05/22/2023 Kevin Kirby, DPM
45-Year Anniversary for the Bay to Breakers "Running Centipede"
Coming up this weekend on Sunday, May 21, is the
famous Bay to Breakers Race in San Francisco, began
over a century ago in 1912. With over 100,000
runners being expected for this running race-event,
the Bay to Breakers is considered one of the
world’s largest races. One of the famous parts of
the Bay to Breakers race is the “Centipede”, which
involves stringing 13 runners together, with
antennae on their heads, to run this fun race as an
elongated, segmented creature with 26 feet. For
those interested in the origins of the Bay to
Breakers Centipede, created 45 years ago in the May
1978 Bay to Breakers by members of the UC Davis
Aggie Running Club, here is a short story of how
this world-famous 13-person running animal was
created.
I attended the University of California at Davis
(UCD) from 1975 to 1979 as an Animal Physiology
major, with a keen interest in Exercise Physiology.
I also was a collegiate distance runner for my four
years at UCD. Toward the end of my second season on
the UCD Aggie track team, in May 1977, a number of
my teammates from the UCD Aggie cross-country and
track teams had discussed all the fun and
interesting costumes that runners had worn at the
1977 Bay to Breakers race. A few of us decided that
we should do something new and better for next
year’s race, the 1978 Bay to Breakers.
One day in early spring 1978, toward the end of one
of our 10-mile training runs in the agricultural
area northwest of the UC Davis campus, myself and
two of my running teammates from the UCD cross-
country team thought up the idea of somehow
attaching ourselves together in a string of runners
at the next Bay to Breakers. About a week later, 13
of us from the UCD cross-country team gathered
together at Hickey Gym at UCD, laid down a 50' x 6'
roll of black polyethylene sheeting on the floor
and cut one large "head- hole" and two "smaller
arm-holes" into the black plastic sheeting for each
runner on the floor of Hickey Gym. One of my
teammates had also brought along a roll of heavy
gauge wire to use as Centipede “antennae" which we
all bent around our heads so we could each have two
antennae sticking out from the top of our heads. We
were all given two 2"-diameter white Styrofoam
balls to use on the ends of our "antennae" to act
as "feelers.
We all loaded ourselves into the Centipede in
Hickey Gym and then took a test run around the
field outside to see if this Centipede idea of ours
was going to work to run together in. Since each of
us were spaced only about 4 feet from each other,
we quickly learned, within a few minutes of our
first run in the Centipede, that if we wanted to
run any faster than a slow jog, then we would need
to stagger ourselves to the side of the runner in
front of us to avoid being tripped by our fellow
Centipedians. A loud call then came out,
“Stagger!”, from a runner within the Centipede. The
Centipede then formed into a zig-zag shape, each of
us running slightly to the right or left of the
runner ahead of us, which easily allowed us to run
a 6-minute mile pace during our first "test run" of
the Centipede.
On the day of May 14, 1978, at the 68th running of
the Bay to Breakers, the world’s first Centipede
was finally unveiled to the public. We quickly
rolled out the Centipede in front of a crowd of
other runners on a side-street close to the
starting line, about 30 minutes before the race. I
clearly remember how other runners and spectators
that were in the area had cheered, laughed and made
jokes about the Centipede once we had all gotten in
our proper positions and donned our antennae and
feelers. These people had no idea what this group
of crazy UCD distance runners were about to do.
They had never seen anything quite like it.
It was not only weird, but also crazy and fun.
After doing a few warm-ups, running in circles, and
checking our antennae and feelers in the Centipede,
we all decided that we weren't going to be able to
run back through the massive crowds to fit behind
the starting line in time for the starting gun. We
made the decision to start the world’s first ever
Centipede from one of the side streets close to the
starting line at the 1978 Bay to Breakers race.
The gun went off and, after about 500 runners had
passed us, all 13 of us in the Centipede flowed
into the race as the very first Bay to Breakers
Centipede.
The call then came up again, “Stagger!” from the
middle of the Centipede. Once we had properly
staggered we were able to get up to about a 6-
minute mile pace and started passing runners. All
the runners we passed said something like, 'What
are you guys?!". We would say, "We’re a Centipede,
of course!" and then pulled ahead of them. Since
we were having too much fun to be running fast, we
decided the Centipede would run against the flow of
the runners, sideways through the pack of runners,
zig-zag through the crowd of runners, and even coil
and uncoil at will. To say we were all having great
fun, was an understatement. We finished the race
intact as the world’s first running centipede, and
a Bay to Breakers tradition had been created.
Now, 45 years after our first UCD Aggie Centipede,
the Centipede is a legendary part of the Bay to
Breakers Race held every May in San Francisco. I
don't believe that any one of us involved in that
first 1978 UCD Aggie Centipede thought, when we
were creating it, that this Centipede idea would be
anything more than a one-time deal of doing
something new and different for the upcoming 1978
Bay to Breakers race, and having some fun along the
way.
Hopefully, for all of you podiatrists who like to
run or jog for exercise, you will someday be able
to run in the Bay to Breakers Race. Believe me,
you will never forget this amazing experience and
be able to smile, laugh and run along with the many
centipedes jogging along Golden Gate Park, knowing
how this running creature with 26 feet was first
created.
Kevin A. Kirby, DPM, Sacramento, CA
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