Bay to Breakers 100th Year 12k Race

100th Anniversary of the Bay to Breakers 12K Race

Quote of the Race: "Now I am really a Russian Hero," - after playing around with fake accents to talk with while in costume and thinking of the movie Armageddon. Yeah... it's strange, but it's also Bay to Breakers!

RACE STATS:
Location - San Francisco, California
Cost - Varies by date. See website here.
Year of Running - 100th Annual
Sponsor/Race Directors - Zazzle, Mich Ultra, Virgin America, Volkswagen, T-Mobile, Barefoot Wine, American Red Cross, Hyatt Regency San Francisco and many others.
Charity - Breathe California
Number of Participants - 55,000 (officially registered), 65,000 to 75,000 estimated total including bandits.
Available Races - 12 K or bust!
Course Condition - Concrete and asphalt street with a very steep incline.
Pace Groups - Unknown.... perhaps alcohol pace groups.
Expo - Yes, but kind of a joke compared to other races of this size.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS: - Organization is priority when you've got a race of 50,000-plus partially or fully intoxicated runners on your hands and Bay to Breakers has done this year-after-year adapting with the times. This year the big new rule was "no floats." In previous years decorated parade style floats were allowed to be pushed, dragged or kicked along the course. Often times these floats served as transportation for moving alcoholic bars. Also new for the centennial race was a stricter crack down on public alcohol and drug consumption, although alcohol was officially banned several years ago. This year race organizers hired private security forces along with law enforcement to help regulate this rule. San Francisco being the city it is still was slack on enforcement when compared to other parts of the country. From what I witnessed if you were drinking blatantly out in the open you were asked to pour it out. If you were drinking some Gatorade or Redbull that smelled suspicious you were told to carry on.
There is more than enough support along the course with multiple aid stations handing out water and sports drinks. The spectators are usually just as spectacular as the participants, however, the number of house parties along the course were drastically down this year when compared to the previous year. This may have been a result in the city's crack down on alcohol. Despite the "man" trying to put them down San Franciscans still showed up along the course to cheer on runners, dawn crazy outfits and be just as much a part of the event as the participants.

ACCESSIBILITY:
Like any major city this race takes some strategic planning. There are major airports in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose all within striking distance. Sacramento is another option. Plan for traffic if you're driving into the city no matter which way you come from and be prepared for crowds. There are the MUNI and Bart public transportation systems and they are efficient. The race sells transportation vouchers for after the race on its website and they can be purchased with race registration. There are road closures and public transportation schedule changes on race day so reference the website and parking is extremely limited.

SWAG:
Mediocrity at best. The expo is more focused on wine tasting and automobile manufacturers than the sport of running. With a standard registration you get a cotton T-shirt that is low quality and will shrink after washing. For about $30 more you can get a short sleeve tech-shirt that is also poor quality in the world of $30-price-range technical shirts. This year's logo and design on the shirts was 300 percent better than the previous year, but the shirts still lack quality. 2011 was also the first year race organizers awarded medals to all finishers. That was a nice touch being the 100th year. Participants can also print out a personalized race certificate from home after the event on the results page of the website.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
Excellent. The full gamut is available. The only drawback is the three-quarter mile up hill walk/hike from the finish line to the post-race celebration area. This was not a big deal for me as I like to walk a while after a race, but for a lot of the intoxicated runners it can be a struggle. Plus, it always seems to be chilly at the finish line so be prepared.


