Bay to Breakers : World-Class Runners Join the Oddballs

Favorites Arturio Barrios and Ingrid Kristiansen will join runners dressed as lobsters, a giant credit card and the Golden Gate Bridge today at the 78th Bay to Breakers, the world’s largest footrace.

More than 90,000 people have registered for the race, a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) run across the city from downtown to Ocean Beach.

World-class runners will compete for new BMWs and round-trip air tickets to Ireland, to be awarded to the first men’s and women’s finisher.

Leading the pack for the men are expected to be Barrios of Mexico, the defending champion and solid favorite; Ibrahim Hussein, the two-time winner who also has won the New York City, Boston and Honolulu marathons; and Mark Curp, the U.S. half-marathon record holder. Ed Eyestone, Paul Cummings, Bruce Bickford and Rolando Vera of Ecuador also are among the contenders.

Kristiansen, who has set world-best times for women at 10 kilometers and in the marathon, is expected to give defending champion Lisa Martin of Australia a strong run for the women’s title. Martin, who lives in Phoenix, won the silver medal in the Olympic marathon last fall.

Joan Benoit Samuelson, the 1985 Breakers champion and the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the marathon, is entered but remains hampered by various injuries. Other top women include Nancy Ditz, U.S. Olympic marathoner and last year’s top California finisher who is seven months pregnant; Caroline Schuwalow of Australia, and four-time champion Laurie Binder, the favorite in the women’s masters (over-40) division.

Random drug testing for top finishers is being instituted at the race for the first time this year.

The course starts near the foot of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, proceeds south to imposing Hayes Street Hill, passes some of the city’s noted Victorian houses and goes the length of Golden Gate Park before finishing on the Great Highway next to the Pacific Ocean.

While the race is a major event for top runners, it is dominated by joggers and walkers whose goal is to finish. The last entrants don’t cross the starting line until half an hour after the race begins.

“You see 300-pound women and people pushing strollers in the race, so if I can’t do it there’s no hope for me,” said Carol Maurer, a 26-year-old management consultant in San Francisco.

Among the entrants in the 13-person centipede division, sort of moving floats in which participants must be attached to one another, is at least one consisting entirely of members of the Super Bowl champion 49ers.

“It brings the entire city together,” said running back Roger Craig.

His teammates won’t all find the race as easy as Craig. Tackle Bubba Paris, who weighs over 300 pounds, will get a full day’s workout just climbing Hayes Hill.