Bay To Breakers 2012 – Most Fun Ever!
This Bay To Breakers was the most fun of the dozen or so times I have run this zany, Only-In-San-Francisco Event. 7.7 miles from the Bay to the Pacific Ocean surf. It was fun, and pretty easy this year although my personal best probably lives somewhere in the late-1980s.
But it was good enough to finish in the top 12.6% overall and in the top 6% of my age group (Men, 60-69)
The crowd was smaller — only about 50,000 started — and the organizers have weeded out most of those who show up at 7 a.m. already drunk and disorderly. They haven’t quite gotten rid of the naked people. I say they should either get rid of them or come up with some aesthetic standards. My eyes were bleeding from naked people who were so damn proud of so damn little.
In fact, the photo below (I’m bib nunber 11437) was taken when I blew past a large group of runners to get past a naked man who was really hurting my eyes. You can see his bare arm (and a bare leg) at the far right. The bare rest I cropped out so your eyes wouldn’t bleed either.
All I can say is that the naked people offered a lot of incentive to run faster so that you didn’t have to follow that kind of sight for very long.
The race starts at 7 a.m. Halfway through my hour-long run, the sun is still low and making us chase our shadows.
The Hayes Street Hill — where more than one runner has died over the years — was pretty easy this year. But at about mile five, I needed to plug in my Jlab Wave which holds the entire works of Green Day. Music from American Idiot gave me a ridiculous pace for the next 2.2 miles to the finish line.
Come out and run this race. It’s in most runners’ buckets.
