Here’s your routeprofile, starting from the SoMA near the bay going all the way to the breakers of Ocean Beach. See that big incline just before mile marker three? That’s the vaunted Hayes Street Hill. (And actually, the highest part of Hayes Street on this part of the course is near Pierce, not “at Fillmore and Steiner“ and not ”between Fillmore and Sutter.”)
Now, here’s your winner. It’s the 270-something foot high saddle on JFK Jr. Drive betwixt Prayer Book Cross and Stow Lake / Strawberry Hill, where ”Kennedy” is written:
Looks like somebody made a boo boo a while back and then it got repeated over and over. Oh well.
Hey B2B, why not just say that the Hayes Street Hill feels like the highest point?
And MSM, why not do your job the right way instead of just repeating what you’ve heard?
San Francisco, Calif. (January 12, 2012) – Today the Zazzle Bay to Breakers announced the opening of general registration for the 101st running of the World’s most famous footrace. Over the past century the iconic Zazzle Bay to Breakers race has evolved from a modest footrace to one of the largest and most unique running events in the world, setting records for the world’s fastest 12K, the largest footrace and other milestones. On May 20, 2012 the quintessentially San Francisco race, Zazzle Bay to Breakers, will begin its 101st journey from the San Francisco Bay to the Breakers of the Pacific Ocean.
“Last year’s centennial race was an incredible success with 55,000 registrants signing up to become part of history,” said Angela Fang, general manager of the race. “As the Race enters its second century, we are confident that this Bay Area icon will maintain its truly unique and exuberant spirit, uniting best-in-class athletes with vibrant fans, creating that electricity that can only come from a footrace in San Francisco.”
Once known as the Cross City Race, Zazzle Bay to Breakers was first held on January 1, 1912. While 186 runners kicked off the race at Embarcadero and Market streets, only 121 runners completed the race. Robert Jackson “Bobby” Vlught was the winner of the first race with a time of 44:10. Since then, Zazzle Bay to Breakers has grown to one of the largest footraces in the world with more than 50,000 participants and close to 100,000 spectators annually. Zazzle Bay to Breakers exemplifies the City’s irrepressible color and its affection for eclectic traditions.
BRING YOUR SHOES, NOT YOUR BOOZE
Last year the Zazzle Bay to Breakers celebrated its centennial with a smashingly successful race, sporting a sold out crowd and markedly more sober participants. Building on last year’s success, we will continue our zero tolerance stance on alcohol and floats.
Neighborhood associations, city officials, police, and race organizers have determined alcohol and floats create a threat to public safety. There will be multiple checkpoints on the race route to remove any floats and alcohol, so remember: Bring your shoes, not your booze. Only registered participants will be allowed on the course.
NEW CHARITY COMPONENT
The Zazzle Bay to Breakers is pleased to announce that they will be enhancing their charity program this year called Run & Give. Thanks to our community’s support of the 100th running of the Zazzle Bay to Breakers the race was a huge success. As a way to demonstrate our appreciation we are going to enhance our charity program in the 2012 race. The program allows participants to run on behalf of a charity or cause they support. The new program offers varying levels of charity partnership including Preferred Charity Partners and Official Charity Partners. This year we are thrilled to welcome back Breathe California and Daraja Academy who will both be participating as Preferred Partners. In addition we are happy to announce first time official participants Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) and CancerCare as Official Partners.
RACECOURSE HIGHLIGHTS
On Sunday, May 20, 2012, 50,000 runners will be propelled into the 101st running of Zazzle Bay to Breakers. At the finish line, back by popular demand all registered runners will receive a commemorative medal.
Along the USA Track and Field certified 12K (7.46 miles) course, Zazzle Bay to Breakers will host entertainment offering a fun and lively atmosphere for participants and spectators alike. At 7 a.m. runners will start at the base of the San Francisco Bay, and progress to the City’s famous Hayes Street Hill. Around the 2.5-mile mark runners climb an 11.15 percent grade between Fillmore and Steiner streets, bringing them to the highest point in the race, approximately 215 feet above sea level. The remainder of the course gradually flows alongside the Panhandle and through Golden Gate Park and ends at the Pacific Ocean.
Zazzle Bay to Breakers will culminate in a festival called the Final Mile celebration located just past the finish line. Many of the festivities from last year’s Footstock festival in Speedway Meadows will now be available for participants to enjoy closer to the finish line. The Final Mile will feature merchandise, product sampling and exciting festivities as a celebration of Zazzle Bay to Breakers’ second century in the Bay Area.
Sponsors of this year’s race include: Zazzle, Adidas, Volkswagen, C2O Coconut Water, Big 5, SitOnIt Seating, and the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero.
Media partners for this year’s race include: KGO 810 – The Bay Area’s News and Information Station, KSFO 560 AM and KRON 4. For more information, visit www.zazzlebaytobreakers.com
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.
