Baylands 10K + UjENA 5K (Double Road Race – Palo Alto)
Palo Alto, CA
- Double 15K (10K + 5K), 10K, 5K, Kids Run
- Road (Paved), Trail (Unpaved)
- Official race website
“Double Racing®, Double for short, is a sport consisting of two-stage running events. Participants first run the longer stage, take a halftime break and then run the second stage. Times are combined for scoring. Participants must complete both stages to get a time. The second stage starts 1 hour 45 minutes (restart) after … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Dec 13):
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| H (°F) | 55 | 61 | 60 | 55 | 58 |
| L (°F) | 38 | 51 | 45 | 36 | 46 |
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Some Improvement, Still Not on Par with
It's been almost 7 years, and it fit my schedule, so I tried this event again. In 2025 it was run in December, and I think this was true in … MORE
It’s been almost 7 years, and it fit my schedule, so I tried this event again. In 2025 it was run in December, and I think this was true in 2024. Onward and outward …
The distances have been simplified. The “Double” is now a 10K, a rest time, and then a 5K. Runners of the “Double” do all these. People doing “just” the 10K or 5K start according to the schedule of the “Double”. Since the start of the 5K leg was 10:45, this resulted in 5K runners having a fairly late start and finish.
The course is entirely different. The event started, as before, at the Baylands Athletic Center, but from there went out the for double out-and-back onto the San Francisquito Creek Trail, then about a mile in, onto the Bay Trail. The 5K turn-around was at Bay Road. There was a water-only aid station at the 5K turn-around. The scenery was much better than having US 101 on one side of most of the course. At various times the views were a golf course, the creek, some houses, a playground, and lots of marshland. Early in the course runners heard planes taking off occasionally from Palo Alto Airport (civil aviation small planes, not airliners or military planes). Overall, much nicer than the 2019 course.
What, unfortunately (IMO), has not changed is the timing. DRR still does gun-start and observer timing. A cluster of finishing runners’ times will be a little off or a runner might be missed altogether. Skill can mitigate that, maybe. On the other hand, like in 2019, the timekeeper left the timing table sometime around 49 or 50 minutes into the 5K leg. I wasn’t there, but there are no 5K finish times after 57:19. Because my (watch) finish time was 58:23 and I know how many participants were behind me, I know that at least 6 finishes were missed. With no one at the time table for the last 5-10 or more minutes, the people managing the event could not know how many runners were still on the course. This, IMO, is not safe event management.
Back in 2019 I exchanged emails with DRR, and their reason for doing table timing was that electronic timing can have errors. That is true, obviously, and this year, for the FIRST time in 14 years of doing running events, I “had to” get a correction for a missing finish time … once in 14 years. I got it promptly, because, as is typical, the event managers also had video cameras in case of errors. I don’t know what DRR does for finishers after their timekeeper leaves the table, and since I have my watch time, I don’t need to inquire. DRR’s 2019, “There are errors,” reason is just sour grapes for not investing the $$ into the electronics and software. “We can’t afford it,” would have been a better answer, along with, “We will keep the timing table active until the last runner finishes.”
Bottom line … if you “need” a race and the timing and flat course are a fit for you, the course makes this event worthwhile. Just time yourself with your own watch if it matters to you, even if you are not slow like me.
Quite Underwhelmed
Event & Course Description: I suppose the Palo Alto Double 8K // Ujena 5K/10K needs a bit of explaining. A Double Road Race is a race in two parts, or … MORE
Event & Course Description: I suppose the Palo Alto Double 8K // Ujena 5K/10K needs a bit of explaining. A Double Road Race is a race in two parts, or as the creator says, a race with a halftime. This race had a Double 8K – a 5K segment, a break, and then a 3K segment – plus regular 5K and 10K distances. I did the10K. With that prefatory explanation …
The start and finish area was the Baylands Athletic Center, at the dead-end of a small street at the southwest corner of the Palo Alto Golf Course. The all courses took streets for about 2/3 of a mile to the Renzel Trail. This parallels US101 freeway for most of the 1 1/3 miles to the Bay Trail. After passing the 3K and 5K turn-arounds, the 10K course then turned onto the Adobe Creek Loop Trail, following that for about 1.1 miles, and then turning around to retrace the same route to the finish. The one, water-only, aid station was just before the 5K turn-around.
The course is entirely paved and pretty much entirely exposed. The 10K and Double 8K started in moderate-light rain, clearing up to just cloudy after 15 or 20 minutes. For most of the course there was marsh or creek on at least one side of the course. There was a not very busy frontage road between the trail and US101, so freeway noise wasn’t too distracting.
Organization & Production: In my opinion, this was a mix of things done well and less than well. The website information was easily sufficient for a person to check out the race, understand it, register, and get to the venue. Parking was reasonably easy, the lots of a nearby business park.
