Photos: Bay to Breakers 2025 Fills SF Streets With Much Whimsy, Terrific Costumes, Quite a Few Keg-Stands

There were a great many popes and many alcohol-related costumes at Sunday’s 112th running of the booze-bags known as Bay to Breakers, but a renegade, SF-themed pop-up restaurant called “Full House of Prime Rib” stole the show.

It was all sunshine and no fog as Bay to Breakers descended on San Francisco Sunday, though many costumed runners at the annual footrace drank and partied themselves into a fog. And given recent events, this year’s seemingly most popular costume was various iterations of the new Chicago-born pope.

There were deep-dish pizza popes, Blues Brothers popes, and White Sox popes, and popes celebrating all manner of Chicago-themed waggishness. And let’s just say the “blood of Christ” was flowing.

There was even one dead pope holding a sign that said, “JD Vance Did It.”

We have not seen official attendance totals, but the Chronicle reports that 16,700 registered runners crossed the finish line. Though the Chron also says that “organizers expected at least 20,000,” which sounds about right, as the weather was ideal.

Should you care, KGO informs us of the winners: Oscar Medina in the men's category (with a 37:07:82 time), Julia Vasquez-Giguere in the women’s category (42:26:69), and for the fourth year in a row, Cal Calamia in the non-binary category (43:20:76).

But you are probably more interested in the party pictures, and the costumes and creativity at work Sunday did not disappoint.

As usual, the Panhandle was fenced off in the morning, as were the homes on Fell Street, to keep the madness off of residents’ front steps. This has led to many enterprising youngsters establishing hot dog stands inside those gates to feed the drunkard passersby. But this year, a few of those kids really elevated their game.

Sunday’s single greatest creative achievement may have been “Full House of Prime Rib,” an actual functioning food stand and steak-carving station where your prime rib was prepared by two grown men in Olsen Twins costumes.

“Prime rib sandwiches, everything Full House,” teen participant Phoebe Crable told SFist. “Mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, creamed corn, and horseradish, on a popover roll.”

The maestro in charge of this was a local chef named Dalton Thomas, seen here with the prime rib sandwiches being sold. “It’s the Full House of Prime Rib experience to go,” Thomas explained. “We have overnight-roasted prime rib. We’ll toss your salad tableside for only $5.”

There seemed to be even more beer bongs and keg stands on Hayes Hill than in previous years. We had to format the photo of this image differently, as only portrait mode can capture the heights of this beer bong experience.

And you can guess why this fellow’s feet are up in the air?

Others were, ummm, even more creative in the beer bong hardware.

But once again, private security guards were confiscating people’s booze on Hayes Hill near Alamo Square Park. This stash of confiscated alcohol just grew and grew all morning.

We’re not sure if the tried-and-true “No Public Urination” signs actually prevented any public urination, but there were more than adequate porta-potties along the race course to prevent such behavior. And really, is there any other event that needs signs like this?

Two jokers brought their very popular Statler & Waldorf puppet rig to Hayes Hill, spewing insults at all the runners who passed.

“If you haven't had a shower today, here’s a car wash,” one Fell Street DJ announced to the crowd.

The full 7.5-mile race course was jammed with inspired costumes, including these tasty iterations on Costco hot dog signage.

And we have to go into video mode to capture the magic of this guy with the mobile karaoke machine.

We have seen no reports of arrests or trouble-making, but this year’s Bay to Breakers did suffer one significant embarrassment. As SFGate reports, some registered runners did not get their finishing medals, which were supposed to be included with the $99 entrance fee. And organizers say this is because a bunch of unregistered runners somehow managed to swipe a bunch of them.

“Although we work hard to prohibit it, there were a significant number of unregistered runners which led to a run on medals,” race spokesperson David Perry told SFGate “This is a good time to discourage non-registered participants.”

So wait, they handed the medals out to people who clearly had no registration bib? That sounds like a problem of the organizers’ (or volunteers’) own making.

Regardless, it was a magnificent Sunday for pretty much all involved. You can enjoy more of the runners’ outstanding frivolity in the images below, whether these runners were registered or not.