By
Marty Friedman, Ace Reporter
About 40 Club Ed runners descended on Redondo Beach to race
and faced the wrong way. The famous Super Bowl races usually start out going North,
but the construction which has tormented the Monday Night Madness crowd caused
the Race Director to reverse the entire course.
In the 5K, our fastest runner, and owning the shortest name,
Ted “Tsunami” Tso blazed in at 17:03 and 5th overall. Ultra runner
Will “Windstorm” Weston ran this sprint event and combined with son Chance for
our fastest (and only) father/son team. Chance jogged this as a training run.
Poor Corrine Sandbag” Schratz, who got tagged after winning the Coach’s
Handicap 10K, showed us all up by running both the 5K and 10K. She was 2nd
and 4th respectively in her age group. Jim “Nuclear” Newman, who
claimed his wife dropped a brick on his toe which slowed him down (4th
AG), was seen wandering around the beer garden without any limp. Mark “Keeping
Up”Kerper showed he could lead, with a 2nd AG finish. And Marian
“Dynamo” Drahnak was 4th in her AG. Michael Moore, not our marathon
master, was 3rd AG in 21:26.
Club Ed had 3 entries in the Baby Buggy 10K and snared 2nd,
3rd and 6th. Yes, there were more than 6 entries; 163
finishers to be exact. Mike “Comet” Cortez (and daughter Natalie) was 2nd,
Mike “Javelin” Jones (Tamar’s husband and daughter Marisa) were 3rd
and Sean “Rehabilitator” Ryan (and son Blake) nailed the 6th overall
place.
Most members ran the 10K. Aaron “Meteor” Munger flew through
the course in 35:02 and was 3rd overall. Bill “Whirlwind” Weber was
close behind, running 35:09, for 5th overall and winning 1st
in his age group. Our fastest woman was Tamar “Gliding” Gamliel, 1st
AG, in 41:28. I don’t think she caught up to Matt, who had a 10 minute head
start. Our strongest AG showing was in the Women’s 50-54, where we took 1st
2nd and 3rd. Great running from Debbie “Rampaging”
Richardson, Renee “Scurrying” Williams- Smith and Diane “Sleek” Silva.
Nicola “Leaping” Lowrey claimed that BFF Michelle got lost
en route, delivered her bib late, causing her to start in the back of the horde
of runners. Michelle “Wanderlust” Wun won the award for marriage enlightenment,
by running the race with her husband Dakin and breaking over the 1 hour mark by
13 seconds. Karina “Ballistic” Bird had the misfortune of being in the same age
group as Tania Fisher and Kirsten Leach, and ended up with 4th.
Other female finishers included Julia “Frenzy” Fretschl (1st AG),
Dana “Intrepid” Icaza, and the day’s endurance master “Sandbag” Schratz.
Our fastest husband and wife team was Katie “Magnificent”
McKellar (4th, 41:39) and Rick “Masterful” McKellar (3rd,
37:07). The oldest finisher was Matt “Tripping” Tarnay, who at 72 just missed
breaking 1 hour.
Humberto “Superman” Sanchez topped the 35-39 AG in 37:31.
And we grabbed 2nd. 3rd, 5th and 10th
in Men’s 50-54. Respectively, Jon “Mach Speed 2” Megeff (37:12), Jake “Cyclone”
Courtney (37:25), Kevin “Swift” Sullivan and Mark “Streaking” Silva. Brad
“Airborne” Angle was in that speedy age group too. We should note that Megeff “decided” to run
the day before, even though he is supposed to be coming back on a careful
recovery…!
We owned the 55’s as well. Rich “Gusting” Gust was 1st
(37:51) and Chuck “Kamikazi Kaminski was 2nd. “Gusting” won the
media prize also. His Facebook picture holding 2 beer cans in one hand went
viral.
Ed “Air Mail” Avol said he ran a good 5K. Unfortunately the
race he was running is was the 10K. He was pushed off his righteous 1st
place throne by Dale Campbell of USTAF Masters’ fame, who ran hard the entire
distance and finished about 5 minutes ahead of our Coach. Pat “Stealth” Saraceno
took 3rd AG in that tough division. Marty “Flying” Friedman said the
reverse course would not suit him. And he was right. One engine failed in Mile
5 and another in Mile 6. He was 2nd AG, behind another Grand Prix
Master’s speedster from OC. Steve “Notorious” Notaro was 3rd AG and
said to watch out this year as he was concentrating on running, not triathlons.
Jack McDowell was 5th behind
“Flying” and “Notorious”. Other finishers included Nick Trutanich (40:32), Derk
Saltzmann, and Warren Galloway.
Spectators, seemingly from the Beer Garden, included Sharon
Lotesto and Wade, Jeff Atkinson, Gretchen and Martin Newman, and “Gusting”
Gust’s prettier half, Vicky. Have you all played “Where’s Waldo”? There was a
picture of the Start in the Beach Reporter. I saw Avol, Friedman, Gust, Weber,
Kaminsky, D. Silva. Who can you find?
And if you got to vote, would you prefer the old course, or
this year’s direction?
PS – in a LATEBREAKING NEWS piece, that Club Ed Running is in 1st place after the first race of the 2015 USATF Grand Prix Road Racing Series (the Redondo Superbowl10K) , holding off Cal Coast and The Janes…