Bay to Breakers 2005
From www.ChopStork.com
The results are in...and we didn't win. I'm not sure we even finished, but we are all winners.
Contents |
Pictures
- We don't know these people, but their pictures are entertaining
The Plan
This Sunday, May 15th, 2005
Lets get some carts, some drinks, some fun clothing, and have a good time. The race starts at 8am at the Embarcadero, but we may pick it up a bit later at the park. We should park a couple cars at the finish line the night before. The default theme is Hawaiian, but let me know if you have something better in mind. You’re all welcome to meet at my place before the race, and help decorate the carts the night before. Let me know if you’re in, and pass this on to anyone interested.
Luke 11:29, 13 May 2005 (PDT)
The Theme
We’re sticking with the Hawaiian theme, but we’d like to show up with more than tropical shirts, straw hats, and flowers. So we have deftly procured three shopping carts that we intend to turn into mini floats. At least one cart will become an active drink volcano and another a palm tree. The third is still open. Work begins on the carts tonight and will proceed through Saturday. Everyone is welcome to drop by my place any time and help out. Specifically, we’d like to find someone with mad papier-mâché skills or a pump for drinks. All ideas are welcome.
Design by AJ
Luke 16:02, 14 May 2005 (PDT)
The Meeting Place
We’re joining the "race" near Howard and 3rd St at 8:30am. Everyone is welcome to meet at my (Luke's) place that morning or crash there the night before. We’re leaving no later than 8am to catch a bus and/or BART into the city. See the bus schedule.
Luke 16:02, 14 May 2005 (PDT)
Building us a Volcano
It's 2 am Saturday morning. Luke, Courtney, and I just finished some hard core paper macheing. Laura and Old Man helped with the paper shredding and supplies too. We all agree the volcano turned out damn nice. At least for now. Who knows what it will look like in the morning. None of us have paper mache experience. We spent three hours after work getting supplies. Do we use glue and water? Flour and water? Plaster of paris? How does flour make stuff stick? After some debate we went with the plaster. Courtney's mom confirmed it should work. If you ever decide to paper mache a gigantic volcano, realize that you will get gluey crap everywhere.
Got some tubing, buckets, and tiki torches at Home Depot too. We had to scrap the pump plan. Couldn't find a pump. The closest we came was a $20 Roundup sprayer - basically a plastic keg - but we decided it was too small to bother with. So we're going with what's basically a bunch of straws coming out the top of the volcano. Red punch through clear tubing = lava. Which brought up the discussion: are bigger or smaller tubes easier to suck through? We'd started discussing this as a backup plan earlier at work. I said bigger tube is easier. Luke ... and every single other person we talked to ... say smaller tube. This is assuming you don't care how much liquid you get, just that you get it. I still refuse to give in. But I did change my stance to: size doesn't matter. Unless you include frictional effects, and then bigger is better again. We'll sit down and figure it out later. It's like chapter 2 in a basic fluids book; We should know this, but we don't. So in the tubing aisle at Home Depot, Courtney with her water bottle opened the 1/4 inch, 10 ft long tubing and started sucking. "How hard is it to suck it?" we asked. "It's really easy." Uh huh. As Old Man later said when he saw the tubing, "That don't mean us guys can do it!" Don't tell anyone, but I tried too - it is easy.
Assuming the paper mache worked, tomorrow is painting, tubing, and getting other carts ready. So much trouble to go on a 7 mile walk while drinking at 9 o'clock on a Sunday morning.
MrP 02:42, 14 May 2005 (PDT)
Update: On The Bus at 7:55am
We're catching the 19 at 23rd & De Haro at 7:55 Sunday morning, getting off at 7th & Harison, and walking to 3rd & Howard. Here's the bus schedule.
Update: Prep-Party / BBQ / Slumber Party
Help us get ready, and while you're at it eat some grilled food, have some drinks, and sleep over so you can awake a mere two miles from the starting line. Come over anytime.
BYO: Food to grill and drinks.
Luke 16:02, 14 May 2005 (PDT)
Courtney's report
From her friendster blog:
Spring: 1; Me: 0
Ok, so score one for Spring. This temptress of a season kicked my butt this weekend. I wanted to play in the sun - I got a raging sunburn. I wanted to run, childlike, through a park - I got lost and totally separated from my friends. I wanted to wake up to something other than my alarm clock - try waking up to a volcano full of liquor. (Oh ya, 8 am is a GREAT time to start drinking.) I couldn't stand my cubicle (well I still can't) but sitting in a comfy chair all day sure beats the 10 or so miles I walked on Sunday. Ugh - Bay to Breakers was an absolutely OUT OF CONTROLL day. The floats, the costumes, the naked men, the absolute mayhem - did I mention the volcano full of liquor!!?? Craziness. But I think good times were had by all. We decided to go Hawaiian style - complete with giant, paper mache, liquor-dispensing, volcano and tiki torches... yes they were lit, yes I managed to survive the day without catching my hair on fire, but just barely. We started at a quarter to 8 and boarded the 19 bus fully decked out in Hawaiian garb, carrying 2 five gallon buckets of jungle juice that would later become our "Hot Molten Magma". Apparently our fellow bus riders didn't get the Hawaiian theme memo... Quote from Christine - "Hey look, those people are dressed as runners!" :) We then got off the bus and were on our way... Unfortunately, pushing a paper mache volcano down the streets of SF is not quite the speedy endeavor we hoped it would be... the guy from Kenya finished the race before we even got our lazy butts to the start line... Quote from Linden "Well, I came to win, we may as well go home now." :) We convinced him to stay and started the race. It was long, it was grueling, it was a blast !!! The vibe was amazing, everyone was in a great mood, the floats were spectacular, all and all an awesome experience. I've never peed in a parking garage, a park, and a stranger's house without permission (twice) all in one day. My only downfall (except for the mass quantities of Magma I consumed) was playing all day in the sun wearing nothing but a bathing suit and a grass skirt and no sun screen... what WAS I thinking???
My friend, AJ, made up a casualty list... I think it helps shed light on the ridiculousness of it all.
Lost: Red Nalgene. Status: Still missing. Anyone happen to end up with it?
Lost: A.J.'s phone. Status: Returned, but destroyed. How kind of them to get it back to me though.
Lost: Kilauea. Status: Last seen as a pile of newspaper after a crash in the Park. Naked chicken wire in Luke's trunk.
Lost: Palm tree. Status: Deflated by random bite. Left in cart on the Panhandle.
Lost: Three tiki torches Status: Tiki torches are flammable. Grass skirts are not.
Lost: Laura. Status: Ditched while peeing. No phone, no money. Found way back to Dave Zazoni's. Kerylyn made her a sandwich, which was better than Dom's sandwich.
Lost: Courtney. Status: Went all the way to the ocean. The rest of us stopped at mile 5. Walked back to Noe Valley from the Ocean. That is far. Massive sunburns.
Lost: Rachel. Status: Still unknown.
Lost: Luke's car. Status: Drove home without Luke. He was busy chatting with random ladies. He made new friends on the bus.
Lost: Luke's phone. Status: Had it in my pocket the whole time.
Lost: Christine's lunch Status: In the bushes somewhere.
Sigh What a day! I can't believe I have to wait a whole year to do it again. Pictures to follow...