MY RACE STORY:
After running this race last year with my cousin, Robert and friend Jeanie, as a bucket list race I knew immediately after that I must return the next year. For one, it would be the 100th year and for two, I wanted my girlfriend to experience it. Fast forward 365 days and we are back! This time with Jenny, her friend Tracy and my cousin, Robert. We definitely learned from our mistakes last year and got a nice hotel room. Note to the wise: It's well worth an extra $50-$100 a night for a good bed in the city. Those $100 per night hotels pretty much suck when you want a nice night of rest before a race. We went for the guarantee and stayed at the Omni Hotel in downtown San Francisco, which provided only the highest service.
For costumes this year (a MUST at Bay to Breakers) we collectively decided on "Bathrobes" as the perfect outfit. It allows for you to look like you might be naked under it (we were wearing running clothes) and at the same time can be warm enough for May weather in Northern California, but also opened up if it gets too hot. For whatever reason, Robert and I almost got identical robes completely separate from each other. We both went for the satin kimono-style robe decorated with dragons. Jenny and Tracy both opted for nice and warm cotton robes. As we were getting dressed at 5 a.m. and drinking the standard hydration fluids for this race (RedBull, Gatorade & Vodka followed by a champagne toast), Robert and I started goofing around and somehow came up with the idea we were Russian douchebags. Robert's girlfriend, Athena, helped us draw pencil-thin mustaches on us and we slicked our hair back with gel. I don't know what got into us, but it was down right hilarious. Between this point and the race start we talked to everyone with our horrible fake Russian accents.
The race start line was epic. 50,000 plus people spanning about six city blocks starting at Pier 1. The normal tortilla tossing was happening everywhere along with beach balls and "other" inflatables. Being in corral C it only took us about 10 minutes to get to the start line, but for the first time this year they wave started the corrals behind us and that took nearly an hour from what I heard.
Bay to Breakers does a great job with this race, but my only real gripe about the race itself are the corrals. If you're going to have a race this big with this many corrals then organize them a little better! The race organizers simply state on the website what pace time you should run in each corral and leave it up to the people registering to pick their corrals. This would be great if all runners were responsible, but in a race like this with a lot of the field not even being runners it simply does not work. Instead the corrals fill up and sell out in alphabetical order - A - B - C - D and so on. The end result is a mix of all types of runners and walkers in each corral. In other words, unless you're an elite you're going to be doing some weaving.
Jenny and I had decided to split this race up; her running with Tracy and me running with Robert. We would rendezvous at the finish line. My cousin took off from the start just like last year caught up in the excitement of the moment and began frantically weaving and passing, weaving and passing. I followed in fast pursuit. Our splits increased the entire race, but the crowd did not decrease. Just when I noticed that there were very few corral C bibs around me we encountered the slower crowds of corral B. We passed people for the entire race from start to finish. In fact, the only people I noticed passing us were three Spartan warriors in the last half mile running in perfect formation with each other. It was almost as if they were marching a 7 minute pace. Every so many strides they would bang their swords upon their shields and yell a chant from the movie 300. I was impressed.
We saw the normal chaos throughout the race like the dozen or so people dressed up as salmon running the wrong way down the middle of the street. Or the posse of smurfs cheering people on from the side of the road. Naked people here and naked people there. The funniest one I saw was a middle aged man completely naked standing in a grass field about 40 yards off the race course talking on his cell phone. He was waving his free hand around as he talked. It was so retarded looking that I couldn't stop laughing for a full minute.
This year Robert and my mothers both decided to come watch. We found then a mile or so from the finish line in Golden Gate Park along with Athena. After the race we found Jenny and Tracy and headed up the hill to the post race celebration area. Jenny and Tracy both had an equally insane race experience. We found our mothers and tromped through a few hidden trails to the edge of the park were we had a rented mini van waiting for us. This beat the shuttle transportation 100 fold. From there we drove down to the Cliff House, which is an amazing restaurant with 100+ years of history just north of the park and finish line along the beach. We had the most glorious breakfast/brunch of all time! If you're ever in San Francisco make sure you go eat at the Cliff House!
And that about wraps it up! I'm not sure if we'll do Bay to Breakers again as there are so many more races to do, but I'm completely stoked I got to be part of the 100th year running. Next year I think we will make our way to the Bay area again, but hopefully to run the Dipsea. I'll leave you with some pictures!

The best part about the running expo? Seeing Meb!

Standard Pre-Bay to Breakers Hydration fluids!

Tortillas!

The start line!

La la la la la.... la la la la!

Check out Pooh Bear... no really, I was taking a picture of Pooh Bear!

A look behind me from atop the Hayes Street Hill.

Our magnificent supporters!

This is Sparta!

Momma TallGuySurfing and Me at the Cliff House looking back toward the finish line.

