So, what is that Double format about? Two back to back road races, the first leg of 10K at 9 am and the second leg of 5K starting at 10:45. The faster you are on the 10K, the more rest you have in between, but more energy spent too. It has a dedicated website as I assume Bob is the only organizer of races in that format. There area actually 5K/break/3K versions of the Double as well. Also, Bob has the top finishers of the first leg/stage, male and female, to wear a yellow jersey, like in the Tour de France!
I had registered to do my first Double last December but I was still digesting a super loaded season culminating in 34 hours at Spartathlon -- 6 marathons at once, way more than a double! -- and DNSed (Did Not Start) due to a last-minute family trip to DC for the holidays. This year has been terrible after breaking a meniscus in March and having to spend almost 7 months off running. I still have so much muscle to rebuild, and the knee is still prone to pain, recovery is a long journey and I did't have very high expectations. Although I was encouraged by at least breaking 40 minutes at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10K, 4 days after running 100 kilometers at the American 24-hour Championships. I had looked at the top times for my age group and, for some reasons -- maybe aging! ;-) -- I remembered seeing the top mark set by a Kenyan at around 48 minutes. My dream goal was to break an hour, although that seemed not only ambitious given my lack of fitness as well as the weather conditions.
Waking up at 5:50 to get my breakfast 3 hours before the race I thought my post title would be: "Rain, not Shine!" The saying "Rain or Shine" seems not to apply too often in California as we get less and less rain, years after years so it's Shine 99% of the time. Agnès and I actually got both awaken at 3:30 am by the super unusual noise of thunderstorm here, and the rain was pouring. Upon picking my bib at 7:30 am, the rain was still going on steady, and wind gusts made the setup of the area super challenging for the organizers.
I was familiar with the 3.1-mile section used for the course as it is on my traditional Cupertino-Fremont-Cupertino 50-mile training ground. So I knew it included a dirt area which was going to turn to mud with so much rain. I didn't know how muddy it was going to become though, that was epic. Thankfully, only for a quarter of a mile, yet certainly impacting our performance for such a short and fast format.
An important detail to add: each of the legs could be run by other participants as a single race, meaning that not every participant was enlisted in the Double.
As early bird, I had a great parking spot with direct view on the start/finish area. That helped maximizing the time I stayed dry and warm in the car. I get cold very easily so I had brought two sets of racing clothes plus two rain jackets and layers of polar fleece jackets, duh!
When I saw this rainbow forming thanks to the rain stopping 15 minutes before the start, I took it as a great sign for a good day and that it was time to get out to warm for 5 minutes. The asphalt was still very wet, it didn't take too many strides to tip my toes in the water... (Photo credit: Bob Anderson.)
The fast of the 10K was really fast, I got chicked right off the bat with two other gals passing me before the end of the first mile. The lead running was wearing a black singlet, I saw him coming back when I had just passed 2.5 miles (the 10K was a 3.1-mile out and back). The short dirt section wasn't too bad on the way out but already getting slippery. It got worse on the way back after 50 or so runners had gotten through it. Best was to run on the edge, in the grass or rather over native plants, which is still not ideal when going at full speed.
Speaking of speed, I had started at 6:14 min/mile like at the Turkey Trot but I wasn't able to hold the pace especially on this wet course. Also, I hadn't run or exercise for the past 2 weeks first because knee pain after the Turkey Trot and 24-hour Nationals, then because of a super bad bite of one of my fingers, by our cat, which got so infected that I was put on antibiotics, I'm going to lose a nail and it was still bleeding and super painful while running this Saturday, 10 days later... Between that, the weaker glutes, the headwind on the way back, some slippery mud, it was challenging to hold a 6:30 min/mile pace. I kept pushing as hard as possible, not thinking too much about the upcoming 5K, yet I wasn't able to break 40 minutes in that first leg, not even close: 40:36, good for 8th place in the double. The black singlet runner, Anthony Cortes, ended up in 2nd place actually in 34:26, behind Ethan Phelps in 33:30.
I went for a short jog to cool down then rushed to the car as the rain started resuming. How lucky were we to avoid rain during the 10K, what an incredibly timely lull! I changed entirely into dry clothes and put my multiple layers back on. 10K runners kept coming in for a while then there was a 1-mile kid race which was barely over when it was time for us to start the 5K. I did a few sprints to shake the legs off and had hard time getting close to the front line, with many kids at the front this time. With that confusion, the count down has already started when I realized I had forgotten to switch my two GPS watches on! (I run with a Coros which I bought last year for the battery life allowing to run Spartathlon without having to charge, but still use my former Garmin for overall mile logging. Coros also provides quite cool and useful fitness-related analytics.)
Similar aggressive early lead from Anthony again, plus the tricky slalom to pass the kids who started slowing down and gasping for air after a few hundreds yards. This time I wasn't even able to hold 6:15, yikes! As for the dirt section it had now disappeared under huge puddles covering the entire width of the trail. So much that, on my way back, I literally ran into a runner although I was already on the right edge of the trail. We ended up to a full stop, holding each other hands to avoid a frontal collision, fun! There was also this participant running with his dog and the dog on leash in the middle of the trail. Oh well, nothing critically important on the line.
The glutes were painful in the last mile as I was pushing again in the headwind and seeing the seconds passing as my time was getting dangerously close to 20 minutes with the finish line in sight... 20:08, that one was closer but still adding a few seconds above the one-hour mark. (Photo credit: Bob Anderson.)
A total of 1:00:44, good enough to keep the 8th place, and easily win my non-competitive age group.
Again, super lucky to mostly miss rain on that second leg as well, as rain resumed again on and off in the following hour we had to wait to get our age group awards. In the meantime I enjoyed a hot coffee, and winning a prize in Bob's generous draw.
Also ample time to meet and chat with new running connections. Here with Michael Collery, 70-year young!
Did I mention luck yet? Well, it didn't stop with that. On Sunday morning, Bob posted this on my Facebook timeline:
Good seeing you yesterday. Congrats on your performance yesterday. With 84% age-graded you were our overall winner. Your Double Victory Cup will be engraved with your name and sent to you. Happy holidays!
When there is a silver lining to aging... ;-) Thank you Bob and your race organization team: despite the interesting conditions, that was quite a cool introduction to that Do Double format. And always a pleasure and honor to meet you and your wife. Double kudos and fun!
PS: stopped by Sports Basement on my way back home to pick my Turkey Trot age group podium awards, thank you and great too see you again, Chris!
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