Big Sur International Marathon

I just got back from doing Big Sur International Marathon with a few of my "best-y" triathlon and running friends. What a great race!

It was everything it was hyped to be: breathtakingly beautiful and extremely challenging. I didn't really feel ready for it when I left Kansas City last Friday morning. My longest run had only been 17 miles and it hadn't gone that well. I knew I would be falling back on my triathlon training and my marathon experience. When we picked up the race information guide at the Expo, it promised to be a long day.


When race day finally dawned, I started feeling a bit excited and ready to go. We bussed to the start line, leaving our hotel at 4:15 a.m. It was a long ride. At one point we caught a glimpse of the long line of busses snaking out behind us and we understood why we had to leave so early.


The weather couldn't have been predicted to be more perfect: 60's, clear and sunny. My long-time running buddy and friend, Julie,  took off together, clicking off the first five miles at a great pace. As promised, those were the easiest miles of the race. Around six miles, we made our first major ascent and experienced the first of famous headwinds. The weather changed abruptly to foggy and gray.


Julie and I found three Brits ahead and tucked in behind them, listening to one good-naturedly berating his mates about choosing a "lovely, warm race in California" to do. At that moment, lovely was a apt adjective; warm was absolutely not. After going a short ways, the guys noticed us running behind them and teased us about drafting off them. I told them that they had such great butts that we just couldn't pull away. They let us stay behind them. :-)  And, their asses weren't half bad.

Julie and I pose with the pianist by Bixby Bridge.

The coolest part of the race was coming up on the Bixby Bridge at the halfway point. It is the iconic bridge that represents Big Sur to me. The legendary grand piano is parked there attached to loud speakers that allowed us to hear the music long before we got to the bridge.


At mile 15, I lost Julie due to a miscommunication at a portapotty stop. I spent some time trying to find her, but finally had to accept that we had missed each other somehow and took off. At this point, I pushed to the finish line. Around mile 20, I was thrilled to see that based on my Garmin, I was on track to run a 4:10, much better than I expected on this course. Woo hoo! Much to my chagrin, the official posted time was 4:22. What?? How could it have been so far off? Then, I realized that I had my watch set to auto pause when I stopped. Ha! Twelve minutes of photo opportunities and potty breaks.

This race was everything I expected it to be! It is definitely up among my top 10 favorites.