Tesfaye Alemayehu, 31, the always fast and very experienced Ethiopian distance star from Antioch, Calif., repeated as the winner of the Pleasanton Double 15K at the fourth annual Pleasanton Double Racing Festival in Pleasanton, Calif., Sun., Dec. 20.
On a chilly morning, he ran the opening 10K leg in 30:58 and the concluding 5K leg in 15:45 for a combined time of 46:43.
Lindsey Scherf, 29, former Harvard University track and cross-country star, was the women’s winner as she posted an aggregate time of 50:48 (33:39/17:09). Her time was the third fastest ever and the second fastest by an American.
Alemayehu (pronounced Ala-my-you) had won this race last year in 45:05 (30:07/14:58), and finished second to Kenya’s Julius Koskei in 2013 when Koskei set the then world record of 44:24 (29:45/14:38), which Koskei subsequently reduced to 43:11 (29:11/14:00) in Pacific Grove, Calif., earlier this year.
Pleasanton is regarded as the birthplace of the Double because the first official Double ever was held there on Dec. 23, 2012.
Alemayehu did not run the inaugural Pleasanton Double, but he has now finished second, first and first at Pleasanton each year since then, giving him an impressive resume to say the least.
On Sunday he also became the first ever back-to-back overall winner in the Pleasanton Double 15K.
Afterwards he commented that he loves the Double and is looking forward to having it introduced to Ethiopia.
Julius Koskei, Alemayehu’s friend and rival, had been scheduled to run the Pleasanton Double again this year, but was ultimately forced to withdraw due to injury.
Finishing second to Alemayehu on Sunday was Darius Terry, 24, of San Jose, Calif., who ran the 10K in 31:41 and the 5K in 16:07 for an aggregate time of 47:48.
Terry, who had been a 1500-meter and mile standout at Arizona State University, is a veteran of the Double and has won three of them. He stayed with Alemayehu for the first half mile of the 10K on Sunday, but then the Ethiopian was on his own.
Nicholas Spector, 24, of Sonoma, Calif., winner of the first two 8K Double Adventure Runs ever (the Land’s End and Golden Gate events in San Francisco earlier this year), finished third on Sunday with an aggregate time of 48:30 (32:14/16:16).
Osamu (Sam) Tada, 35, of Sacramento, Calif., finished fourth in 49:53 (33:35/16:18), with Masters star Robert Verhees, 50, of San Diego, Calif., finishing fifth in 51:00 as he ran the 10K in 33:59 and the 5K in 17:01 to set a new world record in the Double 15K for the 50-59 age group.
Women’s winner Lindsey Scherf, 29, who is training for the marathon in next year’s U.S. Olympic Trials, was a decisive winner in Pleasanton in her first Double ever, and she actually finished fifth overall in the Double 15K, i.e., only four men beat her.
Leading both stages from start to finish, her combined time of 50:48 put her almost five minutes ahead of the second-place finisher in the women’s race, Allison Maxson, 29, of Folsom, Calif., who ran the 10K in 36:59 and the 5K in 18:43 for a combined time of 55:42.
Bret Scofield, 27, of Palo Alto, Calif., was third in 57:44 (38:15/19:29).
Scherf, who lives in High Falls, N.Y., was in the San Francisco Bay area for a job interview. She got the job and will be moving to the San Francisco area. She is no stranger to the western United States, however. After graduating from Harvard, she did graduate work at the University of Oregon and starred for the Ducks as a distance runner in the one year of eligibility she had left over from her time at Harvard.
The Double Victory Cup for the best age-graded performance in this year’s Pleasanton Double 15K was won (as usual) by Christine Kennedy, 60, of Los Gatos, Calif. Sixth-place finisher in the women’s race, she ran the 10K in 40:35 and the 5K in 20:06 for a combined time of 1:00:41 and an age-graded score of 98:38.
There was also a Double 8K and a Kids’ Cup Double 1.5 Mile on the program in Pleasanton on Sunday.
Anders Fox, 20, of Sweden (and now living in Berkeley, Calif.) was the men’s winner in the Double 8K, running the opening 5K leg in 16:15 and the concluding 3K leg in 8:39 for an aggregate time of 24:54.
He also won the Sprint Double (mile + half-mile) the previous day in 7:24 (5:11/2:13). It was the first official Sprint Double ever held.
Ernesto Aristeo, 37, of Menlo Park, Calif., was the runner-up in the Double 8K in Pleasanton, posting an aggregate time of 27:55 (18:37/9:18). Teenager Ben Dahlgren, 16, of Marietta, Ga., finished third with a combined time of 28:01 (18:41/9:20).
Masters runner Kevin Downey, 46, of Dublin, Calif., finished fourth in 28:13 (18:52/9:21), and Omar Pina, who’s only 14, from San Jose, Calif., was fifth in 28:20 (18:58/9:22).
The women’s winner in the Double 8K was Ellen Silva, 32, of Ada, Okla., who posted an aggregate time of 31:58 (21:21/10:37). Masters runners Ann Cartwright, 52, who’s from Pleasanton, finished second in 33:00 (21:52/11:08). Alexis Wilson, 24, of Livermore, Calif., was third in 33:27 (22:18/11:09).
The overall winner in the Bob Anderson Kids’ Cup Double 1.5 Mile was Emily Minjares, 12, from San Jose, Calif., who ran the mile in 5:18 and the half-mile in 2:25 for a combined time of 7:43.
Elliott Daniels, 11, of Campbell, Calif., was first among the boys and second overall as he posted an aggregate time of 7:54 (5:20/2:34).
Nicholas Meeker, 12, of San Jose was the second male finisher in 8:27 (5:50/2:37) and Owen Wall, 9, of Los Altos, Calif., finished third in 8:59 (6:05/2:54). Owen is the grandson of Bob Anderson, creator of the Double.
Second-place finisher among the girls was Avery Knapp, 9, of Dublin, Calif., who ran 10:12 (6:49/3:23). Isabella Maldonado, 11, of Hayward, Calif., was third in 10:28 (7:18/3:10).
This year’s Pleasanton Double Racing Festival was held in chilly conditions, but the heavy rains that had been predicted for the Pleasanton area on Sunday thankfully were a no-show. The only sign of rain in Pleasanton on Sunday morning were a few sprinkles during the concluding 5K leg of the Double 15K.
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