This morning around 7:30 am, I was awoken but the sounds of screaming and whistles. We slept with the windows open last night so we were able to hear the emerging crowd of drunk pirates, drunk bees, and drunk crayons. Yep, it’s the morning of Bay to Breakers, which is a 12K “run” that give everyone in the Bay Area an excuse to dress up and drink beer in the streets for 7.46 miles. The weird part of this is that we don’t actually live along the race route. But when Koa and I went for our morning walk, there was a long stretch of costumed people with drinks in their hands walking down our street. I think they came from CalTrain and making their way up to Howard St.

So, I decided to take a walk down to the Start Line to watch the party. With camera in hand, I saw girls in skimpy outfits, a couple dudes with nothing on, and makeshift beer floats. I also noticed a group of opportunists – quite a few elderly Chinese men and women with garbage bags in their hands picking up all the aluminum cans that the participants were leaving behind. They must have made a killing today.

It’s a pretty interesting “race” to watch with most participants not even running. I’ve done it before and you really can’t count on a personal record or anything. In fact, there was a group of people carrying signs like “runners probably eat babies” and “running is a gateway drug” just to give you an idea of how this is more of a party/parade than an actual sporting event. But alas, there are many who are determined to run past the drunks. It’s as if the street is for the drunks and the sidewalks are for the hardcore runners. It’s quite a sight to see.

Some of my favorite costumes/groups: a bunch of guys dressed in all white with red bandanas chased by a shopping cart dressed as a bull, a group of people dressed as Tetris pieces, and a girl dressed as a cookie being chased by a guy dressed as Cookie Monster.