Thor and Bjorn arrived at our house the night before the big race. After dinner, we turned in early and were up before the crack o'dawn (5 a.m.) Sunday. After a light breakfast, the five of us (including our friend Diane) drove south to Marin County and caught the 6:30 ferry from Larkspur to the Ferry Building in S.F., arriving at 7:15 and making our way the three blocks to the starting area. Edy and Diane, who planned to fast-walk the distance, joined the "back of the pack" group, while Thor, Bjorn and I hooked up with Dave a few blocks away. I had communicated with Dave via e-mail the week prior to the race and he said he and his buddies were going to start at the intersection of First and Howard, four blocks past the official starting line at Spear and Howard. This turned out to be a good move, since last year it took Edy and I 15 minutes just to cross the starting line. But from Howard and First, we waited until the Kenyans and the "elite" runners passed and then moved around the barricades and started running. While we technically "cheated" by a couple of blocks, our times were pretty accurate, as we started running about two minutes after the starting gun. It made for a more enjoyable B2B, as we were able to start at our own pace instead of wading through the crowd.

I kept pace with Dave and Cynthia for about the first mile, but eventually their youthful legs allowed them to separate themselves from me. Thor and Bjorn, meanwhile, set a blistering pace. Thor wound up finishing first among family members, followed by Dave, Cynthia, Bjorn, Chris and finally the fast-walking Edy. The Hayes Street Hill, about two miles into the race, is the true test of one's endurance, and I must confess I "hiked" instead of ran most of the way up.

Left: Chris runs up Hayes Street Hill. Center: Dave and Cynthia set a blistering pace.
Right: Edy fast-walks along the Bay to Breakers route.

Spectators lined the entire route, cheering the participants on. Some doused runners with spray guns and hoses or serenaded them with music. In fact, there were about 15 live bands stationed at intervals along the way. There were also three welcome water stands. We encountered all kinds of jogging and jiggling specimens of humankind along the way; the imagination that went into the costumes was boundless. There were Hula dancers, Elvises, "Stars Wars" characters, "salmon" and various centipedes. And more than the usual number of runners wearing nothing at all.

We met at the "S" section of the Polo Field at Golden Gate Park and hung out for the afternoon.

The weather was perfect, warm enough to start the race at 8 a.m. with just shorts and a T-shirt, but cool enough at the end of the race to be comfortable. We all eventually found each other in the large throng gathered at the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park at and hung out for a couple of hours. Eventually, we bid adieu to Dave and Cynthia and caught the Muni bus back to the Ferry building and back north.

I'm kind of bummed that my time (about 1:21) was not registered the Examiner's official Bay to Breakers web site www.baytobreakers.com which lists the names of all finishers. They have a disclaimer that "because of the volume of runners and the opportunity for mistakes, some runner times were not recorded." They printed the names of the top 10,000 finishers in the Examiner (including Thor, Bjorn, Dave and Cynthia -- all in the 2,000s) and my time put me in the 9,000s, but they somehow didn't register my time.

It's a fun race -- a moving party through the streets of San Francisco -- but being the competitive guy that I am, my goal is to train and improve my time each year until my advancing age meets the point of diminishing returns, or something like that. See you at 8 a.m. May 21, 2000 at Howard and Spear streets.

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