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Bay to Breakers, May 16, 2004
It is the only day when people can openly drink beer on the streets in San Francisco. People turned out in thousands, ran, walked, paraded down the hilly streets, lush parks, starting at the sparkling bay shadowed by financial districts'high rises, ending at the expansive Pacific Ocean. Among the thousands that covered the seven miles on foot was Gui's hubby! It was his second year participating in the race, bravo to Matthew!

01_band 02_JimBoTroutAndTheFishpeop Fell Street was part of the race route before it entered Golden Gate Park. At 8:30am, after Matthew has reported his approaching to the hill at Laguna, Gui and I walked down the street to greet Matthew. At our street corner we even had a band! They sang happy country tones. Their name was Jimbo Trout and the Fishpeople.
The early morning sunlight was gorgeous. These front runners seemed so relaxed and composed. It was hard to believe they had just ran 3.5 miles, and climbed one of the nastiest hills in SF! Most of them were serious runners, but we did see some interesting customs as well. Quite some people were running while pushing a stroller, and almost all the kids were sound asleep.
03_frontRunners 04_wonderWomen 05_stroller Here comes Matthew! 06_matthew
07_indians 08_figleaves 09_tigerwoman 10_ballonMan 11_windmill
Gui and I then drove to 35th' polo field to pick Matthew up. The early runners reached the ocean and doubled back to the park for some refreshments. What a beautiful day! The sunlight was golden and crispy like freshly made popcorn, and the smell of eucalyptus perfumed the air. The time it took us to drive over and found parking was the same amount it took for the runners to reach the polo field. We ended up seeing the same group of people all over again. 12_endOfRace_poloField 13_polofield
Going back to Haight Ashbury for brunch, we realized the race was still in full steam. The serious runners had been replaced by the serious drinkers, the race had turned into a parade. The colorful crowd streaming down the street reminded me Holloween night on Castro...
14_walker 15_cheer 16_gropenator 17_waterGunGirl 18_beerDrinkers
19_angelMissGuided 20_grassSkirts 21_carryingABar 22_beerKagInDisguise 23_colorfulbunch
24_sunGod 25_droopyHat 26_drinkingBeerUpsidedown
Of course, no Bay to Breakers race shall be complete without its nudes. A couple of nude spotting into the race, Gui noticed that they all seemed to be wearing neon green baseball hats. From then on we could spot them mile away and got our camera ready. ha!    
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