Elite runners win Double Bridge Run

National 20K champ sets new course record

On his way from Boulder, Colo., to next month’s Gate River Run in Jacksonville, James Carney needed a little extra competition.

He didn’t find out about Pensacola’s Double Bridge Run until last week, but he was ready. Carney, the 2008 national half-marathon and 20K champion, was the first to cross the finish line Saturday morning on Pensacola Beach in a course-record time of 43 minutes, 31 seconds, besting the old mark of 45:12 set by Washington High School cross country coach Everett Whiteside.