Bay to Breakers

A tiring week: both of us were pretty busy with work, and I volunteered at a charity clothes sale on Wednesday night, which wasn’t actually that inspiring (too many wealthy society women yelling, “that’s so cyyuuute!” all the time). Tuesday evening was pleasant, though: a really nice guy who used to work for Jon was over in San José on business and came up to San Francisco for the evening. We went out to an Asian-Californian fusion restaurant for dinner, then on to our favourite bar, Vesuvio.

Yesterday, we had to go to pick up our race packets for Bay to Breakers, and also put together some costumes. We found a decent party shop and stocked up on silly stuff: a big union jack and a plastic crown for Jon, a grass skirt and Hawaii-themed accessories for me. In the evening, we went to dinner at Mark’s (lovely guy Jon works with), just up the road from us on Green Street, otherwise known as “Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard” after the play that is permanently on the programme of the theatre there. It was really enjoyable and we also got set up for another couple of weekends: someone had two spare tickets going for a big music festival in June and they’re all going camping in Yosemite the week after, so we jumped at the chance to go along too.

Today was the day of Bay to Breakers, the 12 km (7.5 mile) run from the eastern side of the city (Bay) to the ocean at Golden Gate Park (Breakers). We were both a bit apprehensive about it, but there was really no need – it was more of a fun run than anything else. There were bands playing at various stages along the course, crowds cheering and doing “high fives” with the runners on the sidelines, plus loads of people in costumes: we saw a group of Elvises, the “spawning salmon” (a gang dressed as salmon who run “upstream” against the crowd from the end to the start), several bananamen (one eating a banana while running – surely that’s cannibalism?!), wonderwomen, cockroaches, gorillas and naked people! The only thing marring the fun was the cluster of Christian fundamentalists at the start of the race, brandishing their placards claiming, “Got hates…”, followed by a long list, finally ending in “homosexuals” in large letters. As you can imagine, they weren’t getting a warm reception – this is San Francisco, after all! However, it is a scary reminder of what kinds of beliefs lurk in some parts of America.



The race was really slow-going at the beginning, as there were so many people (apparently approx. 80,000 in total!), but I am pleased to say that I ran the whole way, even up the dreaded Hayes Hill, and finished with what I thought was a very respectable time of 1 hour 17 minutes. Jon could have gone much faster, but stuck with me. I was proud of myself, as it’s the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life! I didn’t even find it that difficult, but now I really ache! When we’d finished, we all headed to the polo ground in Golden Gate Park, where there was a big stage, a beer garden and food.