1998 Redondo Beach 5K

Report by: Eric Barron

Not all the significant athletic competition in California last Sunday took place down in San Diego (where the AFC finally managed to show up for a Super Bowl). Several hundred miles to the north, thousands of runners lined up for 5 and 10k races on a course that is more challenging than it would appear.

In the 5k, Bao did an excellent job restraining his sprinter impulses and ran a fairly paced 23:15. Hillary followed shortly after that in 24:14. John Boscardin ran a respectable 18:59. Unfortunately for John, although the race featured a centipede division, it did not include a "one shoe, one bare foot" division.

In a deep field for the 10k, Rebecca finished as the 11th woman overall with a time of 38:19. To average 6:08 miles in the first race of the season is a fantastic. She missed 10th place and the money that went with it by less than a second. Next year, I expect her to be in the money. Also collecting a check next year should be Jacinda, who stuck with Rebecca for the first half of the race and came home in 38:54. Accompanying those two through the first two miles was Shelly, who learned that though the mind may be willing, the body is not always so accommodating. Stomach cramps forced her to drop at that point, but she was on an excellent pace, and it suggests that she will soon be setting some serious 5k p.r.'s.

Big news in the 10k came from Steve, who, by finishing in 42:16, is now one of the first TCLA'ers to achieve his 1998 goal of breaking 43 minutes for the 10k. We will not let Steve off so easily, however, and have asked him to reset his sights to under 41:30. On his heels was John Daly in 42:24, and John and Steve can now push each other in practice. Also turning in a nice performance was Peggy, who ran 44:49. This left her only twelve seconds behind the first woman in her age division.

Still working toward his 10k goal, Tom finished in 40:30. He probably could have picked up a little time by simply keeping his focus, but for an early season race, he should not be disheartened. Finally, Ann ran 58:18 for the 10k as part of her tapering for next week's Las Vegas Marathon.