Redondo Beach 10K : In a Wild, Wacky Race Like This, You Run Into All Sorts of People
The City of Hawthorne fire fighters were in big trouble--they had 15 minutes to get their fire engine put together (some of the nails were coming out) and a couple of the guys were late. As if that weren’t enough, the Dalmation mascot kept slipping off the back.
But these men are trained to handle emergencies. They decided to staple the dog to the engine.
The dog was stuffed--fittingly symbolic for the Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10K Sunday Run.
This race manages to be all things to all people. An international field of world-class runners takes advantage of its fast course. Recreational runners like the T-shirts the race provides. Fun-loving groups make costumes and compete in the Best Dressed category. But if there is a public service the race provides, it is this: football-mad Southern Californians may unburden themselves of Super Guilt by running six miles in the morning before settling down to a day of beer and carbohydrates in front of the television.
On Sunday, 18,000 runners, walkers, shufflers and one guy who ran backward the whole way, competed in the wacky, weird race through Redondo Beach in the early morning cold and fog. A couple of good runners won the thing: Tom Wysocki won the men’s division in a course-record time of 28:53, and Irish Olympian Monica Joyce won the women’s portion in 33:29. But more about the fire fighters.
At least four teams of fire fighters competed. The aforementioned Hawthorne group ran inside a canvas and wood fire engine which contained a tape-recorded siren, the Long Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes fire fighters ran while carrying a fire hose and plastic hydrant, while Station 23 represented Los Angeles.
When the horn sounded to start the race, it took nearly five minutes for the runners in the back to reach the starting line. No one seemed to mind. Not the local lifeguard, running with the rubber duck around his waist; not the man dressed as a doctor, pushing his patient in a wheelchair (who was drinking beer through an intravenous tube); not the two guys, obviously living in the past, who wore the Pittsburgh Steelers gear or the woman in the cat suit (“I got it at Frederick’s”).
In fact, by the time the penguins, bees, cave men, and waitresses had passed the starting line; by the time the moms and dads pushing babies in strollers, the mother towing her skate-boarding son, the four young men pushing their buddy in a playpen filled with teddy bears, the race had become a moving block party.
The costumed runners had certain handicaps. Take the frogs, for instance. Four runners were dressed as frogs with another guy, all in black, posing as a fly. The fly had to run in front of the frogs the entire race as if they were chasing him. Also, five men dressed as babies, in diapers, bibs and carrying rattles, had to brave the chill morning air.
Right behind the Team Fate runner was Ron Hom and his son, Randy. They were dressed as a football field with a swath of AstroTurf strung between them, and field goals as head pieces. The Homs were missing only a swarm of ticket scalpers clamoring around them. Further back was a modern-day Cleopatra riding in a chariot pulled by running slaves carrying fans. Then came what can only be called a graffiti float, wherein several young men ran inside spray-painted and postered paper walls.
The noise level on the course was kept high by marine-like chants as rival gangs of runners sang support for either the Miami Dolphins or San Francisco 49ers. One man ran the course in a 49er uniform, carrying a football. Another, a Miami fan, brandished a squeaking plastic Dolphin.
The prize winners were the men who ran the six miles in wedding gowns, chasing a woman in a yellow tuxedo. They called themselves Macho Mary and the Not Ready for Prime Time Sun City Cellulite Old Maids Club. The brides tossed bouquets (which no one had the nerve to catch) and tearfully called it the happiest day of their lives.
“Last year we entered as rabbits,” said one bride through a flowered veil. “But the rabbits died and this year we had to get married.”
Next year, they dress as lawyers.
