The Cardinal Track Club's "Double B" Gallop and Gorge in Carrboro has strung together its own string of consecutive bests, an enviable accomplishment for the quaint, hometown race that is bigger than many quaint hometowns. The race has added to its registration totals almost every year since 2002 when it started with 395 runners. It hit new PRs in 2005 (650 runners), in 2008 (904), and again last year (1,364).

"This year, total registrants were 1,464: a new record," said Cardinal co-founder Dick Forbis, who now coordinates Cardinal Timing Services. The race's "Double B" is an homage to co-founder Bobby "Double B" Biles, who now resides in Fort Collins, Colo.

"There are a lot of races in the area, so to have something like this in a small community is pretty cool," Brian White said. "We could easily have this be a 400-person race and we'd be listening to crickets as we pull in. There are so many races nowadays, to set yourself apart as an event is pretty awesome."

"What I really love about this race is that this is a family event," Le Tour de Carrboro director Eric Paul said, "and they come from all over the country."

"I've been amazed by the number of four, or five, six, seven, eight family members that are registering as whole groups," Cardinal marketing director John Blunk said.

"And there are zip codes from all around the country -- from Oregon, from New Hampshire," Forbis added.

In all, 22 states were represented at last Thursday's running of the Gallop & Gorge, which for many essentially has become an annual running family reunion and a Thanksgiving holiday rite of passage.

Connecticut native and Cornell graduate Kerri Lyons, 23, captured the women's overall title on Thursday in a time of 28:08.06.

"The course was good," said Lyons, who works at Duke. "I love Carrboro, and it's a great course, but I really like the warm weather, too."

Lyons beat out second-place female Allie Bigelow of Durham (30:45.56). Chapel Hill High alum and UNC student Lindsay Savelli, 19, finished third (32:24.58).

Chapel Hill's Marc Jeuland (25:04.06) captured the overall title in convincing fashion, with Harsha Thirumurthy (27:40.58) finishing second and Durham's James Pearce (27:51.31) in third. Thirumurthy said he was never a real threat to Jeuland.

"I couldn't see (Marc) after around 200 meters," he said, chuckling. "It's a nice course though, and it wasn't too hot."

Next up for Jeuland will be a return to his strength: longer races.

"I'm going to run a half-marathon in Winston-Salem, the 'Mistletoe,'" he said. "I'll probably try another marathon in the spring and get under the elusive 2:20 barrier."

Among the finishers was local favorite John Hinton, who returned to the racing scene with a first place among 45-49-year olds.

"I'm pretty happy today, because I think this is the first time I've raced (since an Achilles tendon injury) where I haven't been limping after the race," Hinton said. "I think the pain is finally going away."

The BBG&G was the last of the three 2011 races that comprised Cardinal Track Club's fifth annual Tour de Carrboro series, which also included the (4-mile) July 4 Four on the Fourth and the Carrboro 10K road race earlier this fall.

With large race crowds comes unprecedented charity.

"Record crowds mean all that much more money we can give to our community partners," Blunk said. "We were still registering people five minutes (before the race start). There was a line with 15 or 20 people in it."

Designated 2011 Community Partners who see a share of proceeds from Cardinal races include the Arc of Orange County, the Optimist Club of Chapel Hill, the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, Table, the UNC Get "Real and Heel" Breast Cancer Program, and the UNC Wellness Medical Fitness Scholarship.

After last year's relocation of the post-race festival from the Carr Mill / Weaver Street Market parking area to a lot off South Roberson Street, Fleet Feet itself moved across East Main Street to the former VisArt Video location next to Cat's Cradle in 2011.

"It really took some convincing to get Brian to move over on this side of the street," Eric Paul joked, "but he finally moved over."

The only other change to the race for 2011 was that runners found themselves running the same course, but reversed from previous years.

"We're running the course backwards," Paul said in a welcome speech to the assembled race crowd. "That doesn't mean you have to run backwards."

"We did this to be able to fit everybody into the bike lane on Hillsborough Road out past Estes Drive," Paul later explained. "When we first set up the race course, there were like 200 runners."

Next up for many local runners will be a number of midwinter trail races: the Godiva's ( carolinagodiva.org) Couch Mountain Run on Dec. 11, the Trailheads' Little River 7K and 10-mile Trail Runs ( www.trailheads.org )on Jan. 14., Godiva's Eno Equalizer on Jan. 15, and bullcityrunning .com's Uwharrie Mountain Runs (8, 20, 40 miles) on Feb. 4.

As the rest of the running world sets goals for next year, Cardinal too will assess its potential for improvement for the next year. With its impressive track record, don't count out another PR for the Double B Gallop and Gorge in 2012.