Last Sunday I participated in my very first Bay to Breakers. When my friend Jigna told me to participate with her, the first thing I asked her was what costume was she going to wear. When I think of Bay to Breakers I think of the costume first, the race second. Actually, costume first, then drinking, naked people, illegal substances, then the race. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to dress up as, but I knew I had to wear a costume. First I thought of wearing my old pirate costume since its comfortable and looks like its easy to run in. I’m not sure how the idea of becoming the Statue of Liberty came about apart from the fact that I have a sari that matches the color of the monument. I thought it made sense to run across San Francisco in a sari and bindi as the Indian/Canadian version of Lady Liberty. Of course, this idea was shot down by my family. It would be sacrilegious to destroy a sari that way.
I ended up going to my favorite fabric shop and crafts store to buy supplies. They had pieces of foam for 89 cents at Michael’s which were the perfect shade of teal. I bought face paint as well, white and green. I was going to mix the two colors together to create a teal shade. I wanted to paint my entire face and arms, but unfortunately, the day of the race my alarm didn’t go off and I didn’t have time to put it on. I also forgot to wear a teal bindi.
I wanted a place to carry my water bottle, so I decided the perfect place to store water was inside the torch. This was a bad idea, since I ended up carrying the torch pretty up in the air for 95% of the race, and the water bottle inside was full of water. Silver lining: It was a great workout for my right arm?
I found this beautiful sparkly teal color fabric. I wanted to just cut a hole in the middle of the fabric, stick my head through it, tie a string around my waist, and call it a day. My mother had other ideas. I wasn’t going to waste $6/yard fabric like that. After a conference call with my grandmother in Canada, she figured out how to make a stola, which is the roman dress the Statue of Liberty wears.
My mother pulled out her sewing machine and under 4 hours made this – *note* she’s not a professional! And the fabric was very stretchy. If I had bought cotton fabric it wouldn’t have taken her so long to add sleeves, and the draping.
It was a lot of fun wearing this costume, especially hearing the little kids shout out “Statue of Liberty!”. The sunglasses, which I bought from Target, lit up. Unfortunately, they stopped working midway through the race and then after the race began to work again. The color from the bracelets I wore, which were only a dollar, ran into my skin. No bueno.
I enjoyed seeing all the costumes – I wish I had taken more photos. Here’s video of my favorite part of the race – Hayes Street. This is party central, people had speakers out of their houses, people were dancing, and in this video, there’s a dude throwing beads out the window, like New Orleans Mardi Gras minus the flashing. Jigna was able to catch two necklaces for us.
My least favorite part of the race was all the old naked men running around. I wasn’t actively looking for them, but you would end up turning your head one way and you’d see something you could never un-see. Also, since anyone can walk/run the whole course without paying the entry fee, it made me wonder why I had paid for a bib. Anyone who made it to the end of the course got medals. It cost me $70 for a bib, and it looks like that $70 was used to cover all the extra medals that were being handed out.
Since my dress needed to be hemmed, I just walked the whole race route. After attending Levi’s Stadium and seeing how strict they were with security, I didn’t bring a backpack for Bay to Breakers. I did this because the race rules stated you couldn’t bring backpacks, and that they would be thoroughly checked. This is completely false. There are so many people going onto the race course and there is basically no security checking bags. They probably made this rule due to the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon but no one enforces the no backpack rule. I wish I had brought a fanny pack or tiny knapsack so I could have kept my cellphone, costume accessories and other personal belongings in there.
A photo journalist stopped me for a picture – I’m amazed the paper plate crown survived the whole course of the race. I ended up taking apart the crown, and removed one of the paper plates attached to it. First I have the points stapled onto the paper plate. Then I have a layer of foam on the back and the front of that paper plate glued on, instead of having an additional piece of paper plate in between the front layer. I need to punch two holes on the side of the crown, and then add a piece of yarn. This will make it much easier to keep the crown attached to my head since I will be able to tie the crown around the back of my head.
Final cost:
- $33 for 5.5 yards of fabric
- $5.34 for 6 pieces of foam
- $1.99 for thick piece of foam
- $3.00 for USA themed sunglasses
- $2.00 for USA themed jewelry made in China
- Seeing old naked men covered in sparkles … priceless
Seriously through, final cost just for the costume was $45.33. And another $70 for the bib (at least the money went to charity). And another $11.90 for Bart transport. I can go on, but I won’t. The day definitely was priceless and I met some very nice people.
I’m hoping to wear this costume again for Halloween. Or even in Vancouver when I go to the Women’s World Cup. Hopefully the US is in the final.