Super Bowl Sunday 10k Redondo Beach, CA - Feb. 3, 2002

The course was exactly the same as in previous years. It started just north of the Redondo Pier and headed north along King Harbor. There was an uphill as the course looped inland and then south. Looping back at the south end in Torrance, it returned to a coastal street above the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Passing the Redondo Pier, there was a nice downhill just before the finish line.

This year's race was a shootout among local skaters. The lead packed maintained a steady, although not that fast, pace from the start. Gradually, slower skaters began to fall off as a few ineffective breakaways were attempted.

Coming back north on the coastal street around mile 3.5, Scott Wolf (Sonic) decided to pick up the pace. Mikael Weitze (BSI) was the only skater who had enough energy to give chase and they gradually pulled away. These two managed to stay in front for the remainder of the race.

Scott Wolf won the race, crossing the finish over two minutes ahead of the chase pack. Mikael Weitze, still out of sight, finished second. The chase pack's final sprint began before the last downhill. In the end, Neal Lucey (BSI) outpowered the rest to take third overall.

There were significantly less women participants this year, but not in competitive spirit! Aimee Printzen displayed another impressive race with her victory, crossing the finish line alone. She had mingled with the lead men's pack for part of the race. SDSE's own Wendy Holbert took third in her original hometown.

San Diego Street Elite participated in full force and was the largest team represented again. Not only that, SDSE cleaned up, as evidenced by the number of times members appeared on the awards podium:

    Brandon Thorsten - 2nd place age
    Brenda Houser - 2nd place age
    Carl Yee - 1st place age, 4th place overall
    Cathy McCormick - 3rd place age
    Cyndi Matsuda - 1st place age
    Howard Yeh - 1st place age, 6th place overall
    Ivan Lebedev - 2nd place age
    Lineal Pelton - 1st place age, 6th place overall
    Pat McCormick - 1st place age
    Wendy Holbert - 1st place age, 3rd place overall

Congratulations on an impressive performance!

Thank you to Audrey Winthrop for organizing the skate portion of the Super Bowl Sunday 10k every year. This year's move of the awards ceremony into the scenic Asahi Beer Garden gave skaters even more exposure to the general public.

Results and pictures will be posted to the SDSE web site as they become available. In the meantime, Richard Nett has posted some pictures he took of the awards ceremony at http://www.nettracing.com.

Howard
SDSE-IR