San Francisco's Bay to Breakers is now eight days from its 115th running, with organisers confirming on Saturday that registrations have moved past the 30,000-runner mark and that walk-up entries for the 12K and 15K options remain available. The race, which has been held continuously in some form since 1912, sets off from the Embarcadero on Sunday, 17 May, with the first wave away at 8am and the last wave clearing the start at 8.45am.
The course climbs out of the Embarcadero through the Financial District before turning west into Hayes Valley and tackling the city's most famous urban climb, Hayes Street Hill, between miles two and three. From there it follows the Panhandle into Golden Gate Park and out the western flank of the city to the new finish festival on the Great Highway, where this year's race will end on the bluffs above Ocean Beach. The shift to a Great Highway finish, originally trialled in 2024, has now been confirmed as the race's permanent home.
Bay to Breakers has historically blended a competitive front-end field with a long civic costume parade behind it, and the 2026 edition will be no different. The 15K Breakers Bonus, an extension that loops runners along the coast through Lands End before joining the main course, has 4,000 takers this year and is again being used by local clubs as a Hayward Field qualifier for the late-summer USATF road circuits. Centipede teams - the multi-runner tethered teams that are unique to Bay to Breakers - return with more than 80 entries, and the costume contest at the finish festival has $5,000 in prizes on offer.
The finish festival itself runs from 8am to 1pm and includes live music, food stalls and the long-standing Beer Garden, where bib-holders can claim a complimentary Michelob ULTRA or ULTRA Zero. Roadway closures will affect most of the run corridor through the morning, and Muni has announced rerouting of the N Judah, 5 Fulton and 38 Geary lines until early afternoon, with full service expected to resume by 2pm.
For the elite men's and women's fields, the focus will be on the 12K record. The men's mark of 33:31, set by Sammy Kitwara in 2009, has stood for nearly two decades, and the women's record of 38:07 by Lineth Chepkurui from the same era has proven equally durable. With prize money topping $30,000 for the open winners and a strong East African contingent recruited for the front of the race, organisers say a record assault is at least within reach if conditions on the day are kind.