“$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?
I haven’t heard word one about the long-promised lawsuit what was going to overturn SFGov and re-install the old tenant as the operator.
“The civil lawsuit begins March 2012 and will expose the truth about all the many laws that Rec & Park broke in order to bring in an out-of-state chain, with no boating experience to take over this historic boating recreation site.”
Hey, it’s time to start organizing your trip to San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers street party on May 20th, 2012. Do you have your costume ready yet?
Here’s just one house on Fell Street, from last year:
Now I’ll tell you, in years past, there were all kinds of controversies regarding this annual tradition. But so far in 2012 I haven’t heard word one in the media about this event. That’s a big green light for you and your friends to come on down this year. The thing that’s changed lately is that you can’t have parade floats to push around anymore. That’s it.
But whatever you do, don’t register. All that does is send money to some hard-core right winger Prop 8 supporting billionaire fitness nut who “bought” this event because he liked participating in it. No, just show up ready to par-TAY.
Oh, and remember, don’t let anybody in some T-shirt push you around. The only people who you need to listen to are in the SFPD, pretty much.
And me – I’ve lived on Fell Street for donkey’s years and I, personally, am inviting you and your cousins and your frat and/or sorority to come on down.
So these new Nx Judah Express Buses are “wrapped,” right? That means that they generally just sit around waiting to function in one direction during the morning drive and the other in the evening.
So, does the Nx Judah Express concept make sense?
Well, sure, you say, cause it gets you from the outer reaches of the West Bay, way out in the Outset, in San Francisco Adjacent, all the way into San Francisco Proper faster than the regular N Judah.
Yeah, but does it make sense?
Why don’t we have a Tx Third Street Express as well? Cause isn’t the newish T-Third line as fucked up as the N-Judah?
Click to expand
And the only reason why MUNI doesn’t charge you Outsetters three or four or five dollars a trip is because the SFMTA tried doing that before and failed in that attempt. But, rest assured, raising the price of express buses is on their list of things to do.
Anyway, consider the Nx Judah Express a kind tangible gift to Supervisor Carmen Chu.
Mira, mira, Carmen! Look what we’re doing for you! Aren’t we the best transit agency in the City and County of San Francisco!
“This one has been on my mind for some time and after checking the route of the 66 Quintara bus. I think it’s time to put it out of commission. It is the shortest bus route beating the old winner the 37 Corbett and runs from 30th and Vicente to 9th and Judah now. If you need to get anywhere along that route there are other buses that can serve the need in a better way.”
I don’t know, when you have like just one member of the public show up at a meeting hosted by Rec and Park, would you call that a successful joint?
This was the scene for last Thursday night’s big PowerPoint presentation. You had people there from the new tenant and the new tenant’s Marin operation and RPD and etc.
And oh, the lawsuit against the City from the old tenant should have some activity soon, maybe something is scheduled for Superior Court in March 2012.
And the latest from the absurdly-named Save Stow Lake Coalition has to do with paint with lead in it, which, Gentle Reader, I’m sitting two yards from right now. And, this is true for you too, G.R. You know, ’cause paint with some amount of lead in it is everywhere. Simply everywhere. (If it turns out that this coalition is some long-running anti-NIMBY performance art project, I won’t be surprised…)
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Enjoy your upcoming rain-free, vernal paddle-boating season, everybody…
*I don’t know, was this meeting posted on the internet anywhere at all? NTMK.
“The Recreation and Park Department and Ortega Family Enterprises are hosting a community meeting to discuss the upcoming renovations of the Stow Lake Boathouse. The work will include creating an indoor seating area so that the building is open to the public for the first time, adding an accessible bathroom, upgrading the building systems as well as upgrading the general condition of the building.
Date: January 26, 2012 Time: 7PM Location: Hall of Flowers (County Fair Building)”
But, am I getting punk’d here? ‘Cause I can’t find any evidence of this meeting online.
Now, I can find the Save Stow Lake insanity* webpage, right here.
And, I can find the Official Twitter for Stow Lake Boathouse LLC, right here.
But, to review, I can’t find any evidence of this meeting online.
Oh hey, look, it’s Ortega Family Enterprises’ Armand Ortega hisself, at the last big Boathouse meeting (the last one that I know of, anyway) at the Hall of Flowers.**
Click to expand
Oh well.
*Uh, Ortega Family Enterprises has “boating experience” now, doesn’t it? You might want to change that. And do you want the City and County poking about buildings in your real estate empire looking for paint with lead in it? I’d bet they’d find some. Oh no! And shrillness-wise, you’re giving us a 9. How about giving us a 3 instead? All right, take two, roll film, action.
**Yes, that’s the actual color of the interior of the Hall of Flowers. I call it indescribable green.
Booooooooooo!
