San Francisco’s Fun Run Is A Rain Or Shine Party
Whenever rain is forecast for a big outdoor event, it’s pretty much always a bummer.
But San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers is a rain or shine party and with rain forecast for the 2019 super-fun run, it reminded me of when one year it not only rained but poured. In my post-event review posted on PubClub.com, I titled it “Soaked In The City,” a play on the words from the popular TV show “Sex In The City.”
This looks back on that rainy day.
Doing Bay To Breakers In The Rain
The year was 2002 and I had convinced a group of four friends from Toronto to meet me in San Francisco to take part in this thing called Bay to Breakers.
Never ones to turn down a good party opportunity, they booked flights and flew to the West Coast.
The first couple of days were gorgeous, and we took in a Giants game and spent a fun Friday afternoon-turned-into-evening at Pier 23. One of my friends scored with a girl he met there, part of a group of good-looking and fun girls who were up from San Diego for B2B.
The evening before the race, we loaded up on our beverages from the Marina Safeway but should have done that in the morning because by the time we arrived the beer section looked like a war zone. Nearly all the beer was gone, with empty boxes tossed into the aisle. We took what we could and iced them down for the night.
In the morning, we woke up to rain. Uggg. But we had come too far not to do Bay to Breakers, so we made our way to the start line – where we stood still while getting rained on waiting for the crowd to move forward. Tho we did have some entertainment with us.
A couple friends from L.A., had joined us and one brought along a lively girl with an ample bosom, who amused us by making bets she could get free drinks from guys if she showed them her breasts. Not only did that work (of course) but we were the first ones to give her drinks!
That kept us from being miserable and just before we started to move, we all looked at each other and said, “well there’s nothing we can do about this rain so let’s just deal with it and party.”
Apparently, that was the attitude of everyone else in Bay to Breakers because they partied, too. Some people just stood in place, arms spread out wide, and let the rain pour down on themselves. Others danced in the puddles in the street.
For our part, we walked as if it was a sunny day. It wasn’t, tho, and B2B was not as much fun as other years, in large part because those in the floats (which were allowed at the time) were in a get-to-the-finish-line frame of mind, there was no beer pong or keg stands taking place in the middle of the street and the dance party in front of the houses entering Golden Gate were sparsely attended by event participants.
But we sill had a lot of fun and my visiting Canadian friends were glad they made the trip.
The biggest bummer was actually afterward, where we settled down to a long lunch in a very dry place rather than continuing to party at Pier 23 until we could pretty much go no longer, which was PubClub’s traditional post-Breakers ritual.
So we got soaked in the City. But we still enjoyed the event and the show that is Bay to Breakers.
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