San Francisco’s legendary Bay to Breakers race is one of the city’s oldest footraces. Started in 1912 as a way to boost morale after the 1906 earthquake, it attracts tens of thousands of runners, joggers and walkers, many in elaborate costumes, from far and wide. The 12K race is also joined by throngs of spectators who enjoy its accompanying events and general festive atmosphere. So while Bay to Breakers is foremost a race, it’s more broadly a city-wide party. Whether this is your first time joining or your tenth time participating, keep reading to learn what to expect at this year’s Bay to Breakers race.
In 1986, Bay to Breakers was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for being what was then the world’s largest foot race, drawing around 110,000 participants. (That record has since been broken.) But the numbers soon dwindled — especially after a crackdown on alcohol, unregistered participants and nudity. Even pre-COVID, the event pulled closer to 50,000 people.
After being canceled during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and replaced with a virtual race, and then canceled again in 2021, Bay to Breakers returned with a much smaller race in 2022. For Bay to Breakers 2023, the event management has changed hands — hopefully they’re ready to reembrace some of the tradition’s weird and quirky roots.
Costumed runners partake in the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco, Calif. on May 15, 2022.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEChanges to Bay to Breakers
After a few particularly raucous events in 2008 and 2009, the city announced it would ban alcohol, nudity and the Bay to Breakers’ famous keg floats — basically, the wagons, shopping carts or any other creative methods used for carrying kegs of beer along the race course. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of pushback; city officials and race organizers tried to compromise, striking a balance between city-wide party and city-wide chaos. (We all want to have fun, but no one wants 50,000 people peeing in their yard, breaking bottles on the street or leaving trash all over the city.)
Eventually, the race did crack down on some of the Bay to Breakers’ rowdier traditions. Police and security have now also been enlisted to help stop participants who are not officially registered. Glass containers and kegs, which were not allowed at last year’s event due to safety and cost concerns, are also still banned along with floats. All this did seem to have the intended effect: In the last large pre-COVID event, in 2019, there was just one arrest.
However, after a brief nudity ban, you are again allowed to run Bay to Breakers naked thanks to an exception made in the city’s anti-nudity law for special events.
Alcohol is not technically allowed while running the race, and at least one of the medical stations on the course and one at the finish line have been designated as “sobering centers” this year — though it’s not clear from emails with the race’s new ownership what exactly these centers offer to participants.
The costumes of these Bay to Breakers walkers seem to honor San Francisco’s proximity to wine-growing regions.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEBay to Breakers 2023
This year’s 2023 Zappos Bay to Breakers will take place on May 21 — the race always takes place the third Sunday in May.
It starts at 8 a.m. at Howard and Main streets, a few blocks from the Embarcadero, and finishes at Ocean Beach. Originally called the Cross City Race, it was renamed Bay to Breakers in 1964 because of the route the event takes: from the Bay to the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
The Bay to Breakers route is 12 kilometers, or 7.46 miles. There’s a steep hill on Hayes Street around the 2.5-mile mark before a gradual downhill into Golden Gate Park — then it’s through the park to the ocean.
This year, the new organizers are offering an option to tack on three kilometers at the finish to run along the Great Highway, making for a total of 15K. The extended version comes with a beer ticket for the post-race beer garden.
Along with awards for top male and female finishers, the Bay to Breakers 2023 race will also give out awards in a non-binary division — after an outcry last year.
It’s rumored that nearly half of the thousands of people in the streets for Bay to Breakers do not actually register. (This is often called “banditing” a race.) But there are definite perks to paying the roughly $70 to support the event: Officially registered athletes get a medal, a t-shirt, a race time and the certainty that no one will try to remove them from the course. Plus, you’ll be supporting the hundreds of port-a-potties, medical personnel and clean-up necessary for this iconic race, which many San Franciscans would like to see continue for another hundred years. Bay to Breakers participants can also purchase event shuttle tickets either back to the start or to BART, or roundtrip from a Park and Ride.
How long does it take to walk or run the 12K Bay to Breakers?
How much time you spend at the race depends on how much you enjoy the, um, festivities. Famously, back when floats were still allowed, many of them failed to make it up and over the hills in the middle of the course. (This is why we can’t have nice things, because people keep abandoning them in random places.) Even in more recent years, many of the participants didn’t actually make it to the finish.
The fastest runners, and we mean very fast professional runners, cover the course in 35 to 45 minutes. (It may be best known as a city-wide party, but yes, Bay to Breakers is also an actual running race that has historically attracted top runners from around the world.) The course record for the men is 33:31 and for the women it’s 38:07.
For the rest of us, if you do in fact plan on finishing, you need to make it to Chain of Lakes Drive in Golden Gate Park by 12:30 p.m. when the course shuts down, and to the finish line by 1 p.m.
Bay to Breakers traditions
Even though its known for getting rowdy, Bay to Breakers is not all about the alcohol: Read on to learn about some of the other, stranger traditions.
Costumes are not required to run in the annual Bay to Breakers race, but the entertaining tradition is definitely not discouraged either.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATECostumes
Probably the best part of Bay to Breakers are the costumes, which range from elaborate recreations of the Golden Gate Bridge to roaming groups of Elizabeth Holmes. Check out photos from past years for inspiration.
Centipedes
Started in 1978, there is now an official centipede division; athletes can win awards, and official time records are kept. But even though this tradition is endorsed, it is still really, really weird. Groups of 13 to 15 runners are tied together with a bungee cord or string; they must finish together. Some Bay to Breakers centipede in group costumes; some local running teams take centipeding very seriously and run the race very fast.
The tradition of running the Bay to Breakers course backwards — called “salmoning” because salmon swim upstream to spawn — often involves dressing as a fish.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEThe Salmon
Salmoning might be Bay to Breakers’ strangest, and one of its most beloved, traditions. Named for salmon who make their way upstream to spawn, a group of walkers and runners (often dressed as fish, of course) make their way upstream on the race course, against the flow of oncoming Bay to Breakers participants. Started by the Cacophony Society in the mid-1990s as an absurdist gag, the loosely organized salmon meet at the top of the hill on Hayes Street, near Alamo Square, to hand out costumes — fins and fish heads stick up above participants heads so other runners can see them coming — and then start walking and jogging in the “wrong” direction. Most stop at bars along the way, but the hardiest salmon who make it all the way to the start line then lay down in a pile to simulate spawning.
Runners take off from the start line in the 2018 Bay to Breakers on Howard Street on May 20, 2018.
Douglas ZimmermanTortillas
While the origin of the pre-race tortilla toss appears lost to history, it’s one of the easier Bay to Breakers traditions to explain, if not understand. Before the race starts, runners throw hundreds of tortillas in the air (and at each other) as they stand around waiting to start the race — kind of like tossing around beach balls at a rock concert. Long a scourge of the clean-up crews, the toss consisted of just a handful of lone tortillas last year, the first live event since COVID. We’ll see if a dedicated breaker brings back the tortillas this year.
This story was edited by Hearst Newspapers Managing Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at [email protected].
