By 7:30 a.m. Saturday, at least one hundred people stood on the sand on the north side of the pier, some eating free bagels and bananas, others doing yoga as children dig holes around them.
Jeff Atkinson doesn’t have time to schmooze with all the people who came to participate in his 8th annual Manhattan Beach 5K. He is busy setting up t-shirts, picking up the prizes from Beckers Bakery and laying down markers along the 3.1-mile race route.
Atkinson started this biannual race to celebrate the low tides on the summer and winter solstices. Both the summer and December Yuletide Moonlight runs are on the sand, starting and ending at the Manhattan Beach Pier. Eight years ago, Atkinson said about 350 people participated. This year, he estimates up to 800 runners will congregate nears the water’s edge.
A swell pushed the tide way in, making the race much more challenging for many of the runners. “When the tide is higher, the runners cannot run on the flat, hard sand,” Atkinson said. “Instead, they are running on a slant and the sand sinks in with every step.”
While running on the sand is more difficult than running on concrete, Atkinson became enamored with running on the beach. He grew up in Manhattan Beach, running both track and cross country at Mira Costa before going to Stanford and attending the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea where he placed tenth in the 1500m race.
Atkinson said running in the Olympics was his goal since he was 16 and he was lucky to have accomplished it by the time he was 25. “It was a dream come true,” he said.
Now, he spends his time coaching cross country and track at Palos Verdes High school, teaching Boot Camp on the beach with his company, Olympian Fitness and promoting races.
“[Running] is the only thing that keeps you younger,” he said. “It’s the fountain of youth, the number one thing in fitness that keeps you slim and in shape.”
Twelve minutes before the race starts, Atkinson jets off to warm up his muscles on this chilly, overcast morning. Seventeen minutes and two seconds after the race started, Chase Zukerman, 16, crossed the finish line under the pier. The captain of the PV High School track team, Zukerman trained with Atkinson and even came at 5 a.m. before the race to help his coach set up. He felt a cold coming on, and wasn’t sure if he wanted to run, but once there, he couldn’t say no.
Zuckerman said he loves running because “it is clear cut, you win or you don’t, and there’s no better feeling than when you win.” Zuckerman won the MB 5K last year and the Yuletide 5K in December.
Zuckerman said he never thought he was going to be a runner. He planned on playing basketball until he fractured his wrist. Now, he said, “I’m never going to stop.” ER