Super Bowl Sunday 10k
Redondo Beach, CA - Jan. 30, 2000     T   P   R   S   		San Diego Street Elite
Well the morning of the race was quite a bit better this year than than it was last year. Although there was a threat of rain in the air, it held back until after the race was over (for all but the slowest). The pre-race gathering of mostly friends and acquaintnces and competitors was great as always. Our group from San Diego consisted of Sandra, Andy, Brandon, Richard Nett (Nett Racing), Myself, Nicole, Howard and Elaine Heath. It was Elaine's first race (and she placed in her age group). It is always fun to get caught up on the gossip and answer the big question of the day... "What happened to Howards foot?", "Did he break it skating?"... no, "hiking".

Well it was finally time to race and after a little confusion on the starting details they turned us loose on the streets, all of us at once!! Well it was a scramble just to stay up but everyone seemed to know how to deal with it and I didn't see or hear anyone fall. We all started out at a moderate pace until the first right turn. It was up hill and everyone knows that is the place to attack. We started to do a little weeding right there and I saw Eddy, Dana Bergman, and Joe Flesher start to break away and slowly fade into the distance. The pace line was still prety big at this point and I had to start what little attack I had to get past the mob and up to the next little pack.

I saw Julie Glass up ahead with Kim Derrick in tow and set my sights on catching up to them. It wasn't too easy but eventually I found myself draft-sucking off of them. I was quite content to be in the chase pack but I didn't want to look back because the mob was right there and I didn't want to burst my little bubble of excitement. There were 5 in our pack (Scott Wolf, Mikael Weitz, Julie Glass, Kimberly Derrick and myself). Eventually it came to my turn to pull and I happened to be pulling us right into the part of the course where I got lost last year!! We have to make a right turn into a parking lot and it is a little confusing with a street parallel to it. Last year I ended up on the side walk because no one was directing us, there was just cones everywhere. This year I had the pack breathing down my neck and I couldn't shake my self off of the front (I hate that then that happens :o) This time there was a guy standing in the street to show the way and I had no trouble following his directions.

We quickly ended up along the coast and I pulled back to the rear. We slowed down a little and I finally looked back. The second chase pack was not too far behind us and they were gaining. I we picked up the pace a little and kept them back. I did a little more pulling and fell back a little up the last hill. On the level I caught back up.

As we neared the top of the last downhill, I found myself a little in front. This was not good... As I started down and 8 or 10 feet out in front, The rest of the pack formed a tight pace line and came flying past me. I couldn't catch on to it and I figured that I just "missed my train!" The finish is just a short sprint past the bottom of the hill and even had I been in front at that point I could see that I was out-gunned. I was happy with my finish and even though the overall times don't look too impressive it was still a great race. I send many thanks to Audrey for getting the whole thing going and I heard that she will do it again next year!

Joe P.
SDSE-IR

Copyright © 2000 - San Diego Street Elite