie Mazaud from Carmel, Calif., she ran 6:55, and Tristan Lalonde from Pleasanton, he finished second in 7:07.

After the awards ceremony in the Hart Middle School auditorium ended shortly after 12 noon and almost all of the competitors had left, the previously steady rain turned into a downpour. Fortunately, the results of the first-ever Double Road Race™ were already in the books. Leaving the school, Bob Anderson said,” “Bad as the weather was (for the Double), I guess we were really lucky. Can you imagine if we had to run in this!”

Photo: The spirit of the Double...

There will be other Doubles in the future – hopefully many of them – but the Pleasanton Double will not only go down in history as the first, but in so many ways the most significant, because after Pleasanton, it’s clear that the Double is not only here, but it seems a certainty it’s here to stay – with a future as brimming with potential as the clouds over Pleasanton were brimming with moisture.

Thank you, Pleasanton, for hosting the inaugural Double. Thank you, runners, for making it the success that it was. Long live the Double Road Race™