Our merciless alarm went off at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco at 6:30 a.m. I was as foggy as the city I woke up in thanks to a night of Polynesian drinks at the Tonga Room and a night cap at the Top of the Mark. My pre-race meal was a beer and a Cliff Bar while I put on my costume (Phil Donahue at a luau, complete with a white shaggy wig, aloha shirt, and multiple leis). My rainbow-wig-wearin’-wife said it was time to go so we strolled down Nob Hill to the 101st running of, Bay to Breakers.
The race is a San Francisco tradition that started in 1912 and has been run every year since. It starts near the Embarcadero terminal on the bayside where participants in anticipation of the start of the race fling corn tortillas into the air like Frisbees. Seven-and-a-half miles later it finishes across the city at Ocean Beach. The only guarantee is that a Kenyan will win the race, the rest is a complete free-for-all!
Naked runners were plentiful in this race; you didn’t have to look too hard to find the dough white flappin’ fannies of guys dressed up as Adam without their Eve. There was a group of guys wearing just athletic supporters, who were apparently in-training to get to the All-Nude Level that plenty of others had already achieved.
We zig-zagged through the Tenderloin District where homeless spectators chillin’ outside the soup kitchen cheered us on. Bars and nightclubs that lined the race which were usually closed and quiet at that time of the morning were open for business and blaring music. We’d occasionally run through a plume of marijuana smoke, and groups of loud, drunk, runners who’d obviously stayed up all night on a carb load.
I had to walk up most of the Hayes Street hill which, in my book, was steep enough to be considered mountain climbing. The slower pace however, gave me more time to look around at the costumes including groups dressed like bumble bees, Prom Queens, Santa Clauses, and the upstream spawning salmon group running the race in reverse. We ran past the famous row of Victorian Houses of Pacific Heights, and the not so famous row of port-a-potties across the street from them. The race continued on Haight street into Golden Gate Park where the race got more serious, though I did pass a hairy-legged dude wearing a Strawberry Shortcake frilly baby-doll dress and bonnet. We finished the race at 1 hour 39 minutes, only an hour after the Kenyan winner!
Running Bay to Breakers was a long-held bucket list goal of mine and a good reminder to embrace tradition and never taking yourself or others too seriously.
The 102nd running of the Bay to Breakers race takes place May 19th, so you still have time to start training and costume shopping. More information at www.BayToBreakers.com