1999 Stop Cancer 10K

Report by: Eric Barron

Something about charity races seems to lend itself to late starts, and the 1999 Stop Cancer runs in Beverly Hills were no exception. Although the 1000 runners were lined up and ready to go at 8:00 a.m., the Beverly Hills police needed another 20 minutes to "check the course." Apparently, they wanted to be sure the residents were sufficiently forewarned that sweaty runners from surrounding environs would be passing through.

Once the gun went off, the runners headed out on a slight downhill grade, with the 5K'ers doubling back at 1.55 miles and the 10K'ers continuing down and looping around Century City before heading home. In the 10K, David Kent looked smooth throughout to finish in 37:45. Rob Brown and Brian Panosian were not far behind in 38:50 and 39:32, respectively. Brian, of course, was lucky to finish at all because the race director had considered not allowing Brian to start after listening to Brian's vocal pre-race exhortions to "get this thing going."

In the 5K, bronze medals abounded for TCLA. Jeff Sakamoto ran a negative split to end with a strong 16:45 and third in his division. Hanging with him for two miles, but then weakening, another TCLA'er took third in his division with a 17:02. Not so happy with his 21:25 was Ogie Espinosa, but his training goes well. BaoKim Coleman went out a bit too quickly, but held on for 22:46, and four seconds ahead of him, Jennifer Sample placed third in her division. Finally, rising above the TCLA bronze abundance was Jacinda Raiche, who took first in her division, second overall woman, and $50 in Nike merchandise.

Many of the TCLA'ers ran past the first mile marker without noticing it, and they probably could have had faster overall times had they paid more attention to their split times. One way to prevent this mishap is to do your warmup over the first part of the course and pay attention to where the mile markers are so that in the midst of the race you already know when to be on the lookout for them.