100th Anniversary Bay to Breakers
We returned to the Bay Area in May 2011. Gauss and I were both signed up to run/walk the Bay to Breakers “foot race”—although it is more like a 12-K clothing-optional parade. This post describes our BART ride into the city with friends from the running club. At 7:10 a.m. The cars are filling with costumed participants, already jolly and a little tipsy. A gangly young man in 1970s retro basketball shorts and a frizzy, multicolored clown wig like mine gives me the high five as we enter the train car. His pseudo-Afro is cinched in the middle with a green terrycloth sweat band to match his Celtics jersey. I sit down with my group of friends: Suzanne in a fuchsia feather boa; Gauss in his Minnesota moose-antler hat; and Sean and Jeff, serious runners in nondescript wicking tees. I watch at the next stop as the car takes on a cow and a milkmaid; a kitty-cat with pointed ears and leopard-print tail; Superman and Wonder Woman. Several of the characters discreetly sip spirits from bottles