Bay to Breakers

Bay to Breakers. Mere words cannot explain the experience of Bay to Breakers.  It is a race that is also Mardi Gras, a race that in Brazil would be called Carnival.  It was the most fun race that I have ever done.  Of course I had good company.  You really have to have an open spirit and a zest for life.  Obviously many people would be offended by the experience that is B2B. 

My day started at 4 am when I woke up in Berkeley at my brother's apartment.  We had watched the local news the night before and the forecast was thunderstorms.  My brother was half heartily concerned about me being electrocuted.  In fact, the opposite happened.  We had beautiful running weather for the most part.  We got lightly rained on for maybe 10 minutes.  I ran with my friend Rubi Lawson who had never run in a race before.  I thought that it was really brave of her to tackle a 12k for her first race.  We probably ran about half of it, maybe a little more.  We had a blast.  We saw far too many naked people.  I understand that the race had less of that this year.  I'm glad of that.  After you saw one naked  person that shouldn't be naked you had seen one too many.  We ran with two ladies that were on Naked Patrol.  They were not giving tickets out to people who shouldn't be naked but were encouraging those that they felt should be naked to shed their clothing and run naked.  It was hysterical to hear their whistles tweeting and watching them run down good looking guys. 

San Francisco is obviously a world class city.  In my opinion it is the only real city in California.  The homes and the buildings are so beautiful and that is not even getting into the views the city provides.  Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park...all exquisite. 

The costumes were incredible.  We saw clean and bad Charlie Sheen, coke smudges and all.  We saw Oompa Loompas and a pod or a herd of Elvii.  What is the plural of Elvis anyway?  Below is a picture of the Elvii and right next to them is Princess Leia, followed by the Royal Newlyweds and finally Hayes Hill looking backwards. 

 What is it that drives a middle aged man to run around naked?  I don't get it myself.  Gross, gross, gross. 

Several times in the race, we smelled something illegal being burned.  I think we almost had a contact high from the many times we smelled people smoking marijuana.  I'm glad my workplace does not do drug testing.  Personally, I think that Bay to Breakers is a race to do every few years.  I think if you did it every year you might get bored with it, but every two or three years would keep it fresh.  I definitely think that B2B should be on every one's bucket list of races.