The Big Sur Marathon

This race really should be on everyone's "Must Do" list.    The experience was awesome! 

The weekend started out with a flight to LA to get my sister, Lora.   The flight out was uneventful except for both of my ears hurting by the end of the flight.   The next morning I woke up with a heavy chest and cough.   Lora and I waited for the rush-hour to clear up and then we left by car to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway and the CA-1.   Definately the way to travel, it was relaxing, we had gorgeous views, and we got to drive the race course prior to actually doing the race.  

The next morning I woke up with a sore throat, productive cough, and my ears still hurting.   Per my sister, I sounded like a cross between the Marlboro Man and Patty and Selma Bouvier.   After downing some cold medicine, advil, and tea, I started to feel better and we hit the Expo and the Aquarium.   Later that night we met up with my MIT friends, hit the pre-race pasta dinner, and took time out for a "team picture." 

We called it an early night and by 8pm I was snuggly in bed, as we had a 3:30am wake up call.   

Race morning came very early, my throat, chest, and ears still hurt.   So for the first time ever I tried something new on race day; I downed some mucinex and advil along with my oatmeal breakfast.   We met in the lobby at 4:05am and headed downtown to catch a bus down to the race start.

After an hour ride through the dark, we finally made it to the race start.   Lots of people and long lines for the bathrooms.   We barely had time to stop and pose before the race started!

Our group split up, to find out hopeful pace groups:  Katie (3:45), Mark (?), John x2 & Kathy (4:30), Jen, I and Darla (5:00) and Jon just decided to wait for everyone to "get out of the way."  Lora, meanwhile, was just catching the bus to go out to the relay point at mile 16.5.  The race fortunately started a few minutes late (we were still in the bathroom at the actual race time) but we were still on the road by 7am! 

My initial goal was to start and stay with the 5:00 pacer as long as we could.   This was not going to be a PR race for me and I just wanted to enjoy the experience, take some pictures, and finish with my sister!   Lora and I had originally signed up to do the relay, it is broken into 5 segments, I was to do the first 3 and then join her for the last 2 so we could stay together.   It is very hard to plan when you are going to meet someone, but when I looked at the splits associated with the 5:00 pace group, it looked doable and gave Lora a better idea of when we might be there.    We stayed with the balloons for about the first 2 miles, but by mile 6 we were about 10 minutes ahead of pace!  

No worries though, this just meant we had more time to stop and snap some photos! 

The whole course is hilly, but one of the most daunting hills comes at mile 10 of the course, it is 2 miles long with various grades!   You can barely see it in the distance in this picture. 

The drummers are situated right at the bottom of the hill, it was vey cool to hear them and see them play.   I can't imagine how their arms and backs must feel at the end of their day!

Half way up the hill, we decided to try and reserve some energy so we split this into a 2:1 ratio (run 2 minutes:walk a minute).   I think this was a good strategy, because by the end of the hill I didn't feel so bad!

The end of the 2 mile hill and also the marker of the 12th mile!! 

The next views were some of my favorites, we took alot of pictures and I think we also added about 5-6 minutes to our time!

Half way there!!  Whoo Hoo!! 

After a few miles, our friend Jon, finally caught up with us.   I snapped this next picture as he happened to jog by us.

It was just by pure chance that I also happened to get Jeff Galloway in the picture, I had no idea that was the other guy in the shot until later in the day! 

Around mile 16, I started feeling a little tired and my left knee started to hurt.  Up to this point it had just felt tight, but it was definately pain I started to feel this time.   Darla was looking really good so we told her to go ahead.   Jen opted to stay with me, as she was coming back from an injury herself and her longest training run had been 16 miles!   Darla sped up and was able to keep up with Jeff Galloway's unofficial 5:00 pace group.    Shortly after this, the official 5:00 group passed Jen and I.   We started discussing how nice it would be to do the 6:2 plan that my sister had been using for her training! 

Finally found my sister (only 5 minutes after we had guessed we would be there), exchanged the relay slap bracelet, and continued on with our slow run.   Lora casually mentions that she wants to warm-up with a 20 minute run and then start the 6:2 format.   I think I almost fell over, that was not at all what my body had in mind at that point.   Unfortunately for Lora, Jen was thinking along the same lines as I was and after 5 minutes, asked how long before we could walk again!   Lora was looking forward to "the beer" that was rumored to be at mile 18, so i think she just went with the flow.  

So there was beer at mile 18, but not in the form we had hoped for!   Either way, it was another opportunity to stop for a break and snap a photo!

We ended up doing 2 rounds of the 6:2, but everytime we hit a hill (which was alot) we ended up back to the 2:1 pattern.   I pretty much hit a wall from mile 20 to 26.2.    My mind said "you can do more!"  but my body could not.   Between my left knee hurting with every step, my quads complaining on the downhill, and the cold/cough finally catching up with me, it was all I could do to walk.  

There were lots more photo-ops but we didn't really stop until we saw this sign, just wanting to be done at this point.   But there is always hope - less than a 5k less!!  We can do this!  

Our strategy from this point on was just to run/jog what we could.   It's flat here, let's see if we can jog to that cone.   Feeling okay?  How about the bridge?    The reality, I think, was that our walk was probably faster than our jog by this time! 

Finally!   The finish line!!  Jen sprinted ahead and  Lora stayed with me, we did cross together although there are no pictures of it.   They also ran out of relay medals by the time we got done.   It will be at least a month before they get some for us, as the artist has to do them and they are made of  clay.    Jen did get a full marathon one for me though, she gave me hers and then went back and found another!  

So, how did everyone do? 

1) Katie:  3:39 (a PR and a Boston Qualifier)

2) Mark:  >4:30, his knee also hurt and he walked much of the course from mile 8

3) John, John's son John, Kathy, and Darla - 4:55 to 4:57

4) Jennifer: 5:14

5) Team K (Lora and I) 5:14:19

6) Jon:  >5:30

Despite everything that happened this was an excellent race and one that intend on doing again.   The scenery was spectacular, I had a great group of friends, and running with my sister was awesome!   

**A few side notes:   John (father) donated his kidney to his son John.   This race was their 10 year anniversary of that event!   Elder John has completed somewhere in the ballpark or 15 marathons and 5 IM's.   This was his son, John's first marathon!  Katie is a machine.   She normally runs her long runs with the 10 minute pace group with MIT, then she goes out and kills the races!   I wish her well in Boston next year.    Lora is a trooper.   She put in a lot of hard work to run with us and then ended up walking at least half of her race to stay with me.   She also had to wait 3 hours at the relay meeting point for us.   It meant the world to me to finally do a race with her and I am grateful we had this opportunity in such a wonderful place.   I do intend on doing another race with her in the future.   Next time, though, it will be on her terms, her race, her pace! 

My stats since 4/20/10:

4/21:  30 minute easy run

4/22: rest

4/23: rest

4/24:  walked all over Monterey with Jen and my sister (16,000 steps per pedometer)

4/25:  26.2 mile run (5:14:19)

4/26: 30 minute slow walk at Lobos Point Park

4/27:  1 hour walk with Hearst Castle Tour

4/28: 1 hour recovery walk

4/29:  3 and 1/2 mile hike, no timing

4/30:  45 minute walk around airport

5/1: rest