Long Beach 5K/Half Marathon/Marathon, November 14, 1999
By Eric Barron
Minutes before the start of the Long Beach Half Marathon and Marathon,
the runners had good and bad news. The good news was the weather, cool
and overcast. The bad news was the six port-a-potties for the entire
mob and a line as long as the starting line waiting to use them with
minutes to the gun. Some lucky runners found alternate spots to take
care of their "warm-up" somewhere else in Long Beach without anxious
runners jumping up and down and whining.
In the marathon, and if you
run a marathon, you deserve to read about yourself first, Brian Panosian
took off fast and would have finished in a bit over three hours had he
not hit the proverbial wall around twenty miles. Fortunately, he had the
fine support crew of Rob Dennis and Jacinda Raiche there to help him in
to a 3:22:50 finish. If Brian mentions that he wanted to run faster,
remind him that he ran a p.r. Taking the race less seriously, Dave Kent
and Rab Brown crossed the line together in 3:27:02, and Paul Anderson
cruised with a 3:35:40. Back to runners giving it their all, Rikako
Takei and Catherine Shields ran 3:38:27 and 3:40:32. Congratulate
them on their Boston qualifying times.
In the half marathon, Steve Lopez debuted at the distance with a great
1:24:41. Only nineteen seconds behind, Frank Siering put up with stomach
cramps for much of the race to earn fourth in his age group. Slightly
farther back, and recently working off much less of a training base,
Terence Young should be happy with his 1:26:37. Field reporter Tim
Peterson stuck with Terence for the early part of the race and met his
goal of 6:45 pace with a 1:28:50, four minutes faster than he ran over
the summer. Mike Kukuchka ran with something in the tank to avoid
aggravating an injury and finished in 1:38:00. Sharing the effort for
most of the race, Ogie Espinosa and Erica Nemmers ended up with a 1:46:50
and 1:47:16, respectively.
Finally, in the 5K, Jerico Enriquez left most runners in his wake as he
took fourth place overall in 17:17, his fastest time in eleven years.
Speaking of eleven years, 11-year-old Mark Sanchez won his age division
with a 20:03.
