So last Sunday, I participated in the 100th annual Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. I had heard stories about how crazy it was. Hundreds of thousands of people converging on downtown San Francisco. Costumes. Floats. Naked people. Drunk people. Crazy people. I have to admit, I was a little scared.
Yolanda and I rode BART over. We had to leave around 6:00 a.m. The first corral was scheduled to release at 7:00 a.m. We were scheduled to start by 7:45-8:00 a.m. We got off at our stop, walked up the stairs and basically walked straight into our corral, around the corner, over the start line and started the race at 7:30 a.m. No waiting.
Bay to Breakers is a 12k race (about 7-1/2 miles). 55,000 people were signed up to run and/or walk. It meanders through the streets of San Francisco and ends at the ocean. It was such a beautiful day. A tiny bit of rain but mostly sunny and awesome. There weren't nearly as many naked people as I thought there would be (although I did see way more fat, old men wieners than I needed to see). There was a crack down on alcohol, floats, people who hadn't signed up and fun in general (according to the news stations). But I still had a great time. There were a lot of fun costumes, hilarious people, house parties along the route playing music and having fun. There was only one hill, and even that wasn't very difficult. It was mostly a flat course. We stopped to take pictures and gawk at nude guys. My official time was 2:57:37. Yolanda was
number 38,850 and I was number 38,854. Not bad. That means 12,000 people were behind us! Yeah, it was over a 20 minute mile, but we had fun and took in a lot of interesting sights! I would say we were pretty much done walking by mile 5, but we pushed through and did the final 2.5 miles. I was wearing a pair of socks, nylons, more nylons, socks and then my shoes. So my poor toes were squished to death. My costume was more of just a silly outfit. I'll post a photo below. It definitely got a lot of attention though.
So, two days later, I'm a bit sore in the legs and hip but I otherwise feel great. I have another Brazen race in about two weeks and I'm hoping to really work on my time on that one.
I know Bay to Breakers has been struggling and may be canceled next year. I really hope they continue because I'd love to do it again! Next year, I'll have to enter the costume contest. :-)
Only one blister!! WOOHOOO!!!
There were 55,000 registered walkers/runners apparently, so that means almost 17,000 people were behind us...not 12,000. :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://bayarea.sbnation.com/2011/5/17/2176856/bay-to-breakers-2011-final-results-pictures-photos-video-flickr
ReplyDeleteBay To Breakers 2011: Final Results, Pictures, Looking Ahead
May 17 9:02p by David Fucillo
Read More: bay to breakers 2011
The 2011 Zazzle Bay To Breakers 12K is in the rear view mirror and the race website has already got the countdown clock going for the 2012 running of the 101st Bay To Breakers 12K race. As of this posting time it's a little over 368 days away. This year's race featured a first-ever alcohol ban, which resulted in a race that while still crazy, was a little more orderly than in years past.
Although the alcohol was somewhat contained this year, that didn't stop folks from putting together some more quality costumes. Folks at twitter were uploading pictures left and right and we also had some quality race video around 4th street in SOMA. For more pictures of the race, head over to the Bay To Breakers flickr account as well as the San Francisco Examiner's slide show.
Oh, and there was also race results worth noting. In some of the more fun results, the fastest Men's human centipede was from LinkedIn, which finished with a time of 37:00. The fastest women's centipede came from the UC Davis Aggies, who finished with a time of 49:06. If you don't recall your history, the UC Davis Aggies track club was the first ever centipede running champion in the 1978 Bay To Breakers race.
You can view all race results HERE. Below is a rundown of the top women and men in this year's race. You can check out all our coverage leading up to the race in our 2011 Zazzle Bay To Breakers Stream. We'll see you next year!
Bay to Breakers' flickr link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/ingbaytobreakers/sets/72157626743658898/
My overall ranking:
ReplyDelete39,279 out of 43,913
Female:
21,564 out of 24,120
Female, age 30-39:
6,136 out of 6,770