100th edition of Bay to Breakers

Amongst the few touristy things I have done on my sabbatical, I registered for the 100th edition of the Bay to Breakers (B2B) race in my first month in the US.

As my training progressed, I had planned to use it as a fast 12K. But with my injury in the last 2 weeks, my expectations changed completely. I was just happy to run in the race and use it as a shake-out run as my massage therapist called it and more importantly, finish the race with no injuries/aggravation of my existing issue.

Perhaps due to the fact that I registered in Feb, I ended up in corral C, which was set to finish in 90 min. I was quite disappointed about it and was quite uptight at the start when I got there at 6 am for the 7 am start.

However I had no idea how the day would turn out. Usually I end up at the start of races mostly all wired up and intent on timing. But within moments of my getting into the corral, there were gingerbreads, chapatis, tortillas flying about in apparently what seems to be a glorious tradition at the B2B race. Initially I was wondering what on earth were people doing. However after seeing some cheery 60-70 year old use tortillas as frisbees, my feelings changed. Soon I was an eager participant in the festivities. As if tortillas weren't enough (at some point in time, there were around a 100-150 tortillas in the air!), some people began to bounce beach balls around. It is something to see people scream "Don't touch it, That's mine!" and so on bouncing beach balls while waiting in the starting corral. Waiting for a race has never been so much fun. Some people who didn't really participate initially decided to plunge full in, when they were hit by a few tortillas in the head. It was like one large dormitory of kids let loose.

And then of course, there were the costumed runners - people in birthday suits, a permanent fixture in the B2B to people dressed as superheroes/animals/birds etc. After a long time, I ran a race with little attention to my watch and spent time looking around. Besides my back still hurts. So not much good news yet.

But much fun was had by all.

And yes, I did ok on timing too considering that the race was almost all downhill after a staggering ascent along Fell Street - a nearly 11% gradient up Hayes Street Hill.

If you are visiting SF during May, a strong recommendation to participate