San Francisco Bay to Breakers 2017

Bay to Breakers is a quintessential race held in San Francisco every year. It’s inception began in 1912 when the entire city rallied to rebuild after a devastating earthquake. Formally known as Cross City Race, Bay to Breakers is a long standing tradition where people from all over travel to participate in. Lucky for me, I attended my first, but definitely not my last Race last weekend.

This all started when I called my best friend, who lives in Berkeley, to let her know I would be in the city for a family affair and would love to spend Sunday afternoon with her. She let me know she had nothing going on, but would I like to do Bay to Breakers with her? Blatantly I said I would not run, am not a runner and have no intention of ever running a race. She said we would be drinking and I obliged. The next day, she sent me an actual confirmation of our tickets to the race. Damn it. I was committed.

After assuring me we would be walking and drinking, I began to get excited. I had heard how fun this race was over the years and I was excited to be apart of it. Even with all its old nudity and clear debauchery.

The Lorax and his Truffula trees

 The Race

Whether you’re an avid runner, a weekend exerciser or just enjoy dressing up and talking a nice stroll, Bay to Breakers is honestly something everyone can enjoy. You don’t even have to finish if you don’t want to!

The route starts near the Embarcadero on the bay side of the city and follows a clearly marked route through the city, up Hayes Hill past Haight/Ashbury through Golden Gate park before ending at the ocean break. It’s touted as a 12K (like 8 Miles), but feels like a lovely walk through a beautiful city.

As you walk the course, people are dancing, playing music and generally have a grand time. Once you get to the massive Hayes Hill, most of the houses on the street are throwing their own form of parties with people spilling in and out.

The rules specifically state no alcohol and no bags will be tolerated on the course. The alcohol rule was definitely not enforced, unless you were blatantly drinking out of beer cans or holding liquor bottles. The backpack rule was also lax. A lot of people had clear bags as stated in the rules, but there were also many with camelbaks (including us) and we had no issue.

Signing Up

You’re encouraged to actually sign up and get a race bib, otherwise non participants will be removed from the course. The cost of entry is $69.99 plus taxes. It’s your choice which division you put yourself in based on how fast you run a mile, if you choose to walk or if you’re with families. We chose to be in the walkers group because this has the most costumes and I clearly stated I wasn’t running… anywhere. In your race packet you receive a really fun shirt made by Under Armour, some gummies, a cliff bar and of course your race bib. I totally ate that cliff bar by the end. And by end, I mean we made it to the panhandle park about halfway through before wandering off to meet friends and find lunch.

If you’re going to be in city during this race, I definitely encourage everyone to join in on the fun!

For more history and other info check out www.baytobreakers.com