RUNNING / REDONDO BEACH SUPER BOWL SUNDAY 10K : Winners Have to Run Around Strollers

Matt Giusto and Jill Hunter thought they were ready for all challenges in Sunday’s Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10K. But what they didn’t count on were baby-buggy competitors--runners pushing strollers with children aboard.

The baby-buggy racers began 10 minutes before the start of the 10K and provided most of the excitement along the 6.2-mile course for Giusto and Hunter, who ran to easy victories in 29 minutes and 32:24, respectively.

“They started to get in my way on the bends, but when I shouted at them they usually moved,” said Hunter, who who placed ninth for England in the 10,000 meters in the world track and field championships in Tokyo last August.

“This is my first time in Los Angeles and I’ve never seen anything like it. I was scared at first because there were thousands of people behind me and I thought I was going to fall. But there’s a party atmosphere at this race and everybody has a relaxed attitude. It was kind of fun.”

Giusto, the NCAA 5,000-meter champion for Arizona in 1988, did not seem to mind the presence of the baby-buggy runners either.

“Yeah, a few of the strollers got in the way,” said Giusto, who lives in Portola Valley. “I had to weave my way through them, but the people and the crowd support throughout the race were fantastic.”

Giusto, 25, and runner-up Carl Thackery of England broke from a pack of seven shortly after four miles before Giusto surged with a little more than a mile left en route to 13-second victory.

Dan Gonzalez of Mountain View was third in 29:23 and last year’s winner, Thom Hunt of Coronado, was fourth in 29:27.

Hunter, 25, led from the start to break Sylvia Mosqueda’s course record of 32:48 set in 1989. Wilma van Onna of The Netherlands finished second in 32:52 and Sue Lee of Canada was third in 34:22.

There were more than 16,000 runners in the race, although more than half were unregistered.