Ethan Fletcher
Staff Writer
Published on Monday, May 17, 2004
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While most of the 70-some thousand runners of the 93rd annual Bay to Breakers race finished solo, a few went the communal route.
The phenomenon that is the centipede was in full force Sunday. Centipede racers differ from the rest of the pack in that groups of up to 13 tie themselves together and make it, or break it, together. Hundreds of multi-legged teams turned out, and although some took the event very seriously -- it has been the home to the world centipede championships since 1978 -- most of the teams were just there to have a good time.
Frankly, it's hard to take things too seriously when passing such unique Bay to Breakers' moments as a racer dressed in a SpongeBob SquarePants outfit posing for a photo with two men from the multitude of nude "Bare to Breakers" runners.
Some ran for causes, such as the five Run Against Bush centipedes, who trained for the event with their Jogs against Bush every Saturday. Others just ran for the fun of it.
The Asics Aggies, featuring mostly Bay Area runners, has fielded a centipede team since 1978. At the starting line, trail runner Bud Jeter proclaimed for all to hear that the Aggies were clearly the team to beat. Jeter, however, went on to admit that the centipede's plan to hit at least one bar along the way might hurt their chances of victory.
"Actually, the race started last night down here at Gordan Biersch, and if any centipede didn't start right down there last night then they're not a real centipede -- they're disqualified," he said. "The faster we run, the sooner the fun."
The real competition, Jeter claimed, was the race to the first bar at the top of Hayes Hill between the Aggies and their arch-nemesis, the sombrero-toting Chevy's restaurant team from San Diego. While the Aggies reportedly won that race, an ebullient team Chevy's claimed the ultimate victory -- on a dubious technicality -- at the finish line at Ocean Beach.
"Officially we're No. 1 because all the centipedes that came across didn't do a 360, which is in the rules. You're supposed to do one, we did three," said Dee Carey from Chevy's, which has raced as a team for 15 years. "The nice thing is that we're the only one who knows that it's a rule, so it's guaranteed victory."
The actual winners were the Reebok Aggies women taking home their 12th victory in 15 tries in a time of 48:18. Team Auto Desk won the men's race in a time of 39:48.
Trailing the leaders were centipedes such as the Impala racing team featuring females all dressed as Wonder Woman, a five-person group of Station 1 Alameda firefighters who lugged a fire hose the full seven miles and an international contingent of English as a Second Language students.
Atsuyoshi Takatsuki, a 21-year-old from Japan who has been studying at Tom Breckenridge's ELS Language Center in San Francisco for the last two months, gave his own take on the Bay to Breakers.
"I saw many, many men, naked men, and funny costume," Takatsuki said. "So many people."