So let’s blame the participants.
Organizers of the unusual 12-kilometer footrace – which includes nude runners, costumed frolickers on makeshift parade floats and, yes, some stumbling drunkards – have decreed a ban on public urination, nudity and alcohol. Good luck with that. Because we’ve been trying to enforce it in the Tenderloin for 40 years. “It’s like abstinence education,” said Stuart Schuffman, who e-mailed to complain. “Instead of trying to find ways to make the event cleaner and safer … they’ve just decided to try to close their eyes and wish the whole problem away. We all know how that ends up: pregnant race enthusiasts.” This isn’t just clueless. It is pathologically dumb. This race has been held since 1912, when it was run to boost the spirits of San Franciscans attempting to rebuild after the 1906 earthquake. It has been wacky, tipsy and (sometimes) naked ever since. This isn’t new. What has changed is the way it is run. Remember, in 1986, when the San Francisco Examiner was in charge, there were 110,000 participants, certifying it as “the world’s largest footrace” by the Guinness Book of World Records. Now it is actually smaller, an estimated 60,000 last year.
“There were never any problems back then,” said Glenn Kramon, who wrote and did TV race commentary from 1979 to 2002. “When I hear this, I wonder what happened.”