My official stats:
2,806th out of 43,913 finishers
714th in my age division (30-39) out of 5,222 (top 13%)
Chip Time: 1:04:09 (a new 12K PR!)
Average pace: 8:35
Zazzle Bay to Breakers 12k TallGuySurfing grade = B+

Bay to Breakers 2010! (Recap, the story)

What can I say?

Whoa..... wow..... whoazers!

Words can only describe this 99-year-old 12k race, but the experience.... well, you really, REALLY need to go see it for yourself. I first heard about Bay to Breakers long before I considered myself a runner. It was the Discovery Channel, or maybe even the Travel Channel, that was running one of those "World's best parties, festivals, events (insert noun here) shows" that caught my attention. I watched the reporter interview person after person, each dressed completely bizarre and fully intoxicated as they trudged, climbed and even crawled by on a street in San Francisco. This stuck in my memory since I grew up visiting family in the Bay area. "That would be fun to go do some day," I remember thinking.

Well, that time came last weekend. As of Friday before the race I considered Bay to Breakers a "bucket list" race, or even a bucket list item for a non-runner, and I still do, but as of race day I'm seriously thinking of trying to make it an annual event. To sum it up in a few words; insanity, randomness, HILL, crowded, only in California, alcohol, pot, expressionism, cultural screw, wacky and FUN all come to mind. Here is my recap of my first, and hopefully not last, ING Bay to Breakers 12k race.

First, off let me say the Expo sucked. Jeanie and I arrived Friday afternoon after a congested drive from Sacramento into San Francisco. I'm not the most experienced runner, but I've been to the Disney Marathon and Donna Marathon Expos along with a few smaller ones and ALL of them were better than Bay to Breakers. It was quickly obvious that this race is really not geared toward mass quantities of "runners," but more suited for the average person out to have a good time. I was hoping to get some swag for my girlfriend, but what I left with (other than my bib number and one-color cotton T-shirt) was a goody bag of dog food samples, arthritis patch medication samples and some literature on Volkswagen cars. Other than a private vendor selling "once-used" shoes there was no opportunity to buy new shoes for the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon we're running next month. However, there were plenty of free wine and vodka samples. Go figure.

Jeanie and I got a little lost trying to find my cousin Robert and his friend Brandon, but eventually rendezvous at Magnolia Pub on Haight-Ashbury streets (neighborhood) and I must say that is an INTERESTING district in the city. After a few tasty beers we found ourselves going from thrift store to thrift store shopping for something crazy to wear. We weren't alone. Thousands of other runners were doing the same. There was definitely a sense of energy in the air. I equate this experience to the normal "expo" experience. First, we found some fishnet tops along with actual short SHORT running shorts from the 1980s. I objected immediately to the fishnet tops, but was outnumbered three-to-one and had to reluctantly try on the outfit. I was surprised to learn that with my body type I can totally rock a fishnet skin-tight top. The funny thing was that none of my friends could "rock" the shirt and pretty soon they were objecting to the idea while I pleaded in favor. Outnumbered three-to-one again we kept the pants idea and continued searching. I found some kilts, but was shot down as they were "too expensive." After about an hour of laughing, carrying on and joking Brandon's wife, Renee, found a bunch of skin-tight retro tank tops that matched all of our retro pants. On the way out of the store we found matching bow ties. Scary, I know! A few stores later we found some knee high socks at American Apparel to finish off the outfits.

By the time we made it to our hotel (picked solely for it's 1-mile to starting line distance/location) and quickly discovered that they failed to tell us that it was wedged between China Town and the Red Light district. Again... interesting neighborhood!

Around 3:30 a.m. the noise from outside on the street went silent and I think we all caught a few hours sleep before our alarms sounded at 5:45 a.m.

This is how my pre-race morning played out:
1.) Use community hallway bathroom with other funky dressed runners.
2.) Put on insanely short running pants while reminding myself that nobody knows me here and laugh at my friends as they laugh at me because we all look stupid.
3.) Drink as much Redbull, Gatorade & Vodka mixture as possible.
4.) Talk to girlfriend after getting drunk and while walking to the start line in 48-degree overcast weather.
5.) Imagine in my mind what kind of chaos would occur if an earthquake happened right now.

