San Francisco Citizen

[Get up-to-speed on years past right here.]

I still haven’t heard word one about the Bay to Breakers this year. It’s uncanny.

So let’s see, the BtoB people are freaking out now about all the unsold registrations they’re trying to unload. They just had a Cinco de Mayo sale (I’m seriously) and now they’re offering a Mother’s Day special for discount sub-$50 registration. But past participants aren’t biting because even at the high price of $48(!) YOU DON”T GET A T-SHIRT! That’s a new thing, I suppose, since those T’s were famous back in the day.

Anyway, if you want a runner’s bib you can buy one at a discount on craigslist (because these bibs aren’t worth all that much and they’re certainly not worth the $100 that some people have paid) or just make your own if you feel comfortable with that.

This mustard color should fit right in with the crowd:

Don’t click to expand and don’t print this out on your color inkjet printer, you know, in portrait mode.

But if you want to give money to Colorado “Christian Billionaire” Philip Anschutz, then go right ahead and register, I don’t care. He gives his money to support Prop 8 and fight the concept of evolution so if you want to help him with that, go right ahead and give him your money by registering for the B to B.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe that this historic race is coming up in nine days and yet nobody’s talking about it.

All right, let’s hear from former B2B fan Mike Scott and a bunch of other people.

Comments:

“$48 for a timed race and $2 medal: no t-shirt! $10 more for them mailing the bib to us? No transit included with the registration! Seriously, at $58 for 50,000 people, I need to whack someone so I can run this thing. I appreciate it’s a logistics challenge, but it ain’t rocket science.”

“don’t forget the $6 processing fee!”

“I’m officially retiring from B@B after 25 years. To expensive and no longer fun anymore”

“Charging for the t-shirt! This is REALLY sick. I’ve run this race 17 times, and any number of other races. Charging EXTRA for the t-shirt when that’s the real medal any runner wants (aside from a good time)? This race is obviously being run by a non-runner with a financial agenda in mind, NOT with the reverance the Breakers has to the history of this city and to the runners who love it. IF I register this year, it will be my last time as a swan song memory. You folks are giving this race a bad name.

“I hope you’re paying attention to all the comments on your web site, Facebook and elsewhere regarding the charges and changes you people are making. You’re killing a great race which USED to be the biggest block party in the country, along with TAC sanction. Veterans like me and many others are just not into what you’re doing. Please don’t tell me about all the charges and costs. Somebody’s making bucks on this and it’s very, very sad. After running it 17 times, this, my 18th time, will, without doubt, be my last. I will be coming up from L.A. for is as I have for the last 5 runs. Before that, I lived in the Bay Area and ran it 12 years in a row. What you’re calling a party at the end is a joke, and charging for t-shirts is obscene. By the way, I’m not running with a cane, and do hope to finish under 1 hour. I run for time and all the joy that USED to come with the party afterwards in the polo fields. Music, vendors, a place to chill and spread out afterwards. You probably haven’t been around long enough to realize that even having a place to find your friends in the bleachers by alphabet made this sooo special. Now, it’s just another race put on by some big corporate sponsor who really could give a crap about what is was to the people running, and to the city of San Francisco. Shame on you.

“I miss the days when the SF Examiner was the race sponsor. Ever since Zazzle took over this race, they’ve diminished it. The entry fees are now OUTRAGEOUS and what race sponsor does NOT include a t-shirt in their fees? That’s just BS! They no longer allow floats and they’ve moved the starting time up to 7:00am which is BRUTAL for those of us, like me, down in the south bay. This has always been my favorite race of the year and sadly, they are really ruining it. Shame on you Zazzle! Some things are about tradition….not money!

“Oh you can get a t-shirt but you have to register at the “Plus” level with is $72 or the “Premium” level which is $89.50!! That doesn’t even include the additional fees for Muni to get you to or from the starting/finish line or the added fees to have your packet mailed to you or the processing fees. I’ve never had to pay this much for a 12k race entry in my life. It used to be $35 and you got a t-shirt. Last year they changed the starting time to 7:00am so we had to leave SJ by 5:00am which was ridiculous. They never used to have a limit on entries and now it’s cutoff at 50,000 (years ago there were more than 80,000 entries) and they eliminated a lot of traditional things (like the floats). That’s part of what made it so whacky and fun! All they care about now is $$. They’re just ruining the tradition of this race and robbing people blind now.

“I think it’s really sad what they’re doing to this 101 year old iconic race. My husband, my friend, & I have been doing this event for almost 30 years together. Now they’ve taken all of the fun, camaraderie, family togetherness (ie: no running strollers so no young families, no dogs so no companions, not to mention no T-shirt with our registration).. out of it.(I don’t care about no alcohol) Next they’ll say no walking, so no old fogies, like our gang Booooooooooo!

“That’s it. Priced me right out of this one. Between hotel, meals, transportation and no t-shirt with basic registration and starting at 7am again this is not fun. $57 times 50000 is $2.85million. Really?”

“I’ve been running this since 1996. I can’t believe that costs have gone up and only by paying even more one gets a tshirt. I’m going to have think about this. I just ran the Oakland Running Festival today. Well organized, friendly, low corporate footprint, and depending on which race you ran you got a specific shirt. You guys are losing the spirit in more ways than one.”

Bay to Breakers was going fine for almost a century, so what went wrong?