Big Sur Int'l Marathon Race Report
Robert Wong
Big Sur Int'l Marathon
The Big Sur Int'l Marathon is a tough course with hilly challenges, but the majestic raw beauty of the surroundings is so engaging that you are inspired to keep running hard. The course is set along the highway from Big Sur to Carmel and they shut down most of the road for the runners. While there is little fan support in a natural park, the scenic views make up for it and some well placed entertainment creates an epic marathon experience.
The Plan
Initially I wanted to run near a PR pace. I had trained on long hard climbs (Huddart Park, Redwood Regional Park, Cemetery Hill, Stanford Dish) and thought that if I could manage the long climb from mile 10-12, I could push to finish strong the rest of the way. But I stayed at mile 22 and from driving to the finish I knew that the rolling hills would be a struggle for the most of the race. I also wanted to save a little for Mountains2Beach. And time to take pictures. So I decided that I would go for a more conservative pace and push when I felt comfortable.
Pre-Race
General
registration was sold-out in the first hour for this year so I had to
buy a Runner's World Challenge entry. This provided a few useful perks:
-
Shakeout run led by Bart Yasso: We ran a 3 mile out and back along the
beach sand in Monterey and I spent most of the time hearing his stories
about Big Sur and Boston. He noted that the course is not so slow as
there are 14 miles of downhills, which I noted that it also meant that
there are 12 miles of uphills. The forecast was for rain during the race and you can see the
clouds in the background, but Bart said that he's been here 26 or the 29
years of the race and it never rains on the marathon.
-
Comfy buses and heated tents: We had to get up at 3am to get ready to
drive north to catch a 4:15am bus to travel south. But we were on
comfortable coach buses instead of the school buses and left a
little later. We almost ran over
Dean Karnazes as he was running the 26.2 miles in the dark to get to
the start of the race and run back. It was nice having a heated tent area with chairs, food, drinks, and plenty of porta-potties. The weather ended up looking perfect with little or no rain so Bart was right.
Will get around to buying the proof for $24, yikes!
The Race
I started with the 3:35 pace group. The first mile was downhill and I realized how much pounding was in store for the race. I stayed around the pace group but wandered a bit to balance the effort level for the first 6 miles as we went through mostly a forested area. There was some fan support in the Big Sur Station area. After mile 6, we cleared the forest, the runner's started to thin out, and the scenery became spectacular.
I started to lock into the pace group.
Around mile 8, our pace leader let someone in our group hold on to the pace flag. On mile 9, I got to run with it. It gave a big boost and it did not feel hard holding it.
But as we approached Hurricane Point on mile 10, I decided that it was best to give it back to our pace group leader to set the pace for the 2-mile climb.
As we approached there were Taiko drums beating and setting the tone for our march upwards.
And then we climbed. And climbed.
When we finally hit the top and descended it felt like the huge burden was lifted. After the downhlll were treated to the sight of the Bixby Bridge.
And after crossing it, we
heard the grand piano. I couldn't wait for it. I though it would be
more spectacular, but there were a lot of people around it, I couldn't
get a great picture with it. And after a few tries caught backup with
my pace group.
13.1 Split: 1:47:51
The
worse was not over as we continued to hit more rolling hills. I
thought I would take off earlier, but everytime I felt like pushing
forward a hard hill seemed to ask me if "Am I feeling lucky?" (quote
from a movie "Dirty Harry" with Clint Eastwood, former mayor of Carmel) and backed off. I
passed my hotel on mile 22 and fortunately it was on a downhill and I
resisted the temptation to stop and have a beer at the pool overlooking
the race. So I just enjoyed the company of our pace group until mile 24
where we had ... strawberries! I was looking forward to them the
entire race (I was hoping for them to be at mile 20). I knocked over an entire bowl
of them and really ended up only having one, but it was delicious.
After mile 24 there was one hill left I finally made my push. One of
the women went ahead, I followed and passed her, but she fought hard on
the last hill climb before the finish and cruised passed me, but I still made up some time to negative split.
Finish Time: 3:33:39 (wished that I ran 6 seconds faster)
Overall: 226/3332 (and wished there was one more runner)
Age-Gender: 14/218
After the Race
I
received a beautiful ceramic medal. Said goodbye to our pace group.
Got a beer. Got another beer. More strawberries. Waiting for my family
to make it through the road closure along the race, I got a gentle massage. The
best part was just laying down on the massage table and being covered
up. When we walked over for lunch, we saw that a running store had a
large kiddie pool with ice water. A big key to recovering from a
marathon is to ice afterwards and this was great as I couldn't make it back down to our hotel due to the road closure. They also brought recovery drinks and
let me use their changing room and it was fun chatting with other
runners in the pool. The Treadmill store in Carmel was so awesome!
Overall,
it was a special race experience. I am happy with my performance and
that I did not push the pace too much. I also did not blow-up and saved some for Mountains2Beach. But the most
important part I was able to enjoy the marathon as much as you can
enjoy running a marathon.
A Simple Poem
I ran today, but did not race
The course called to me
"This is a special place
With majestic sights to see"
I ran today, but did not race
With hard hills to climb
I took a steady, gentle pace
with steps unmeasured in time
I ran today, but did not race
There were only a few crowds
Raw beauty filled the space
With sea, land, and clouds
I ran today, but did not race
With care not to overextend
No worries on time and place
Had enjoyment at the end!
-- Robert
Amanda Knudsen
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David Li
Brian Kessler
Peter Hutchins
Nice work! Looks like a lot of fun! The strawberries sound delicious.
