Bay-to-Beer!

… and Simple Pleasures Cafe again

First off, to get the breakfast part of the 'blog out of the way, I went to Simple Pleasures Cafe again and had the bagel (sesame), hummus and veggies, and a cuppa mighty fine coffee there. I stopped by there on my way to watch some of…

The running of the 99th Annual Bay to Breakers was held today. Simply put, this is one of the largest footraces in the World; it has about 500 "elite" runners (read: professional Marathon runners that use this little race as a Sunday morning warm-up) and 99,500 lunatics.

http://www.ingbaytobreakers.com/

Most of the event is run through Golden Gate Park, which happens to be just four blocks downhill from my apartment. The race actually starts in downtown San Francisco, a few blocks from the "Bay", and ends at the Pacific Ocean, which would be the "Breakers".
I refer to this as "Bay-to-Beer!" because back in the early 90's they actually gave out free beer to runners (of age) that finished the race (this nickname was coined by the grandfather of a close friend of mine ~ "Hi, Amy!"). Then they changed that a few years later to $1.00 beers, then $2.00 beers, and then they stopped the beer booth all together for a while. I think Anheuser-Busch® is one of the corporate shills this year, and has a beer tent, so again there isn't any real beer.

Today's weather was pretty typical for a "Bay-to-Beer!"; it was chilly and foggy (and it isn't even Summer yet, Sam Clemens); but this makes it very comfortable while running (it just stinks when you are a spectator or after you finish and are standing around for a few hours). I remember one year it was 85° at the beginning of the race in downtown San Francisco, but by the time you reached the "Breakers" portion of the race it had already turned cold and foggy.
The "Bay-to-Beer!" is only a 12K (about 7.4 miles) footrace, so it is a pretty fun run/walk for people of all types. As well as the actual athletes, there are: Casual runners/strollers/walkers; Centipedes ~ a group of 10 or more runners that must be tethered together in some way; Costumed runners; and even Costumed-less runners (better known as "the Naked Guys"; I really don't understand why some guys would want to run 7.4 miles just to show everyone their shortcomings; there are some nekkid wimmen, too, but never enough for my tastes ~ they don't seem to have the balls to run nude).

At the end of the race they have a large party/event called "Footstock" where there are some freebies (like the "Beer!" used to be) and live music. In past years there have been major groups that would perform, such as Los Lobos (unfortunately, I only stayed for a short while that year as it was just too darn cold and foggy), Eddy Money (okay, he is not such a big name musician, but he is a local guy), War, and many others.

They also have local groups playing all along the route. These guys were playing at the Mile 6 marker this year:















I ran my 1st "Bay-to-Beer!" in 1993 (I am wearing the t-shirt today to prove it), and continued to run it every year until 2002 (I had to attend my 25th High School Reunion that year); I ran it again in 2003; skipped 2004; and ran it for my last time in 2005. Since then, I try to participate as a spectator at least. With next year being the 100th running, I may think about dusting off the ol' running shoes again… if the ol' dusty knees will allow it.

I have even gotten into the spirit a little (sorry, or thankfully, I kept my clothes on) and wore a baseball cap that I had attached a toy cable car (cut in half, one half in front and the other on the back) surrounded by cotton "fog" and my friend Amy ("Hi again, Amy!") made a very cool replica of the Transamerica Pyramid on top of another baseball cap, it was complete with a working blinking light at top even. Another year Amy ("Hi yet again, Amy!" ~ and I don’t think she even reads this stupid 'blog), another friend ("Hi, Teresa!"), and I wore capes throughout the run that read: "BAY" "TO" "BEER!"; I was the lucky one that got to wear the "BEER!" cape (still have it). We made sure to start and finish the race in the correct reading order, too. And another year, both Amy and Teresa ran as "fuzzy green dice" (aren’t you glad I didn't say "Hi, Amy!" again?); that seemed to have been pretty difficult as the costumes were large boxes that their arms barely stuck out from and they could hardly swing their arms to run.

By the way, here is a picture of this year's winner:

But only 'cause that darn Kenyan hare stopped to take a nap.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Bagel, Hummus, & Veggies ~ 6.2; Coffee ~ 7.0; Bay-to-Beer!~ 7.9