At the starting line on Halloween night of the journey, we stood in a line that was more than 300 people long. Chris and I had left early having prepared early. We had one small hiking backpack stuffed with additional costumes, water and communication equipment (one iphone, two blackberries). I carried my mini pocket muni bus map. I had thrown together a costume that was meant to transform throughout the night. The fox hat that I got for Chris coupled with my bag of cornstarch. Every few seconds, I would try to make my face more white. Chris was dressed as Stan from South Park, although he looked more like a Russian dancer with his glasses.

I scanned the crowd. Surprisingly, it was very similar to the typical crowd I ran into at other “quirky” events in San Francisco—the flash mobs, the cupcake camps. All of those. And there was more people than I expected.

We saw people dressed in ninjas with spots of glittering jewelry, suggesting that they were also gypsies. I saw a girl dressed as a painting. Ghosts, skeletons. But all in black. And all wearing athletic shoes.

Ta-ching called. He was on the F-line coming from the Mission. I said that we would save him a spot—if he showed up before we got to the front of the line.

After more than 20 minutes, we finally got to the waiver table. There I quickly signed my name—yes, I absolved sf0 of all liability and that I intend to play at my own risk. Then we headed to the next line to get our ribbons and map.