Treacy Breaks Away, Wins Redondo 10K : Road running: Irishman breaks course record set by Tom Wysocki in 1985 by 23 seconds.

Despite the distractions presented by the party atmosphere, John Treacy of Ireland managed to set a course record in winning Sunday’s Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10K.

Treacy, a silver medalist in the 1984 Olympic marathon, finished the course in 28 minutes 30 seconds, beating the mark Tom Wysocki set in 1985 by 23 seconds.

Race organizers had more than 10,000 entries and expected unregistered runners to increase the field to about 15,000. But the real race was reduced to three competitors by the three-mile mark: Treacy, who used the race as a warm-up for the Tokyo marathon in two weeks; Kenya’s William Musyoki and Thom Hunt of Coronado, Calif.

“I came here not knowing who was in the field,” Treacy said.

“When I saw that name (Musyoki), that’s all I wanted. There’s no substitute for racing to bring you on.”

By the fourth mile, it was just Treacy and Musyoki, but Treacy attacked on a slight upgrade and left Musyoki behind.

“When I surged I got away from him for about 10 or 15 meters, and when he pulled back I could see he was working very hard, so I surged again,” Treacy said.

Treacy soon built an insurmountable lead, although the race did hold a few more surprises for him.

“It was typical L.A.,” Treacy said. “I’ve never been in a race before where I had a guy on roller skates beside me. A little distracting, to say the least.” Musyoki finished second in 28:57, Hunt third in 28:58 and Greg Domantay of Lake Forest, Ill., finished fourth in 29:20.

Janet Smith of San Luis Obispo, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion at North Carolina State in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, was the women’s winner in 33:22. Jeannie Lasee-Johnson of San Diego edged third-place finisher Alisa Harvey of Upland by one second in 33:32 after Harvey was blocked at the finish by a centipede team of 10 runners strung together in one costume.

Harvey said the centipede team accidentally forced her to hesitate at the finish, allowing Lasee-Johnson to slip past.

“Other than that it was a great race,” Harvey said. “I just didn’t like the way it turned out.”

Allen James of Newport Beach won the men’s 5K walk in 21:48, and Sarah Standley of Norco won the women’s in 24:42. The 10K wheelchair race went to Jim Knaub of Long Beach in 24:59.

A Mardi Gras atmosphere surrounded the race, which is in its 12th season, beginning with a costume judging contest at 7 a.m.

Among the entries was a group of assorted chewing-gum sticks called the “Gum Rappers” who proceeded to rap, badly, and a group of handcuffed young women who carried life-size Elvis cutouts and wore black T-shirts with “Slaves to Elvis” emblazoned in pink across the chest.

There was even an Elvis impersonator posted along the route, cheerfully smoking a cigarette as the field passed.