Sunday brings the 112th annual ‘running of the drunks’ known as Bay to Breakers. Here are some tips to prepare a solid costume, conceal your booze, and quickly find liquor stores when you’re out way deep in Golden Gate Park. (For those of you who aren't actually treating this as a chance for serious exercise.)
The 112th annual Bay to Breakers this Sunday, May 18 (8 am) is SF’s grandest and most hedonistic annual footrace. The runners’ hilariously inventive costumes for this rowdy 12k crosstown run always steal the show.
But yes, we have dismissively called Bay to Breakers “Straight Pride” in the past, because of its participants’ often drunken and boorish behavior. Though drunken doesn't have to mean boorish! And lots of queer people participate!
We’ve got a slew of recommendations for knowing the checkpoint spots where you’ll need to conceal your alcohol from security or police, how to replenish your booze and smokes when you’re deep in the remote pastoral parts of Golden Gate Park, and generally how to be at your Bay to Breakers best.
TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
If you’re going to get intoxicated at Bay to Breakers, you shouldn't drive! Muni will be running its normal Sunday schedules, and BART will have special Bay to Breakers service with Sunday trains running as early as 6:18 am. There will be a bonus early BART train from the Millbrae line, as well as the Dublin/Pleasanton, El Cerrito del Norte, and Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre lines. You can check all of those early Sunday morning train times on this handy graphic.
COULD I GET MY ALCOHOL CONFISCATED?
Yes, you certainly could, as alcohol is technically not allowed on the race course (despite the gratuitous drinking you will see on that race course). And there are a couple places where there tends to be significant security and law enforcement. The first of these is the gates near the start line, seen above, where backpacks may be checked, and also be aware they do not allow wheeled devices for you to wheel kegs or beers or anything. Basically, you should conceal your alcohol so police and security cannot tell that you have it.
And in recent years, the race has had private security on Hayes Hill near Alamo Square Park, catching people with booze and making them dump it out. The above image shows last year’s security, which was a fairly casual bunch, and yes they let some panhandling gleaners take the bottles and cans to be redeemed. Though in previous years, the security has been more structured, and it may be again this year.
And as we reported in 2022, one security guard “even pulled a couple aside pushing a stroller with a live child in it, in order to grab the bottle of Champagne they had tucked underneath the kid. The nerve!”
Again, you’re advised to simply carry any alcohol in an unmarked container. Or if you can’t do that, perhaps take a detour around Hayes and Steiner streets when you hit Hayes Hill.
There will also likely be gates around all of Alamo Square Park, a park which in the past, many “runners” have just used as a giant open-air toilet. But there will likely be porta-potties usually placed around that park, and hilariously, signs reminding you “No Public Urination.”
But folks, there will still be no shortage of debauchery on Hayes Hill, despite all these efforts.
THE BAY TO BREAKERS LIQUOR STORE MAP
While there are liquor stores right along the race course for the first half of the race, it is exceedingly difficult to find a place to buy more booze in the Panhandle and deep in Golden Gate Park. That why every year since 2008 (when the old Chronicle Matier & Ross column thought SFist was somehow semi-responsible for all of the rowdiness) SFist has provided this handy Bay to Breakers Liquor Store Map that you can pull up right on your Google Maps app, and it will show you where the nearest corner store is.
This year does see the closure of JT Market in the Inner Sunset, but that’s no big deal, because Judah Ninth Avenue Market is still operating at the same corner. And many of you will be sad to hear that the very amusingly named Fulton Street liquor store “AA Market” has since been rebranded to the less-ironic new name SF Stop & Shop.
There will also be fences on Fell Street, hoping to keep you out of the Panhandle and prevent you from peeing in the residents’ bushes. But many enterprising youngsters will use this opportunity to sell you hot dogs, burritos, or other forms of the solid food you might find yourself needing.
SHOULD I REGISTER FOR BAY TO BREAKERS?
You should if you can afford it! (It’s $99 to register, and at this point you would likely have to pick up your bib at the Stonestown Galleria Sports Basement.) After all, the pandemic was financially tough on the race and the marathon industry. Registration wiil get you the very nice t-shirt and finishing medal seen above, plus one complimentary beer at a beer garden near the finish line. Though be advised that beer usually runs out well before noon.
CAN I JUST CRASH AND NOT PAY FOR REGISTRATION?
You can! Gavin Newsom did it back in 2010, but that was back before he had presidential aspirations to worry about.
WILL I HAVE TO DEAL WITH NAKED PEOPLE?
You will certainly see naked people! Whether you deal with them is your own decision.
DO I NEED A COSTUME?
You should wear a costume, if you really want to get the maximum enjoyment out of this event. As our friends above show, it doesn’t take a ton of effort to do bare-bones costumes that amuses and delights.
The weather is expected to be clear skies and temperatures in the mid-50s Sunday morning. So enjoy the annual Bay to Breakers, and be a positive force out there. And absolutely do not pee in public, do not get naked and taunt the bison in Golden Gate Park, and realize that LSD might not be the best drug of choice for this event.
Images: Joe Kukura, SFist
