Road racing fans have likely heard of the Falmouth Road Race. In fact, it’s likely one of the few non-marathon road races a casual American fan has heard of. But far fewer people closely follow the Falmouth Elite Mile that takes place at the local high school up the road two days prior. This year’s winner of the women’s race, Puma Elite’s Dorcas Ewoi, set a meet record of 4:23.11, leading the top six under 4:30, and Henry Wynne of the Brooks Beasts took the men’s victory in 3:53.79.

The mile comes at a weird time in the cycle for track specialists. You’re either trying to keep the last legs of your mid-summer taper going through 5th Ave or one last trip to Europe, or you’re trying to gear up again and get back into fall training. As such, many of the mile entrants looking for a little extra strength work (or a fun jog along the water) choose to hop in the seven-mile race the next day. Seven miles of rolling hills definitely requires a different skill set than middle-distance closing speed, but there are a special few athletes who can find success at both ends of the spectrum.

Morgan Beadlescomb finished fifth in the road race on tired legs after a sixth-place 3:55.80 finish in the mile, beating out Wynne by three places and 59 seconds in their rematch. That’s still a good showing for the Seattle-based miler, however, who rarely runs road races of the non-mile variety. He finished a step ahead of Dark Sky Distance’s Kasey Knevelbaard, who missed out on prize money in the mile but picked some up in the road race with a pair of ninth-place finishes.

The women weren’t quite as successful doubling back as the men – probably because their elite field in the road race was much deeper, with runners like Edna Kiplagat, Natosha Rogers, and Susanna Sullivan rounding out the top 10. Massachusetts local Helen Schlachtenhaufen was the top double-finisher with a fourth-place 4:26.76 in the mile and a 12th-place 39:00 run in the road race (that’s 5:35 mile pace). The only other woman to complete the double was Kayley Delay, the steeplechase specialist who clocked a seventh place / 14th place Friday-Sunday combo.

You don’t get extra prize money for finishing high at both races – but maybe you should. (In the spirit of the preceding section, ideally a sponsor emerges in the form of Boston-area home services company that prides itself on “consistent results.”) Not only does multi-day off-distance racing allow the fans an extra shot at cheering on their favorite runners at one event, it’s great preparation for all sorts of skills we should want to encourage in the American talent pipeline: racing through rounds, developing range, doubling at championships, etc. If it’s good enough for Sifan Hassan, it’s good enough for us!

It’s unlikely we’ll see many 1500m/10,000m doubles at next year’s U.S. championships and, Hassan notwithstanding, it’s not quite as easy for most athletes to pull off a combo that includes a marathon – so don’t expect elite doubles at Boston, New York, or Chicago. But as we look for new and creative ways to showcase the best track athletes on the roads, sticking them in front of a built-in audience of thousands of mass-participation runners and their families, the opportunity to get more mileage, both literally and figuratively, out of events like Falmouth offers a model worth exploring more.

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