The second stop on the USATF 2011 Grand Prix Club Championships Tour was Brea CA, for the 20th Annual Brea 8K. A brisk 37 degrees welcomed the crowd for the warmup. The rolling course through the streets of Brea is to Brea what the Hometown 10K is to Manhattan Beach. Mike Cortez has run this race since he was allowed to walk home from elementary school (but he declined to provide any secret insider racing hints).
Our fearless troupe of Club Ed racers showed up and ran…and when the racing, whining, and sweating was over, we finished a respectable second place, just nine points behind the ever-competitive, ever-talented, ever-pink Janes (4189 to 4198). The overall race was won by a very speedy Daniel Rojas from Nike Team LA (24:44, a 4:58 pace). The first woman was Cheryl Smith from Huntington Beach, in 27:47 (5:35 pace).
Our scoring team(five highest age-graded performances) was Jon Megeff, Rich Gust, Debbie Richardson, Mike Spencer, and Humberto Sanchez. Thanks to all teammates who came out and raced; on to the next one!
Selected Race Results (name, time, race place, age-adjusted points): out of 2742 official finishers
1) Humberto Sanchez, 26:46,7th, 809
2) Jon Megeff, 27:19, 14th, 864
3) Rich Gust, 28:31, 28th, 857
4) Mike Cortez, 28:32, 29th, 747
5) Jeff Bryant, 29:03, 37th, 790
6) Mike Spencer, 29:08, 38th, 819
7) Will Longyear,30:06,60th, 786
8) Jonathan Hilliard, 31:26, 101st, 675
9) Bryan Johnston, 31:33, 107th, 744
10) Debbie Richardson, 32:04, 123rd, 838
11) Tamar Gamliel, 33:14, 182nd, 726
12) Dave Grethen, 34:01, 223rd,724
13) Steve Nataro, 34:22, 241st, 788
14) Karina Bird, 36:06, 316th, 713
15) Pat Wickens, 39:00, 473rd, 743
16) Ken Lathrum, 48:15, 1216th, 588