Like the Googlers, I took part (along with my invaluable support person, my husband, and a couple of friends) in the Bay to Breakers event this weekend. For me, the 12K wasn’t a run. It was an amble — and seeing as I’m 7+ months pregnant, I’m pretty darn proud I finished at that leisurely pace. Feet throbbed, back hurt… but I made it to the end and beyond. (Whose idea was it to put the MUNI shuttles a 1.5 mile walk from the finish line?)
Talk about a cultural experience. I couldn’t help but think that the more countercultural aspects of the event — lots of nudity or partial nudity, plenty of open containers on city streets — would never have flown in New York. I guess it’s still Free Love-ville around here, or at least that aspect of the culture raises its head now and then. It was great, though. Because I was toward the back of the very substantial pack, I got to witness some of the more, shall we say “colorful” elements. I didn’t catch the Google folks, but I did witness some interesting moments.
One of the more “dot-com” experiences occurred when we stumbled past the finish line. A race official stood on a platform with a bullhorn, telling people how to reach the shuttles, the concert, t-shirt pick-up and the like. His spiel on the t-shirts went something like this, “If you registered for the race, you can pick-up your t-shirts at the polo fields, but you’ll need your bib number. If you didn’t register, you can probably get a t-shirt on Craigslist in a couple of days. Heck, they’re probably already available on Craigslist.” How’s that for an endorsement?