85000 runners, well, walkers, and some had not even to walk

The annual Bay to Breakers run in San Fransisco - in the end of May every year - is by now a famous event, with participiants from many countries, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and Algeria. They all come here just to run 8 miles through a famous city, in the company of more than 80.000 others. Above all, the race is famous for the "goofy" costumes seen on the runners.

Running fast was the goal of about the first 500

The Bay to Bakers run has been arranged for soon 90 years, the run in 2000 was the 89th run. So there are a lot of traditions that have evoluted during these decades. Since the middle of the eighties a significant part of the runners have left their clothes at home. Many find that amusing, others are shocked. The organiser, San Fransisco Examiner, published several opinions about this aspect of the race in May 2000.

And somebody actually won this race, but who cares?

"My daughter was shocked, when, as the race got under way, a big percentage of the participiants had NO CLOTHES ON. She said one-third of the runners were in this state of nakedness!

The wast majority however was just walking

The first pub was located half a mile from the start, and this pub soon filled up with runners. Not these girls however, of course.

And who was the winner this Year? Well, actually nobody care perhaps, but the winner in the menīs competioneon was actually Reuben Cheruiyot from Kenya, his time was 34.54. The winning woman was Colleen De Reuck from South Africa, with the time 38.42.

No, there is nothing wrong with Your eyes. There are some more or less nude runners here.

"It does not surprise me, because San Fransisco is known for itīs inmoral acts" was one comment published in the San Fransisco Examiner before the race and concerning the few hundreds of runners that had nothing but shoes on them.

Not only human beings took place in this city race. To the left one of the dog participiants, there were many of them. And to the right...

And the police - they look in another direction when naked runners pass by. This is the day and the only day when you can walk through San Fransisco without any clothes on. A police comment published in the Examiner: "The Police department could undertake a plainclothes operation but it would detract from the number of officers involved in traffic management and emergency response to life threatening situations. It would ondoubtedly be regarded as heavy-handed given the enormous logistics needed to manage this event."

Humans, animals, houses, horn players...

Only once the police has arrested a naked runner. The reason was not his running ilman clothes, but the fact that he went out of the race into the surrounding streets in the same costume. He was not fined, however.

85000 runners, and as many spectators along the 8 mile route

How does it feel to run through San Fransisco with little or no clothes on. There are several stories in the Net about this, here you can find Tom Middletons "Bay to Bakers Run Story".

And in the USA, of course a happening like this should also be used for marketing. These red balloons advertised homestead.com

Bay to Bakers, well it could be translated to "Bare-2-Breakers" and that is actually the name of a website devoted to this race and its special character. However, if nudity upsets You, perhaps You should not click en the link above to the Bare-2-Brakers home page.

The official home page of this run is named B2B and is worth a visit.

Participation in a fair competition is more important than winning it!

These pictures were taken on May 20th 2000 - and next year exactly the same kind of pictures can be taken. If You want to look at more photos from the first run in this Millennium, go here.