Runners, clad in underwear, provide Castro dose of warmth
It wasn’t the idea of running through the Castro in her underwear that made Jill Dicus nervous Sunday morning. It was getting there from home, which necessitated walking 2 miles down Van Ness Avenue and up Market Street wearing a red velour bikini and a matching hood with fur lining against the chill from a cold wind on the 49-degree day.
“I was worried that the day after SantaCon people would think we were part of the morning-after Santa walk of shame,” said Dicus, who was in the company of her husband, Elliott Dicus, himself attired in red sparkly briefs.
By the time they reached Market and Noe, they were warmed by the body heat of 200 people dressed just like them for Santa Skivvies, a near-naked, 1-mile zigzag tour with a long pre-party and a much longer post-party to raise money for the San Francisco AIDS foundation. Santa’s Village had taken over the block, and a band was playing Christmas music. Though this was her first time, Dicus was able to immediately assess the event’s holiday spirit.
“We are exhibitionists,” she said. “Would we be here if we weren’t?”
Santa Skivvies is in its 14th consecutive year and was even run during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, when participants were asked to do it on their own. That was a lot to ask, because one person running through the streets in underwear draws a lot more individual attention than 200 doing it together.
Like Bay to Breakers, they came as teams, in costume. The Gingerbread People, 10 men and one brave “Gingerbread girl,” showed up in green bow ties, and ran weighed down by big, round lollipops and blow-up candy canes. Their co-captain, Tyler Coffee, was the topfinisher last year, though he hesitated to call himself the winner. Santa Skivvies is not that type of race.
“I just went the fastest,” he said. “There is no winner.”
First-timer Megan Kuhnle would have been considered a favorite because she ran cross-country at Gunn High School in Palo Alto and is a marathon runner. In the prerace training, she suffered an avulsion fracture in her right ankle, but she came to run it anyway. “We had a plan, and I had to stick with it,” said Kuhnle, who arrived with old teammate Noah Krigel. She wore Spandex, and he wore a red sport coat with no shirt. “I feel kind of overdressed for the day,” she said, sizing up the competition of runners loosening up to a DJ. “We’re already planning for next year. Something more skimpy.”
Wayne Rach was part of the team American Whore Story: Xmas Edition, which has managed to come up with a fresh theme for 11 consecutive runnings of Santa Skivvies. This year he was the
“I feel kind of overdressed for the day. We’re already planning for next year. Something more skimpy.”
Megan Kuhnle, competitor in Spandex
Grinch, in a see-through green top and bottom, a white faux fur coat and green LED lights from top to bottom. He also had a pullover Grinch mask, which he did not at all mind wearing to disguise his identity.
“The San Francisco AIDS Foundation does so much for the world, not just San Francisco,” said Rach, a podiatrist who used the clinic to be tested recently for monkeypox.
The event annually raises $100,000 and this year topped out at $104,000, said Dr. Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the AIDS Foundation, who stood at the start line, though not in just his skivvies. The entry fee is only $3, but runners are expected to bring in pledges in support of the embarrassment.
“We take the money raised through Santa Skivvies and invest it in our sexual health services in the Castro and harmreduction services in the Tenderloin,” TerMeer said.
David Hirsch, a Santa Skivvies veteran, recruited first-timer Christine Carragee, who warned her mother in North Carolina what she would be doing. Her mother responded by sending out blinking Christmas-light necklaces to be worn by her and Hirsch and Bryan Eckstein. Eckstein then recruited his Rhodesian ridgeback, Ada, to put on antlers and run as a reindeer.
“She’s a little nervous around all the people,” he said of the dog while holding the reins.
Most everybody was nervous at the start. But at least they weren’t cold. Rain was predicted, but the sun made a merciful appearance to warm the scene. Then the gun went off, and they started to move.
One man in a red bra and tight red undies stood behind. He is Nicky Smith, who had come from SantaCon, losing part of his costume along the way.
“I’m down to seethrough top and bottom,” he said, turning around to show the logo on his Santa Claus underpants — “I do it for the HO’s.”
“I just like dressing up. I don’t run,” he said. “I’m here to support them.”
Nine minutes after the runners left, heading north on Noe and West on Beaver, the fastest runners were already back. “The pain was manageable,” said Kuhnle, with the injured ankle. “The Fireball shots helped,” added Krigel, appreciating the refreshments at the aid stations.
That was just the beginning. It was not yet noon, and the post-party was starting at the Lookout, an upstairs bar with a wraparound banister so runners could stand in their skivvies and look out over Market and Noe. They were protected by an overhang as the rain that had held off for the race came down hard and the temperature dropped to 48.
Jill and Elliott Dicus, meanwhile, headed off for a quiet lunch for two, in their underwear.
“I’ll probably have a beer with lunch,” she said. “Reload the carbs.”