Race Report: Big Sur Marathon - April 26, 2009

This post could be titled... How the California coastline found out that the Nevada desert kicked my ass and followed suit.

But, as beat up as I am, marathon no. 8 is in the books.

Finish Time: 5:22:47 (honestly, about 20-30 minutes faster than I had planned)

Pre-race

The worst part about this race is that the bus leaves for the start at 3:45 in the morning. I live about an hour and a half away, so I was going to drive in that morning to save money. This meant I got up at 1 am, ate breakfast, and left at 1:45 am. I wanted to be extra early because, as some of you remember, I get motion sickness and I MUST ride in the front of the bus.

Upside I met a lovely lady in her late 50's from Colorado that was out with her husband for their wedding anniversary. She was one of those true runners that has been running for as long as she could remember and has no idea how many marathons or races she has run. Her comment when I said I wouldn't have to worry about ever qualifying for Boston was, "Oh, never say never. If I can do anyone can."

I do know she has done Boston 3 times and the San Juan Solstice 50 miler (13,000 of climb, often at extreme elevations) at least 4 times in under 15 hours. So, yeah, she is a serious bad ass.

Ummm sure, lady, you are just your typical age grouper.

We hung out for the hour and a half before the race started, but oddly she wasn't starting with my pace group. Huh.

Me and Wendy at the start. She was taking it easy today and started with the 3:15 pace group. I was just a wee bit farther back.

By the way, I just peeked at her results. She is 57 and finished in 3:42:13* Correction from previously reported time on the race results page. She was still damn fast and won her age group*

Now, that I have made even you fast people ashamed of yourself, I will tell you about my race and make you feel MUCH better.

The race

The website describes this race as "both the best and worst race of your life."

Meh. I have had worse.

Actually, MUCH worse...

Recently. I might add...

As in 8 freaking days ago!


Anyhoo, back to the story...

Big Sur's reputation is mostly due to the hills on this course. Believe me, there were plenty of them. The race director reports that there are 13 hills in the first 13 miles. One of note is the Hurricane Point climb which is a 2 mile climb with an average 5% grade (increase in elevation of 500 ft. for the 2 miles. That is not super steep, but still no joke.), but there are LOTS of smaller rollers that start to wear on you as the day goes on.

Elevation profile from my Garmin data. I accidentally turned it off for about 2 miles in the beginning, but I got most of the hills.
Total climb: 3250 ft.

The real kick in the ass is the 5 climbs in the last 4 miles of the race. They do not look that impressive here, but a climb with a 100 ft gain for a 1/4 mile (7.5% grade) at mile 25 of a marathon will make you wonder why you hadn't taken up macramé as a hobby instead of running.

The Big Climb

Right before this climb I hear "Are you RBR?" and I turn to meet RoadBunner! I can't believe she was able to recognize me. (Ok, well, I was, once again, wearing the same atalanta shirt I wore at Napa, Solvang, and several long runs, so it has been shown here A LOT. Maybe it is not such a mystery.)

Her bubbly enthusiasm was EXACTLY what I needed to get up that godforsaken hill! She was running for fun and taking lots of pictures. MY kind of marathoner! We headed up the Hurricane Point climb I found out why they call her RoadBunner. As I was huffing and puffing next to her, she hippity hopped up the damn hill like she is on springs.

RoadBunner, hippity skipping along. Sorry it is so blurry. I blame it on the lack of oxygen I was getting trying to keep up with her.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised that I was able to run up most of the Hurricane Point climb, with only a few short walk breaks. I had pushed my pace a little in the first 10 miles because I was worried about the mile 22 cut off (you had to be at mile 22 by 5 hours or you would be pulled from the course) and I thought I may have to walk a lot of this climb.

To add to the difficulty of the climb we faced a consistent 15-20 mph headwind as we climbed (source: The Monterey County Herald and weather.com, lest you think I am making shit up) but, before we knew it we were at the top. The reason it was called Hurricane Point became abundantly clear as the 15-2o mph wind, turned into 25+ mph gusts. Hats were flying. Speaking of hats...

How awesome is her hat?!


I was more than a little concerned about letting this tiny, little gal out there in the wind, but she is tough.

After we reached Hurricane Point I let RoadBunner go on her way. (Really, it was a merciful move on my part. I was the most uninteresting running partner imaginable. I seriously think Ironman training is sapping the very life out of me. It has turned me into a serious bore.)

The Course

The course was just a beautiful as billed and offered both breathtaking views and entertainment by local musicians along the way.

It was a little overcast in the morning, but it burned off to a pretty gorgeous day.


A local harpist and a very patient, albeit fashionable, pooch.


It does not get much more Northern California than this.

We crossed over the famous Bixby Bridge. I love bridges and this one in particular.


Me and Bixby

Their name has "Lucy" in it. I had to take their picture! (FYI: for anyone that does not know my dog's name is Lucy. And yes, I am one of those crazy people that has no children and dresses their dog up in costume on holidays.)


Speaking of dogs... One water stop volunteer was offering water, Gatorade, or PUPPY KISSES! Just try and guess, what I chose. Her name is Baby, by the way, and she has wonderful puppy breath!

The Finish

The road was beating me up pretty good and by mile 23 I was more than ready to be done. My feet, knees, ankles, and hips were killing me, but we weren't done climbing yet. The hills now were more a pain in the ass than sense of accomplishment.

Cool sign put up by the locals who are very supportive of the race.

As I approached mile 25 I saw that we would be heading up another hill, I believe my response was, "that is just fucking wrong." To which two women around me added, "you must be fucking kidding me" and "That is IT. I am NOT climbing anymore goddamn hills."

But we did. We climbed one more goddamn hill.

AS I ran down the last 1/4 mile I saw my mom! Yay! She yelled to my dad that I was coming and he started snapping photos. This is the first race they have ever been to. It was very cool. Afterwards we went to lunch and my dad told me that he was glad he didn't listen to my expected finish time because he would have missed me. I think this was the first time I realized that I was actually that much faster than I expected today. Go me.

A Not-so-shocking Realization

While triathlon makes me feel accomplished and proud because it takes me WAY out of my comfort zone, I really love running and marathons. They make my happy. It was a tough run and I am pretty beat up today, but I had a lot of fun yesterday.

No big announcement. I am still going forward with my Ironman goals. Big goals are not supposed to be easy. Otherwise they are not big goals. It was just something that I was thinking about on my little jog along the coast. I would have NEVER thought I could ever say something like 'running and marathons make me happy'. It is kind of cool.