Kindelan Rises To Top -- Kirkland Runner Beats Bridge, Women's Field In 8K Run

Lisa Kindelan of Kirkland, a professional baker who has risen faster in the past year than a souffle, fried the competition with a fast start yesterday in the Nordstrom Beat the Bridge Race.

Kindelan, 26, covered the 8-kilometer (4.97-mile) course in 27 minutes, 22 seconds to finish 84 seconds ahead of runner-up Sherri Hortin of Edmonds (28:46). Kara Crisifulli, another Kirkland runner, was third in 29:07.

The men's division wasn't exactly filled with drama as Terry Perrault, 29, of Portland won comfortably in 24:03. Second-place Buck Jones of Ellensburg was 47 seconds behind (24:50). The 1987 winner, Kevin Matthews of Bellevue, was third in 24:54.

Bert Egley, 30, of Tacoma won the wheelchair division in 27:53.

A rain-diminished field of 4,051 finished the race, one of the largest 8Ks in the nation. All but about 200 runners made it over University Bridge at the 3-mile mark before the bridge went up 29 minutes into the race.

About 1,000 participants walked a 4-mile course around the University of Washington and about 200 jogged in a two-mile fun run. The events raised more than $30,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

Kindelan has been overshadowed locally by world-class Lisa Weidenbach of Issaquah. Weidenbach, two-time winner of Beat the Bridge, didn't compete yesterday and Kindelan didn't miss her.

``It's hard to beat her,'' Kindelan said.

Kindelan's last local triumph was in the 8K division of the U.S. West Marathon last summer. The last time she ran Beat the Bridge was 1986 when she was second to Regina Bonney.

Kindelan finished 1989 ranked 12th nationally in the marathon. She had an impressive third-place finish in December's California International Marathon, the equivalent of the women's national championships.

She is coached by her husband, Scott Knoblich, whom she met when she ran at Bellevue Community College.

Perrault's victory was his third major Northwest 8K win within a year. Last August, he won both the Seafair Henry's 8K and Nordstrom's Portland 8K.

One of Perrault's major concerns yesterday was whether he would lose a shoe because of a loose shoelace.

``It got loose at 2 miles,'' he said. ``I thought it would come off. I was paying more attention to that rather than concentrating on the race.''