40th Annual Fun Run Is The True Meaning Of ‘Exercise & Socalize’
I first learned of the Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10K race when I started working at a PR agency (Bob Thomas & Associates), which at the time was located in King Harbor.
A few of my associates would dress up and run in it. One year, they were the “Channel 10 News Team” and did interviews along the way. Another year they were the B52s “Love Shack” squad, complete with running while carrying a “Chrysler as big as a whale.”
I’m not sure how many years ago that was but eventually I joined them and then began to organize my own groups. One year, with Sharkeez as a sponsor, about a dozen of us ran six miles in grass skirts with those Sharkeez drink buckets attached to our heads.
So now, in 2018, it’s the 40th anniversary of this race, which in the running community is known as a “fun run.” I often question that when I’m huffing and puffing the first two miles, which is all uphill, and certainly when I’m grinding up “The Hill” from the pier back to Catalina Ave.
Man, I how I do wish they would run that part along the pier and eliminate that last hill.
Anyway, I refer to this race as the perfect “exercise and socialize” event.
The exercise part is obvious. The socialize part is after the run, when a couple thousand of the runners gather in the beer garden. You get two beers, but can often work that into another one if you huddle up next to someone who can’t handle drinking much after a morning run.
I actually have a beer before getting to the beer garden. One of those BT&A’ers taught me to peel off the course in Riviera Village – about almost precisely the 3.1-mile mark of the 6.2-mile distance – and into Hennessey’s for a pint. Or two. I’ve done this every year I’ve run the race but frankly, unless Hennessey’s or some other place offers runners a discounted beer, I may not do it this year.
After all, why pay $6-7 for a beer when I’m about the only one going in there anyway? Maybe the residents who set up the mimosa stand on the course last year will be there again this year and I’ll stop there instead. See, it’s a fun run!
The weather for this year’s race looks good and, based on what it’s been like this week, may be even warmer and sunnier than the forecast.
If you’ve never done the race, I encourage you to do so; not only do you get in full day’s worth of exercise but you get to start socializing a lot earlier than most people on Super Bowl Sunday.
Post-Race Report: The weather was fantastic, there were more uphill grades than I even remembered (D Street to the Village on Catalina, about 6 blocks!), I did not stop at Hennesseys, I ran up “the Hill,” the mimosa stand was not there this year tho I did stop and get one from friends standing near the finish line, and the beer garden was loud and crowded.
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