I arrived very early, so check-in (race day only) was easy for me. But later in the morning the check-in line was long. This was probably due to the rain, the need to keep the check-in stuff dry, and the limited cover available. There was not room to “throw” extra people at the problem. The race started ~11 minutes late, possibly because of this issue.
The race was not chip timed. Timing was from the “gun start” (air horn) to when runners are observed crossing the finish. In exchanging emails with the timing person, I also realized there was no video/camera back-up. There were pacers for the 8K Double, very nice, but their signs were not well made and I saw at least two of the signs on the ground.
The course markings were with chalk or flour, which didn’t do great with rain and being trampled. The markings could be missed (I didn’t see the “1 Mile” marking until I was on my return leg). More than a few 8K Double runners passed their turn-around at the 5K point; they probably realized they had gone too far at the “2 Mile” marking near a bridge on the trail.
The water-only aid station at the 1.5 mile point was adequate for a cool day. The volunteers seemed not to be looking for runners having trouble, as I was limping and was not asked if I was OK (which I was, “just” a calf muscle spasm). The same was true of several course monitors at about mile 2.5. They directed 10K runners, but also did not ask about my limp.
I was the last to finish (unsurprisingly). When I went through the finish chute there was no one at the timing table. I was through the chute and heading for the water table when a lady gave me my finisher’s medal. Because no one was at the timing table, my finish time was not recorded, and was not on the race “preliminary” results page. That no one was at the table also means the RD and staff did not know they had a “runner” still out on the course. They were not in contact with their volunteers, and apparently had not crossed off bib numbers as people finished. Had someone had a serious problem, this would have been unsafe.
Bib: Bibs were color-coded by distance, black background for the 10K, green for the 8K Double, and white for the 5K. The name of the race was at the top, the bib number in the middle, and a sponsor’s website url at the bottom.
T-Shirt: Oy! Description first, then commentary. The T-shirt is short-sleeved tech type, fading from dark purple at the bottom to medium purple at the top, with a subtle vine and leaf pattern in it. A really beautiful shirt! On the front, in large plain white block letters is the name of the race across the chest and the date and location near the bottom hem. On the back at the bottom and on the right sleeve are sponsors’ logos.
I’ve received my share of “Meh!” race T-shirts, but this is the first I’m seriously thinking of not wearing it outside of my house. I usually use race Tees for work-outs at the gym or on the trail, but not this one.
Finisher’s Medal: The medallion is oval, on the small side compared to what is currently common with other races and organizers. The size aside, it is VERY nice. There is an oval in the center with a nature scene. Around this is a yellow ring captioned “Palo Alto Open Space Nature Preserves”. Then there is a purple outer ring giving the race name, “5th Annual”, and the location. The back and outer rim are black. The ribbon is purple, with the race name on it. Were it 50%-100% larger it would have gone from very striking to pretty amazing.
Finish & Recovery Area: This organizer bills its races as road races rather than trail runs. And the long distance for this race was 10K. With that context, the recovery area food and snacks were at least average, and probably above average for this race type. As late as I was in finishing, there were plenty of bottles of water, bananas, at least a couple of varieties of bagged chips, and a couple of varieties of bagged cookies.
As noted above, the timing table was unmanned, and it took a minute or two for the person giving out finisher’s medals to come to me. There was no one handing out water, but it was at a table adjacent to the end of the finishing chute, which is common.
My Results & Opinion of the Race: As anyone who has scanned a few of my Raves will know, I tend to be on the positive side of realistic. I seldom give a negative review!
Double Road Racing (or Double Running) represents itself as a significant or major race organizer. This naturally creates certain expectations. This was my first event with them, and I was disappointed. Some things were done well. A runner will have no problems getting to and starting the race, and the course maps are fine. The finisher’s medal is really nice, and the recovery area food was better than I expected.
As I’ve noted, the course marking and marshaling, in my opinion, needed improving. Especially stationing a course marshal at the 5K turn-around. Given the potential for wet weather, signs marking miles and turn-arounds would also have been better.
The biggest problem had to do with timing. Nothing is perfect, not RFID, not human observer-timers, not video/cameras. Going manual-only has at least two vulnerabilities. Larger bunches of finishers can overwhelm the observers. And the timing people need to know, toward the end of a race, how many participants are still out on the course.
DRR failed to use finisher check-off to know there was someone (me) still out on the course. Nor did they have their volunteers report on this. This resulted in the last timekeeper leaving the table before I was finished. And with no video/camera back-up, I know the finish time for me in their results was derived from my own, +/- 1 minute, tired guess. My email exchange with the person in charge of timing was less than satisfactory (I’ll just say that I was not stupid or obtuse enough to demand an accurate finish time I knew they could not have, and not elaborate further). And as noted above, not knowing someone was still on the course is a potential safety issue.
I said enough above about the race Tee.
This race is close to my home, perhaps a half hour drive. Despite that convenience, I probably will not do this or any other DRR races.