The Bay to Breakers race was established in 1912 as the San Francisco Cross City Race, with the intent to lift The City’s spirits after the devastating 1906 earthquake. The race had been run every year since, until the Covid pandemic in 2020 stopped the race in its tracks.

 

After a two-year break, it was brought back in 2022. 
 

Bay to Breakers has a well-deserved reputation for costumes and fun, though it remains a race that draws serious world-class runners. In 1993, USA Track and Field recognized it as the first official 12-kilometer National Championship.

   

The footrace starts near the Embarcadero, goes uphill to 215 feet above sea level with a grade that reaches 11.15 percent at one point, then descends through Golden Gate Park down to Ocean Beach.

  

Sammy Kitwara of Kenya currently holds the race record, finishing the 2009 run in 33:31 while earning himself $40,000.  (ck?)

    

In 2010, Lineth Chepkurui of Kenya crossed the finish line at 38:07, setting the Bay to Breakers and world 12K distance records for women. She was also the fastest woman at the 2009 race and went on to win that title for a third straight year in 2011. 
    

Kenyan runners often dominate the Bay to Breakers race.

       

The youngest winner was 10-year-old Maryetta Boitano in 1974, when she not only got first place among the female runners but also set the womens' record up to that time at 43:22. She took womens' first place again in both 1975 and 1976. She made her debut run at just 5 years old.  

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Bay to Breakers began relatively small and during the first few decades it was held on New Year’s Day. The 1912 race had slightly less than 200 participants and the winner was Robert Jackson Vlught, coming in at 44:10. 

     

The first woman to participate was Bobbie Burke, who ran disguised as a man in 1940.

       
It was the first year anyone came in costume, though she was not alone; a man dressed as the pirate Captain Kidd and he came in dead last.

   

It was moved to the month of May in 1949, saw attendance drop to a low of only 25 runners in 1963 and was rebranded as Bay to Breakers the next year. 

       

Participation appears to have peaked in 1986 when it made the Guinness World Book of Records as the world’s largest footrace up to that time with 78,769 registered runners and an estimated total participation of 110,000 people.