Ever since ING pulled out of their sponsorship of Bay to Breakers last year, there has been much hand-wringing over whether or not the streets of San Francisco will once again flood with runners, floats, booze, naked people, half-naked people, and (of course) urine after this May's 100-year anniversary of the race. Without a title sponsor like ING, our independent-spirited footrace is solely handled by mega-conglomerate AEG Entertainment and it's billionaire owner Philip Anschutz who doesn't seem to like losing money on the race every year. As the Chronicle points out today, all signs seem to indicate this year's race could be the last. Or maybe not, it depends on how everybody behaves this year, really.
You'll probably remember that previous attempts over the past two years to keep runners from poaching the race, drinking in public or dragging floats all over town were met with "mixed results", but the plan to cap this year's race at 50,000 (registered) participants might actually be paying off - at least in terms of actual registration, which the Chronicle is calling "unprecedented". Still, as a spokesperson for the race organizers put it, "If people are interested, they better sign up now... Come dressed in costume, come undressed, just don't come drunk." Which, to us, just sounds like any other boring 12K race that has nudists.