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!!!
