When I was a kid, my dad and his running group would occassionaly take a vacation together to fly to SF and run the Bay to Breakers (b2b) as a group- or as they called it then, a mini-centipede. It’s a difficult run but its fun when you do the whole thing with friends. There’s nothing like that last little bit when you come out of the park and you get to the beach.
After I moved to SF and got in a bit of shape, I decided to run it too. I’ve only done it three times but each time it was great. But the last time I ran it I went back through the park to meet friends and saw a mess.
Since I was jogging with other joggers, I didn’t know about the throngs of walking drinkers and revelers behind us. I mean, I did, but I didn’t know how big a group they were and how much of a mess there was behind us. BTW, I’m talking about years ago… not last year.
Then about three years ago I remember talking to some youngins who had moved here and were planning on going to the event. To them, they knew it mostly as a drinking party that had “a race at the start” but they didn’t know anyone running it.
One of the times I ran it when I lived in that house with the Afrikaans. They pushed a shopping cart with a keg in it for the event. When all of us were back at the house one of their girlfriends who was in town wondered why I was sober (and why I had jogged the event). I explained it to her.
I thought to myself after both of those times that maybe the race and jogging tradition was in trouble. Not trouble maybe, but I thought it was curious at the time.
Then last year, there was “the big mess”. The event was almost cancelled because of the amount of refuse and complaints of people urinating on houses in the Panhandle. But as people do in SF, they got their shit together finally and had the race. Obviously, I wasn’t in town today, but from the news sites in SF and blogs and twitter I thought it went okay.
But this year for the first time I heard some of those damn millenials talking (and Laura had a similar experience before I did) who had *no idea* there was a fun run. They had never heard of that part of it. They only know of it as a drinking event.
I’m not saying that’s bad .. but I think it’s weird- or at least notable. Although part of me thinks that’s a bit sad.
Maybe I’m being reflective as I’ve been in SF for a while now (just passed my 10 year anniv. there) and I’m dwelling on the passage of time. Or maybe I think it’s odd how SF keeps changing over time.
SF culture is like a dry erase board. New people keep moving in all the time. If it weren’t for KQED showing old documentaries about SF history (and the crappy Chronicle pining for the old days when people read their articles) as a constant reminder of how things were or how SF’s supposed to be I wonder if anyone would notice or care that much. (And maybe KQED and the old SF crew are the odd holdouts and they would look at me as the way I’m looking at the millenials?)
I’m just glad it was nice out in SF today and that those of you who went had fun. Now go back to Dolores Park and groom your sideburns.
What do y’all think about all this?
