10 x 10K World Record Goes Down In San Diego

Co-ed squad from Prado Racing Team slips under old mark by less than 10 seconds.

SAN DIEGO — It’s six o’clock on an overcast Sunday morning and ten runners from the San Diego-based Prado Racing Team are gathered at a deserted North County high school track.

The objective: run 250 laps in less than 6 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds.

The end result: A 6:01:35.72 clocking and a new Guinness World Record for the co-ed 10 x 10,000-meter relay.

“You wouldn’t think a six hour race could be that exciting,” admitted Brian Culley, who led off with a 33:36 opening leg. “And maybe it wasn’t until the final mile, but that’s what makes this event so difficult. You hammer and hammer and hope the work you put in at 6 AM will be enough for the final leg to bring it home at noon.”

Shortly after 6:30 Culley handed the baton off to Hilary Corno, whose 39:51 split put the Prado squad at 1:13:27 with 200 laps to go. Brandon Pomerantz followed Corno with a 33:49 run before handing the baton to Marie Schaper. Schaper, running her first 10K ever on the track, turned in a solid 39:08 split to put her team at 2:26:24 after 100 laps.

Up next was Daniel Farmer, who took the baton from Schaper and turned in a dazzling 32:37 split, the fastest of the day. The Prado squad hit the 50K mark in 2:59:01–just under two minutes faster than record pace. Darcy Bushnell kept her team on target, running 39:17 as the sun started to poke through the clouds.

Bushnell handed off to Derek Bradley, whose 34:09 leg brought the running time to 4:12:27 with three runners remaining. Emily Larrimer was up next and turned in a metronomic 37:45 clocking before handing off to the final male runner, Dan Seidel. Seidel took 33 minutes and 55 seconds to finish his 25-lap tour of the track, giving anchor Jenna Munguia less than 37 minutes and 40 seconds to bring her team the record.

Munguia showed she was up to the challenge, closing the final lap of her 37:29 leg in 75 seconds to bring her team across the finish line in 6:01:35.72–besting the old mark set by the San Diego Track Club on December 12, 1998.

“We didn’t know we had it until the final 100 meters,” Culley said. “It was a superb team effort.”