Bay to Breakers

I ran my first Bay to Breakers in 1984 a few weeks after I quit smoking, running helped me stay quit. I vowed to run every year in costume. I came back dressed in flowers in 1985, a hulaman from 1986-1990. The rest is history. Here's a list of my costumes until I moved from SF and decided not to travel every year to do the race. I will return and run it again someday. See the slideshow for lots of costumes including "The Run to The Farside". And 20 years later I still don't smoke!

1985 The Lei-Man I ran my first Bay to Breakers in 1984 after I quit smoking. Having seen all the craziness I vowed to come back. I covered myself with real leis I learned to make after a visit to Hawaii. I was inspired to run my second B2B in leis.

1986 - '87 - '88 -'89 - '90 as hulaman For five years I ran as the hulaman. I made my own leis each year. As the race got larger (and I got slower) I had to think of a more effective method of getting noticed in the enormous crowd of runners.

1991 The Dual-a-Hulas Costume Contest 4th place! I won a trip to Las Vegas and got lots of TV coverage.I wanted to stand above the rest and get noticed. While I was making her I learned about the Southwest Airlines Costume Contest and that fueled the fire.

1992 The Port-o-Pottie 5th place prize in the Southwest Airlines Costume Contest! This is my personal favorite. People could be heard saying,"hurry up in there". My response was, "I'm going as fast as I can!" as I ran away with toilet paper stuck on my shoe. I won a trip to New Orleans.

1993 The One Man Hula-pede I connected thirteen party-dolls with hula-skirts, water bottles and cigars. But did the judges think the party-dolls were some kind of sick sex joke? Or did I just lose too much air out of some dolls? Oh well, I'll just have to come back next year.

1994 The Hubble Repairman The Loneliest Repairman in the entire Solar System 1st Place in Costume Contest! I had a 20' by 5' helium satellite that blew up before I could get to the judges. Luckily I had an ace in the blackhole and won 1st place without it. My second trip to New Orleans was a blast!

1995 Plantar Fasciitus a.k.a. The Centerpiece Runner You really have to be a runner to get this subtle play on words. I always wanted to run as a huge bouquet of flowers 10 feet tall, the name came afterwards.

1996 The Phantom of the Operator 1st Place, Whoo-hoo! One of the best yet for me to date. I made a full size London Phone Booth complete with ringing telephone. I was the singing Phantom inside. It weighed 35 pounds and I vowed never to run a marathon in it. I won so it was worth the work.

1997 The Lone Saguaro Since I moved to Tucson I wanted to go as a huge Saguaro cactus. The tricky part was making it so I could ship it with me. I've worn it in Tucson several times. I tried to do a play on words with a costume in a costume.

1998 The Leaning Tower of Pizza 3rd Place! Mama, next-a time we go with da thin crust, da thick crust, she's a too heavy...I was able to win the trip to Reno by placing third.

1999 The Painted Ladies Here come the painted ladies [Prostitutes/Victorian Houses] and there goes the neighborhood! This is the only time I've dressed in full drag let alone pull two houses behind me.

2000 Inspector Gadget I won 3rd Place and a wonderful trip to San Diego. The gadget inventor and craftsman in me really came out. Sea World was fantastic! Go GO Gadget!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

2001 The "Chad" Family from Florida (Hanging-Dimpled-Pregnant) My partner Perry, her sister Bonnie and I got lots of laughs as the Chad Family from Florida, we almost won! It was an incredibly close vote!

2002 Gandalf the Grey Grey was certainly the color of the day since it rained. I had to tread slowly due to my stilts and the wet pavement. The judges left early due to the rain and didn't see me. Can't the judges use umbrellas? Oh well! This will be my last costume for a while. I decided to retire my B2B efforts since traveling from Tucson with large costumes is difficult.