Bay to Breakers

Scott and I ran the Bay to Breakers race last weekend in San Francisco.  It's 12kilometers (7.45 miles) from the bay side of San Francisco (Embarcadero area) to the ocean side (near Ocean Beach - see map below).  It's a very old race, started in 1912 to improve city morale during post earthquake rebuilding years. This year there were between 40,000 and 50,000 registered runners and 200,000 spectators, many of whom tried to jump in and run illicitly.   Only about 27,000 racers finished.  This "race" is not really a runners race as we learned.  It's more of a big party.  I knew it was kind of like that but thought we would still be able to run and it sounded cool to run across San Francisco with all the streets closed just for us.  It was very crowded and we ended up with thousands of walkers in front of us to dodge and weave through.  At many points we were forced to stop and walk because we couldn't get through the walkers and a few times we came to a complete stop, often near porta potties where lines stretched across the race course.  There is certain runner etiquette that is observed in most road races that was totally out the window here.  So it was a little tricky but still fun. Here we are at the finish line area.

This is a map from my GPS watch app.  My GPS was a little off.  The distance should have only been 7.45 miles.  White circle is the start, black circle the finish line.

We drove into San Francisco early and parked on the ocean side about a mile from the finish line.  Then we took an Uber across town to the start.  That was my first time taking an Uber but Scott is a seasoned pro having lived in San Francisco most of last year.  It was so convenient.  Before we knew it we were at the start on the bay side.

By the Oakland Bay Bridge

We finally found our starting corral.  There were so many people!!

Lots of costumes.  Maybe 50% (or more) of people there were in some kind of costume.  And lots of people actually ran without clothes or very little clothing.  This is not a race to take kids to and I was surprised so many spectators brought their kids.  Scott and I tried to avoid any of that craziness and run.  :)

Getting ready to start

There were so many people it took over an hour for everyone to start running (they started people by corrals every few minutes).  Here we are at the start.  I didn't take any pictures on the run because I just wanted to run but it was a cool course.  We started out by a lot of tall buildings (the financial district area?) and started running gradually up.  We went near the Haight-Ashbury and Panhandle neighborhoods.  It was warm and sunny on the bay side.  There was a pretty significant hill in that area that everyone called Hayes Street Hill.  It was about 2/3 of a mile and 11% grade for a lot of it.  The hill itself wasn't as painful as trying to dodge everyone walking up it.  And it was all down hill after that.  Literally.  We got to run through Golden Gate Park which was nice.  We passed a waterfall, which I didn't even know was there, some buffalo (also a surprise to me) and the windmills.  As we dropped down into the park it got more and more overcast and foggy.  Nice and cool on the ocean side with the May/June gloom.

Here we are midrace.  This was one of the race photos provided by the event.  See how majestic we look.   :)  I think this must have been in the last couple miles.

And here we are 7.45 miles later.  It was very cool to run across San Francisco.  I'm glad we got to do it.  Here are a few finish line pics.

We walked a mile back to our car along the ocean bike path.

It was good to stretch our legs before the 85 mile drive back home.

Scott's parents came down from Oregon to watch the kids while we ran.  All the kids were beyond excited.  As soon as John found out they were coming he started asking me when they would be here about 20 times a day (not exaggerating).   

And about 10 minutes after they left John starting asking me when we would be going to visit them in Oregon.  Although its still about two months away he continues to ask me about semi-hourly (also not exaggerating) when we will be going up there.  I tried to show him on a calendar but he doesn't quite understand.  Ma2 and Pa2, you are missed.  And thank you for coming to help us!!