Big Sur International Marathon - Experiences

[Sandeep Gandhi]

Team,

Few of us ran the Big Sur marathon yesterday. Some of us ran 21 miles and some less. Below are my experiences from the run:

1. The event was very well organized. Instructions & guidelines were very helpful. We could quickly get our bibs and bus boarding instructions.

2. At the start, the atmosphere was electric. I was glad to see so many enthusiastic runners from different parts of US & world participating in the race.

About the run:

1. Fortunately, the weather was very pleasant. Did not check the exact temperature. But may be around 50.

2. Once we started the race by getting on Highway 1, we could feel the wind. It was chilly but manageable. Running in Coyote Hills in winter during the practice was very helpful. Weather conditions were similar.

3. The direction of running was against the wind. But again, since we had experienced similar situation during Coyote Hills practice, it was manageable.

4. As expected, we encountered lots of hills during this race including the much talked about Hurricane Point. Fortunately, the elevation run turned out to be easier than expected. The Telegraph Hill training in Coyote was of immense help. I personally felt that the Telegraph Hill elevation run (twice as we used to do) was more difficult that the Big Sur hills.

5. Now comes the tough (improvement) part - distance & speed

I ran first 8 miles @ 10 min/mile and the next 8 miles @ 12 min/mile. So I finished 16 miles in little under 3 hours. But then for next 3 miles, I could barely run. I was exhausted. Even though I walked briskly, it took 15-16 min/mile. I could finally gather momentum and ran last 2 miles @ 12 min/mile.

Take Away:

Endurance, Endurance, Endurance

1. It is very important to build endurance for such long distance running. I had ran max 18 miles in practice out of which I walked 7.5 miles due to left knee injury. We need to run longer distances during practice. May be even longer than the race distances e.g. for 21 miles race, we may want to run 23-24 miles during practice.

2. Stretching & strengthening. We talk about it every time during practice. And we need to continue to talk about it again & again. Let us give more & more priority to stretching & strengthening. It is much needed to increase our endurance. Experts can suggest improvements in our stretching/strengthening, if required.

3. Food habits - I am not sure what are the right food habits. But I am convinced that good food habits will increase the endurance.

Observation:
1. The marathon winner in men clocked 2 hours 35 minutes

2. There were quite a few men & women in 50+ age category, who finished full marathon under 4/4.5 hours

Again - Congratulations to all the runners for a great finish!!

Ready to resume my weekly runs from tomorrow. No hibernation period. No break.

Cheers,

Sandeep

On Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 9:09 PM, SL Narayan <lnar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Few of us did the San Francisco Half Marathon today. I am sharing the experience in case it is useful to anyone else planning to do this run in 2017.

Firstly, if you are interested, they have a good price of $50 for the 2017 run which is expiring soon - check link. Since the race is an year away, if you are registering, you may want to take insurance, if they provide one.

Many in the group have done San Jose Rock and Roll. Compared to the San Jose run, the San Francisco run is:

• very scenic since you will be running on the Golden Gate bridge
• a little challenging since it has about 3-4 miles of incline but not too difficult
• need to train in the winter for this run
• logistics of getting to the starting point needs to be planned well since it is in the downtown

Since San Francisco is so close to where we live, we may take it for granted but for anyone who likes to run, this is worth checking it out.

Happy Running :)

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