Bay To Breakers Race Report

I ran the Bay to Breakers for the first time yesterday and must say it was not what I expected. I am used to very organized half marathons and triathlons where there is little chaos involved. But yesterday was absolute chaos during the run--slightly my fault though because I signed us up for the wrong corral. They set corrals up A-F by pace time and I thought I would play it safe and sign us up since my girlfriend had never ran that far and picked corral F. Big mistake! Not only did the race not start for our corral into 0915 but it also meant that we were stuck with a bunch of walkers that blocked our running path.

As we tried to break away from the crowds and the people smoking marijuana and cigerettes as they walked and ran by us, I grew very fustrated. There were huge block parties along the route in the houses as people passed beer along and played loud music. The music was not bad but the crowd that grew by the areas made it absolutely hard to run by. The only joy I actually had from this race was that I was able to spend some quality time with my girlfriend and being able to experience watching her first 12k race. All of the annoyances and pain from tripping over other people's feet was worth it just to see her get a medal at the finish line.

This race is great if you are a college student or just want to hang out and party. For a competitive runner it was a little lackluster, although the expo was pretty great and gave participants a lot of stuff. All I know is that there is a hill from hell on this race and the view from the top was awesome! There was even a random waterfall that was a great spot to take a picture. Another tip: make sure you have a plan for getting back to wherever you parked. Parking near the Embacadero area was only $7 for us on www.parkingpanda.com but the Lyft ride back from the finish line was $41!!