U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL: ORANGE COUNTY’S DAY : LOS ANGELES 1991 : NOTEBOOK

No need for Zzzzzs?: As he tucked himself into bed at 8 Friday night, racewalker Chris Rael of Fullerton didn’t think of asking his roommates to keep it quiet.

Rael, who was staying with other Festival athletes in a UCLA dormitory, had to get up at 4 a.m. to get ready for his race, the 50-kilometer racewalk which started from Cal State Long Beach at 6 a.m.

After falling asleep, Rael woke up an hour or so later when a few of his roommates started playing rock ‘n’ roll on a radio. He was awakened again when another roommate came in and started “be-bopping” around the room, as Rael described it.

Finally, he decided to try--nicely--to put a stop to the be-bop.

“When I told him what time my race was, he didn’t believe me,” Rael said. “His mouth just dropped open, like, ‘What?’ ”

Rael slept soundly the rest of the night.

Saturday, Rael, a history teacher and track coach at Cypress High School, bettered his career best in the 50K by 25 minutes, walking the 30.1 miles in 4 hours 40 minutes 45.0 seconds for sixth place.

We R Walkers: You wouldn’t expect many fans to get out of bed in time to watch the start of a 6 a.m. racewalk start, but Rael says there was a surprising number of supporters on the course.

Of course, who else to support the walkers but walkers themselves?

The Orange County-based Easy Striders, a racewalking club that helped organize the event, showed up in force to cheer on the walkers. In addition, racewalking competitors from Friday’s 20K men’s race and 10K women’s race also came to help.

“It was great,” Rael said. “A lot of the 20K guys were manning the feeding tables, asking us what we needed to drink or eat and getting it for us.”