SuperBowl Sunday Redondo Beach, CA - Jan. 31, 1999

The course started just north of the Redondo Pier and headed north along King Harbor. It went uphill as it looped inland one street and then south. Looping back at the south end in Torrance, it returned to a coastal street above the bluffs at the beach. Passing the Redondo Pier, there was a good dowhill towards the finish.

Eddy Matzger and Dan Burger travelled down from Berkeley to compete. After Dana Bergman's (RSA) fast start, considering the conditions, the Team Twincam skaters took turns making breaks. Michael Weitze (BSI) and I covered until the 2k mark. Neither of us were able to match Eddy's stroke speed up the moderate hill. Later, Dan was able to break from the pack and hook up with Eddy to seal the race.

Michael, Dana, Joe Prescott (SDSE), and I battled it out for 3rd. A slippery curve through the intersection at the bottom of that last downhill allowed me to pass Michael and Dana to the finish. Joe, with the big Tahiti race coming up, played it conservative and settled for 6th.

The very few women's skaters allowed Aimee Sanderson of Las Vegas to finish first without much competition.

From SDSE, Bob, Sandra, and Pamela opted for the 10k run due to the horrible skating conditions. Congratulations to Andy Pele for his 11th-place finish in his first race on his new boots and frames.

Special thanks to Audrey Winthrop (Long Beach Bladers) for coordinating the skate race and finding Salomon as the primary sponsor. Hopefully better weather will bring more people out next year. (The running race attendance was not affected. The SuperBowl Sunday 10k is one of southern Cal's largest 10k's.)

Look for race results and pictures to be posted to SDSE's web site as they become available. SDSE's next race will be the Moorea Blue Marathon in Tahiti on 2/20. It's not too late to get in on the special travel packages if you haven't yet!

Howard
SDSE-IR