No Redondo Beach 10K Or Beer Garden But It’s Still A Fun Party Day
For year, I have had a routine on Super Bowl Sundays.
First, I would wake up early (there has to be a special occasion for me to do this, by the way), put on my running shoes and head to King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach, CA.
There, I would join about 8,000 other people in the annual Super Bowl 10K, a fun run if ever there was one. Several people dress up in costumes, put boom boxes in shopping carts, residents line the streets to cheer and play music (and sometimes hand out beers or even mimosas to us runners) and then everyone celebrates in the beer garden.
This was always one of my most fun activities of the year.
After the beer garden cleared out, a couple dozen of us would accompany an Air Force veteran to the local VFW club. This is a no-holds-barred kind of a place and it kept the momentum going for the rest of the day.
Then I and others would bounce around various house parties and, well, Super Bowl Sunday always wound up being a very fun day.
But this year will be different. I’m not saying it won’t be any fun – I’m anticipating quite the opposite to be the case – but it won’t be the same as in the past.
For starters, I’m not running the 10K. My right knee swelled up a couple of weeks ago, a result of strained ligament that pops up on occasion, and I was not able to do any running to get in shape. So, I’ll miss not only the 10K but also the beer garden.
In any normal circumstance, I would be completely bummed but would still rise up to go to the beer garden. This year, however, it’s going to be raining and having done the race in the rain I can tell you it’s not a lot of fun. The beer garden is not the same, either. Instead of being a giant Super Bowl party warmup, people grab their two beers (if they go in at all) and get the heck out of there and back home.
The rain has also dampened the spirits for the VFW visit, leaving us to search for house parties without the usual pregame buzz. Heck, we won’t likely even be together so we won’t arrive at the same place at the same time and may even be scattered throughout the South Bay. Chances are, tho, we’ll all eventually meet together at friend’s Smiley’s traditional Super Bowl house party.
But that’s okay; one must constantly adapt to change in life and this is no different. I’ll probably just be having a different kind of fun.
Cheers!
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