All this before 7 a.m.

By 7:20 a.m. we had found the entrance to our corral. Since I was corral B and had no intention on taking this race seriously I back tracked into corral C to meet up with Jeanie, Robert and Brandon. If anyone has ever ran with the Hash House Harriers just think of a Hash with about 60,000 people involved. The website says about 24,000 people registered, but the local news said they estimate 60,000 people take part in the race one way or another. As it started I think there was probably at least 15,000 people ahead of us and we didn't make it to the actual start line for a few minutes. Looking around I could see everything imaginable. If I didn't know any better I would think it was Halloween! Ninjas to my right, people dressed up as Tetris shapes to my left and naked people in front of me!

Just after passing the start line an announcer yells "runners to the left, walkers to the right," but what I experienced was chaos. Walkers everywhere and runners everywhere! Nobody really cared though.

Just after mile 1 we stopped at some port-o-johns, because well, we were drunk and that's what drunks do. As I'm waiting in line the race is literally flowing around me on all sides. Some guy next to me says, "hey bro, you taking pictures?"

"Yup," I said.

"Take a picture of this man," he says as he holds up a handful of marijuana. I look down in amazement as him and his friend, both wearing race bibs, are standing in the middle of the course rolling a blunt to smoke out in clear daylight!

And that is the general attitude. The race is famous for naked runners and we did see a few. Apparently the thing to do these days is start with your clothes on and after the start get naked, store clothes in backpack, run most of the race, stop just before finish line and put your clothes back on... so we saw lots of naked men and women running with backpacks.

One of the most hilarious things were about 20 people marching down the center line of the road dressed as giant salmon going BACKWARDS! Then behind them were about 20 more people dressed up as grizzly bears.

Then there were the dozen or so hecklers dressed up on the side of the road as giant bacon all drinking beers!

Starting off I had the impression that we were all staying together and "fun" running the race. Before I knew it I had lost everyone. I knew that Robert and Brandon, the least experienced runners, were ahead of me and Jeanie, who runs at a slower pace, was behind me. I didn't want to leave Jeanie, but now I couldn't find anyone. Without I plan I continued to run at my pace. Before long I literally ran into Robert and Brandon and decided to stay with them since I had a phone and Jeanie had the other phones and I wanted to be able to find everyone at the finish.

Whether they knew it or not, Robert and Brandon were running on pure adrenaline and excitement. I don't think there was much thought to pace. When I found them we were approaching the famous Hayes Street Hill (an 11 percent incline near mile 3) and we were weaving like rally race cars as we passed hundreds of people up the hill. It was beginning to be easier to run at any pace (the first mile was a 12-minute mile at the fastest whether you wanted to go that slow or not).

We reached the top of the hill and could see down the other side. The last 4-miles seemed to be mostly downhill, but not steep downhill and I can see why 12k world records are broken on this course. I would have loved to see the elites run by going down this gradual almost controlled hill.

The last few miles are all within the Golden Gate Park, which I learned is actually bigger than Central Park. There was even a waterfall within the park that is within the city. Amazing! As we reached the final downhill jaunt the Pacific Ocean opens up before us and we turn the corner to run the final 1/2 mile along the shore line. The finish line is now visible and Robert feeds off its energy taking off on what I estimate to be a sub-7 minute pace. I'm not one to ever sprint the end of a race. I feel like it's amateur for some reason. It's just my thing. However, I stick with him as I've got tons of reserve energy and I take pictures the entire way. We finish with Brandon only a few seconds behind. Jeanie eventually finishes and we're all stoked beyond belief.

At the finish line they make an announcement that the top female runner broke her own record for a new world record. Awesome! She is a Kenyan of course. Jeanie and I take a shuttle back to the start line while Robert and Brandon walk about halfway back on the course to Brandon's flat. I was told that the scene on the Hayes Street hill a good hour after we conquered it was the same crowd only four times as drunk and nuts. Next year I want to do it again, start in an earlier corral to get a good time and then go back and watch the chaos coming up that hill!

See you in 2011 Bay to Breakers for the 100th running!