We were joined by Bjorn, Thor, Lars & Heather (all of whom arrived Saturday and stayed overnight), David (with whom we rendezvoused Sunday morning) and our friends Mark & Theresa. Eight of us left Petaluma at 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning and carpooled to Larkspur, where we caught the 6:30 ferry to San Francisco, arriving at 7:15 a.m. It was the first B2B for Lars & Heather and Mark & Theresa.
The Bay Area was graced with unseasonably warm temperatures the whole weekend, which allowed us to spend the whole day in shorts and T-shirts – no sweatshirts or sweatpants were necessary even in the early morning. The thermometer hit 90 degrees in S.F. on Sunday, making it the hottest May 21 on record.
We had spent our last "training session" early Saturday evening, walking the 2.2-mile loop at Shollenberger River Park on the south end of Petaluma, observing geese, ducks, egrets and jackrabbits in the marshy wetlands. We consumed a high-carbo dinner before retiring early.
After waking up at 4:45 a.m. and catching the ferry across the bay, we encountered one of the first of many unusual and colorful sights of the day. A group of 20-odd Germans, all wearing bright red wigs, inspired by the heroine of the 1999 German film, "Run, Lola Run," were posing for a group photo before the race. Blue-wigged Edy walked over and good-naturedly joked with them. One of the Germans looked at her with a look of bewilderment and said with a thick accent, "You are wearing the wrong color."
Our group of eight posed for our own group photo, then split up into the runners (Chris, Thor, Bjorn and Mark) and walkers (Edy, Heather, Lars and Theresa). The runners rendezvoused with David (who had flown out from Washington, D.C. for the eighth straight year) at First Street, three blocks beyond the official starting line, to get a quick start. The walkers joined the "back of the pack club" on Spear Street. As the minutes ticked closer to the 8 a.m. starting time, the anticipation grew and the air filled with flying tortillas and beach balls.
At the starting gun, the Kenyans and other elite runners took off like jackrabbits. The runners of our group fell in behind them, with Thor and Bjorn setting a brisk pace. Thor caught a sharp elbow from an aggressive runner and barked back at him not to mess with the Dude. Chris and Mark ran together for the first two miles, then encountered Dave and his friend Jody on the grueling Hayes Street Hill. The runners separated as they entered the Golden Gate Park panhandle, with the heat taking its toll and Chris dropping back.
Meanwhile, Edy set a fast pace for the walkers, zig-zagging and darting through the openings in the two-legged traffic. "I think Edy is trying to lose us," said Lars. Eventually, the four walkers took turns setting the pace and managed to stick together in the crowd of 70,000-plus through most of the race. On the Hayes Street Hill, Lars ran toward a spectator with a hose to get cooled off by water spray.
Edy's blue wig fit right in with the wacky costumes and drew comments from spectators lining the streets.
"Go, blue hair!" one woman shouted.
Toward the end of the race, Edy encountered another group of racers all wearing cobalt-blue Afro wigs. "We are the blue hair culture," one of them explained. "Our dream vision is to be ourselves. To wear blue hair." Edy had found some kindred spirits.
Edy and the other walkers encountered a woman handing out free cookies and some guys pushing a cart with a keg of Budweiser (which Lars sampled). The runners jogged past a quartet of guys dressed as nuns ("Don't make that a habit, you guys," quipped Chris), a school of "salmon" swimming upstream against the flow of the crowd and a guy dribbling a basketball as he ran the route.
There were fewer centipedes (groups of runners linked together) or Elvis impersonators, Edy noticed, but the hot weather brought out dozens of people in their birthday suits. While most were flabby, middle-aged guys, Edy sighted two shapely women in the crowd au naturel. One of them was a Lady Godiva look-alike, with beautiful red tresses flowing down her back. The other, a short-haired blonde, shrieked as an 8-year-old boy with a giant water pistol scored a direct hit on her buttocks as she ran along Fell Street.
The course is slightly downhill as it winds through Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway next to the ocean and the finish line. One by one, we completed the course, considerably behind first-place finisher Reuben Cheruiyot of Kenya (34:54). Bjorn (1:07:15) bettered his time of last year. David clocked in at 1:12:33 and Thor's time was 1:14:49. Mark finished at 1:19:57 and Chris came in at 1:28:58. Some of the walkers put on a burst at the finish, with Lars coming in at 2:14:11, Theresa at 2:13:02, Heather at 2:24:12 and Edy 2:24:19.
After grabbing free bottles of water and having our official finish photos snapped, we all walked back to the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park to rendezvous with the others at Footstock, the post-race party. Along the way, there were religious zealots preaching and a Latin dance group sashaying on a makeshift stage.
After an hour, we all found each other, collected our commemorative T-shirts, and sprawled on the grass with Dave and his friends Jody and Jeff and others. We compared our B2B experiences as we sipped cool beverages and ate snacks in the hot sun. Dave suggested that next year we run Bay to Breakers carrying Ruth Samson in an awning-shaded litter or pushing her in a ricksha-like device.
By 12:30, we began to go our separate ways – David heading to a barbecue at a Hayes Street pad with Jody, Jeff and their gang and the eight of us standing in line to catch a Muni Express bus back to the ferry building and cruising back across the bay.
For more about B2B 2000, visit the Examiner's official Bay to Breakers web site: http://www.baytobreakers.com.
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