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This constitutes a good mail day. #BostonMarathon @bostonmarathon #Boston2BigSur (at Encinitas, California)

The Big ‘Big Sur Marathon’ Post

Seriously, big post incoming. This post is just going to cover the Big Sur part of things, I’ll make another B2B post later.

TL;DR: Big Sur is an amazingly beautiful race, but equally tough. Met awesome people and had a great time.

2 marathons...2 Coasts...6 Days apart

6 hours and 22 minutes combined race time!

So Heading off for Big Sur I was really excited. This was going to be my 10th state and I’ve heard the course was absolutely beautiful. I was pretty bummed the wife wouldn’t be coming, but she had important things to carry on with at home (e.g. School, work, friend’s wedding).

Day 1: OMG this trip is going to be awful

It didn’t take long before I was convinced this trip was going to be a trip to hell and back. Flight delays amassed quickly and I spent the majority of the day in airports/airplanes, but finally arrived at my hotel around 1AM. I passed out with just enough time to get 6 hours of sleep before the expo.

Day 2: Getting better, maybe not the worst trip ever

I already posted about the 1st half of this day (creme brulee breakfast, expo, and run). Second half was basically consuming what was left of California’s water, eating dinner, and trying to get to bed at 7PM.

Day 3: Race Day

Had to get up at 2:40AM to get ready and catch the shuttle at 3:30. The bus ride was an hour, and then it was a 2 hour wait until waves got called up to the starting line (Pro tip: Bring a blanket here. There’s nowhere good to really sit and the ground is cold). During the 2 hour wait I get to talking with a guy who has the same pace/strategy as me so we decide to run together for a bit. We’ll call him HC.

Mile 1-6

HC and I hit cruise control through this wooded part of the course. Tree’s on both sides, little camp areas with scattered people around cheering us on. We wanted to take it easy at least through mile 12 to avoid killing ourselves on the 500ft elevation climb.

Mile 6-10

This is where we broke out towards the coast. I could finally see the ocean from the road and the winds got pretty intense. No spectators from here until much later in the course, but TBH I didn’t care since the view was so amazing. HC and I managed to sync up with another few runners around this time and we eventually amassed a group of 6+ people which also helped the miles go by super fast.

Miles 10-12

The hill. The wind would not let up here, in fact it seemed to correlate in intensity with the incline. I *think* I lost HC around here but we had amassed such a big group I’m not sure when he fell back. There were at least 2-3 B2B runners in the group and we all helped each other push through the hill, making it not seem so dreadful. Then the peak came and it was glorious. I remember thinking how beautiful it was for about 30s until a huge gust of wind almost literally knocked me off my feet.

Miles 13-22

Ah, the downhill. I was positive at this point our group would split up. I figured some of the people would start to push forward in hopes of getting better times, but I was wrong. In fact I think we picked up a runner or two on the way down the hill. Awesome coastlines continued here as well.

Miles 23+

Finally around mile 23 things started to shift. The major hill and all the incremental ones started to set in. One or two from our pack pushed ahead, while most of them fell off. I ended up staying with one other B2B runner (who turns out was the 2nd overall Womens finisher for B2B) and another guy who was running his first marathon. The hills kept coming as the road turned a little inland and at this point any incline was a hurdle to push through. The 3 of us stayed together until around mile 25 where we started to make our own strides.

At the finish line I waited to congratulate a few from our group who had fallen off and ended up talking to one of them for a while and found out he was there with a group of 10 or so runners from NYC. We all hung out at the finish for a while, and I guess since we were in the race together for nearly 20 miles he invited me to come hang out with them since I was there by myself.

Normally I would have appreciated the offer and passed it up, but for some reason this time I decided to take him up on the offer. We all ended up hanging out until almost 11PM just talking about running, racing, and life in general.

So the race was amazing, and what I thought was going to be a nightmare trip turned out to be really awesome thanks to the hospitality of some other runners. I hope I can stay open to opportunities like this in the future, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to pay it forward.

A huge thanks to the NYC Reservoir Dogs for making this a memorable trip!

Oh, and here’s a timelapse I took of the course! Or not, Apparently I can’t just upload it...it needs to be hosted...so I’ll edit that in later

#bsim #boston2bigsur #b2b #marathon #marathonmaniacs #racecation #raceday #26.2 #california #bigsur #resdogs #reservoir dogs

The Challenge Ahead

So Boston is done, and Big Sur is only a couple days away now.

Here I sit, packing clothes and checking over the logistics of where my hotel is in relation to the airport, expo, and start when suddenly I figure it might be a good idea to take a glance at the elevation chart for Big Sur.

Here’s what I found: