Bay to Breakers 100th run

Some 20 years ago my mom ran the Bay to Breakers 12k in San Francisco.  Ever since I started running, a few years back, I've had my eye on running the race, and this year, the 100th running of the race, I made it so!  Off to Alameda!

Saturday morning we started our race adventure by taking BART into the city to pick up our race packet.  Having not eaten breakfast Jonathan had his eye out for food and we were both looking for a cup-ojoe.  We stopped at one place, but thanks to Jonathan's inclination that something better could be found a little further down the road, we found Citizen's Band.  This tiny restaurant on the corner of 8th St and Fulton was a gem to say the least!  Jonathan's dish of chicken fried steak came with a biscuit, gravy, scrambled eggs and potatoes.  Yes, it sounds like a ton of food but the portion was perfect. A chef and his co-chef, a grade higher than a prep chef (not exactly sure what you'd call him) prepared the amazing dish with skill and an eye for aesthetics.  Oh, and by the way, every last bite of it was fantastic!  The coffee was quite good as well.  A fabulous start to our morning.

We picked up our pathetic excuse for a race packet, aka number bib, some paper to be recycled and a shirt lacking a great deal of creativity and started our way back home.  On our walk we stopped to check out some gorgeous graffiti art as well as buy the always useful, atomic power planter.  Jonathan marketed the tiny planter for the benefit of Sydney's digestive needs, but no marketing was needed for this addition to our atomic ranch.

                                                                                                                                                                

After crossing the bay we made our way to Berkeley for a little salvage shopping, energy supply gathering and overall shop touring.  We stopped at a salvage/used everything warehouse where Jonathan was hoping to find a mint green toilet to complete our bathroom.  And, of course, a 12 hour drive from our house, he did.  We decided we were far enough out from finishing the bathroom and that the color/style of toilet pops up frequently enough that we didn't need to make the purchase right then and there.  Always good to know of a likely place to find one, but I for one was somewhat relieved not to have purchased said toilet to add to the list of unfinished household projects. We finished the day, and prepared for the next with some tasty Japanese food/sushi at the always crowded Sushi House on the Alameda beach.

  5:15 came way too early the next morning, but in order to make it to our B corral in time we had to be on the 6:09 BART headed to Embarcadaro Center.  Thankfully the trains were not nearly as crowded as I'd expected and we got seats across from some tye-dyed, tu-tu wearing fellow race participants.  We filtered into what we thought was our corral and experienced the unexpected apparent tradition of flinging corn tortillas all about.  At times the sky was fully of little tortilla UFOs, some slapping or slicing down on unsuspecting race participants who usually tossed them right back in the air.  In corral E we saw our first nude participant and needless to say he wasn't as close to fellow participants as the rest of us.  In fact I'd say he had at least a two foot radius around him while he jogged in place to keep warm in the 49 degree weather.

 Realizing we were in the wrong section, and not wanting to wait until a half hour later than our scheduled start time we made our way to our proper start location.  As the race started we flooded under the start line with bumble bees, Elvises, many a tu-tu and yes, a few tortillas.  It wasn't until after about a block that the tortillas and beach balls dissipated.  As we approached the notorious Hayes street hill we came across the group of spawning salmon.  A line of about 10 people dressed in head to toe salmon costumes ran down the center of the road in the opposite direction, or course.  As they passed one called out, "its a metamorphosis of love" and I am quite happy to say I got a high 5 from a spawning salmon.  Headed up the hill, Jonathan and I separated.  I love my husband dearly, but I'd been training for this run and was going to run it!  The hill was, strangely enough, invigorating and refreshing, certainly not what I was expecting.  Along my way I took a few pictures as best as possible while running..  I debated on the appropriateness of taking a photo of the a nude group, but heck, if you're running 7.45 miles in the buff you're not one to be camera shy.  

The yellow smiley face balloons = warning naked!

At about mile 5 I ran for a few steps with Pee-Wee Herman (not the real deal), who I later witnessed toking up on his way to collect his race medal, and passed a Devo couple, whippin it good.  Sweet.  I also saw a few grazing buffalo, enjoyed the San Francisco scenery and enjoyed a quick view of the breakers before haulin

My parents were kind enough to pick us up, seeing that the race ended a good 7 plus miles from any convenient form of public transportation and we headed back to Alameda for a day of touring the island.  We enjoyed a fabulous weekend and I for one am looking forward to making this run a yearly tradition.  More photos of our SF trip and the race can be seen in the slide show to the right.  Enjoy!!