Good Riddance to a Bad Race

Being a sucker for history and tradition (witness my gushing over the Boston Marathon), you would think I would love Bay to Breakers, the annual San Francisco 12k. Talk about history: Bay to Breakers has run for 99 years, the longest consecutive footrace (with no change in course or distance) in the world. It also holds the all-time record for most racers, with 110,000 in 1986.

But despite its storied past, the race has in recent decades become a running embarrassment — a daytime drunkfest for tens of thousands of revelers who parade around naked and urinate/defecate wherever and whenever the mood strikes them (giving plenty of ammo to the scolds who like to denounce runners “flesh-worshipping pagans”).

Now the race’s sponsor, insurance giant ING, has said it is going to stop funding B2B, meaning that there might be no 100th running next year. And as a San Francisco Chronicle editorial put it, “no race might be the best outcome for both Bay to Breakers and the city of San Francisco.” Maybe a year or two off would help the race regain its focus.

As someone who’s a far cry from an elite runner, I have no beef with people who run for fun, or who have fun, at races. But it is a very corrupt sense of “fun” that is utterly detached from basic human decency and respect.

And really, doesn’t the city of St. Francis deserve better?

Speaking of which, it’s still my hope to run in that city’s far more noble race, the San Francisco Marathon, on July 25. I’ve been training, but whether I run actually depends on the logistics of the family calendar. Please say a little prayer that it works out. That would be a pretty amazing way to see a city that has a great deal of both tradition and history, and which just so happens to be named for one of the great saints of all time.

St. Francis, pray for us!