Runners Are Ready to Shake, Rattle, Roll : Redondo Beach run: A field of 15,000 is expected for 15th annual event that includes wheelchair racers and baby-buggy division.

Kirsten O’Hara was a five-time All-American at the University of California in cross-country and track. She ran the 10,000 meters in the 1988 Olympic trials.

Now, she races against baby carriages.

On Sunday, O’Hara joins an expected 15,000 runners and walkers in the 15th annual Redondo Beach Super Bowl Sunday 10-K run and 5-K walk. About 50 of those runners will be pushing their babies in buggies.

The buggy race kicks off the 10-K at 7:50 a.m., followed by a horde of runners at 8. The 70 elite runners participating, including O’Hara, will start in front of the pack. And O’Hara says the baby carriages will not be given any slack.

“If they’re ahead of me, I will try to beat them,” said O’Hara, a 27-year-old Palos Verdes High graduate. The race, which includes wheelchair racers, begins at the intersection of Beryl Street and Harbor Drive. Men and women invitational mile runs will take place beginning at 7:20 a.m., but no baby buggies will be used.

Race publicist Deke Houlgate said baby-buggy running is a fairly new concept with two ideas in mind. “Back in the early 1980s somebody got the idea of building a special baby carriage with thin wheels so you can do your jogging while you watch your baby,” Houlgate said.

With the crowd of buggies vying for space with wheelchairs and thousands of people, is there potential for an accident?

Not to worry, Houlgate says.

“If (a buggy pusher) trips and falls, the baby is strapped in and they’re not going to get hurt,” he said.

The insurance company for the race wasn’t so sure, and in 1988 it ordered the director of the race to start the buggies 10 minutes before the runners and five minutes after the wheelchairs.

And although the elite runners always manage to reach the buggies, they say it is not hazardous.

“Usually by the time we catch up to them the race is pretty spread out,” said Hermosa Beach resident Annie Seawright, 27, who ran cross-country and track at El Camino College and UCLA.

The male and female 10-K winners each earn $1,000, the runners-up take home $500 and the third-place finishers earn $300 apiece. The prize for winning the baby-buggy race is a trophy.

Centipede racing also returns in the 10-K. This consists of 10 people, each with one arm attached to another, often by tape, running together in single file.

This year, the Gardena Reebok running team will have an entry in the centipede race.

“We’re not really thrilled,” said Gardena Reebok member John Koningh, 36, a former UC Irvine cross-country All-American. “I’ve never done this before. I will learn Sunday what I have to do.

“I’ve been training hard, putting in 90 miles a week ever since Thanksgiving. But I’ve been slacking off since I heard two weeks ago (about running in the centipede).”

Proceeds from race entry fees will be used by the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce for many community projects.

Adding to Sunday’s carnival atmosphere will be costumes worn by many of the runners. In the past, some have used the race for promotional purposes.

“Bill Wood, a (television) news writer, wrote a book called ‘Marty, The Marathon Bear,’ a motivational book for kids,” Houlgate said. “He couldn’t afford an advertising agency so he built an eight-foot bear costume. He tried to run in the race, but he couldn’t go very far wearing a 50-pound costume.”