May 20, 2007

Bay to Breakers


Play "San Francisco"
by Hello Saferide

There are plenty of California rituals I did not get to while I was living there. So when I was invited to be a part of San Francisco's annual Bay to Breakers race/parade, I jumped at the chance.

It turned out to be a history-making event. For the first time in its 96 years, a woman won the event, finishing the 12K (7.46-mile) course in 38:55.

My team and I, on the other hand, had no ambitions of the sort and were diverted off the course just after the sixth mile, essentially for being too slow. (The Great Highway, where the course finished, had to be reopen by noon. At our pace, we weren't going to make it....)

But for thousands, finishing was not the point. Participating was.

There were blue people.




There were naked people.




There was Pac-Man.




There were stormtroopers.




There were salmon running against the flow of the parade (an annual tradition) yelling "Spawn!"




And then there were your usual assortment of Running Elvises, Pamplonan bull runners (complete with beer carts designed to look like bulls), rolling cantinas, space ships, pool parties, chickens, tacos, bananas and other assorted costumes.

According to SFGate.com, 60,000 people took part. I was happy to be one of the crowd.

Posted by MacDiva at May 20, 2007 6:41 PM