Last July, I signed up for the Big Sur International Marathon with the thought of, "oh, that's 9 months away, that's so far in the future that it will never actually happen." I ran the 9-miler last year and told myself at the end of that run that if I ever run a marathon, it will be this one. In my head that sounded like a great idea. I'm not so sure I knew what I was getting myself into.
Many months passed. Some were better than others as far as training went, but I managed to get all my long runs in as planned, and I showed up for race weekend this year fairly well-rested, tapered, and ready to go.
I was so thankful that even with her Dad in the hospital, Gigi was still able to make it out to California to watch the kids for us. We were very lucky and it seems like he is doing better now, so that's great news. Justin and I drove down to Monterey on Saturday morning to grab lunch, hit the race expo, pick up my bib & shirt, and meet a bunch of my other running friends that I've made while training.
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| It was a beautiful day on the water at Cannery Row! |
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| What Justin picked up for the kids. |
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| Check out the time on that bus pass. It's not for the faint of heart. |
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| Moms Run This Town ! |
I met another mom runner on Facebook who was also running the full marathon and staying at our hotel. She flew out from Georgia without her family for the race, so she rode with us to the bus drop-off point. I was lucky to have Mara to talk to during the bus ride because it was dark, windy, and it took awhile at 3:30am!
(The reason it's so early is because the run takes place along Highway 1 on the coast, and they close the road for the race. It's the only access along this route, so the buses - all 175 of them - have to get down the road, drop us off, and make it back to Monterey north of the finish line so that they don't get stuck when the close the road at 6:45am. It's only 26.2 miles but as I learned, it's hilly and windy and hard to navigate in the dark.)
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| Me and Mara on the bus...in the dark. |
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| Waiting at the start line. It was crowded, COLD (around 38 degrees), and we sat there for almost 2 hours. |
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| Finally time to line up! |
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| One of my San Jose Moms Run This Town group buddies, Ann! I randomly ran into her as I was lining up. |
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| As we lined up, the sun started to rise, exposing beautiful towering redwoods around us and the smell ... SO fresh, so beautiful. It was exhilarating. |
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| The very beginning. |
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| These were the Sag Wagons they had stationed along the course. |
The mile markers were also awesome. I tried to take pictures of them but by halfway, I couldn't do it anymore. But every single one did make me laugh, or least grimace in pain :)
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| Finally we broke out of the redwoods into the coastline. It was beautiful. |
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| Ocean on one side, fields and/or mountains on the other. Amazing. |
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| It was hard not to be blown away by these views. |
At about mile 3, I started to try and pace myself. I'd been training with a bunch of other women and they all had GPS watches that did intervals, so I was used to someone else doing the timing and just following along. I never thought about the fact that I'd be in a race by myself without a watch or a pacer or a GPS signal on my cell phone...so I couldn't even pace myself by my splits. I didn't want to go out too fast, and I didn't want to run too slow either.
I ended up finding a partner who was running about my pace with 6:1 intervals (6 minutes of running, 1 minute of walking.) Her name was Liz and she's in the blue shirt below. She and I hung together for 13 miles total...and I learned a lot about her in the process. She was from LA, engaged to be married, soon to be a marketing director at a charter school...it was really neat to get to talk to someone else (and to be distracted by conversation!) I feel horrible because we split up at mile 16 when I had to take a few more walk breaks for my knee...and I never even got her phone number or email and I can't find her on Facebook! She was a great partner and I wanted to say thank you :)
So anyway, I tried to really take in the scenery and enjoy myself while also not focusing too much on what I was undertaking. The articles I'd read about the course kept running through my mind (pun intended) ... as the hills, especially Hurricane Point at miles 10-12 and the Carmel Highland hills in the second half of the course, are no joke.
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| The mile marker at the top of Hurricane Point. And man, I earned it. A 500 ft ascent over a 2 mile stretch is NOT MESSING AROUND. |
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| I was so happy to see Bixby Bridge. Mile 13.1 is directly in the middle and that's the halfway point of the marathon. HALFWAY!!! I giddily did a dance inside my head. |
After Bixby Bridge and halfway, things got much harder. (Funny, because we had just technically finished the hardest climb...but still.) The coast opened up and we had beautiful sights to see. I got moo'ed at by a cow. I saw tons of wildlife - especially seals. The houses were absolutely amazing. The sun came out and it got a little warmer, but not in a bad way.
The roads in the second half were extremely cambered, meaning they leaned to one side or the other. Sometimes there was a dirt path on the side that was flat, but not always. As my legs got more tired, my ankles, IT bands, the sides of my knees, and my hips started to SCREAM in agony. Running that far, with so many hills, while leaning one way or the other, for hours and hours, is incredibly difficult. I wish I had known more about the road, or been better prepared for it in some way, because it was brutally hard.
So around mile 18, I was hurting. I had lost Liz, my running buddy, and I had slipped out of reach of the 5:30 pacer and her group as I fell slightly behind. I was getting worried but not too worried, as I knew I had to reach mile 22 by 12:00noon in order to reach the finish line by the cutoff (per their rules.)
I was running along, trying to talk myself into this whole race and why I was doing it in the first place, when I ran by a row of port-a-potties and two of the moms in my running group popped out. They were relay leg members who were almost at the end of their own races. (They also had a relay division of the marathon where they divvied it up into 5 parts and each person ran one leg, handing off a bracelet as they went.)
Rachel and Maria, who I had only met once before in my life (but knew from our Facebook group) saw me took pity on a poor, poor soul. When they heard I was trying to finish my first marathon, they rallied around me like nothing I'd ever seen. They automatically, without hesitation, said "we are running with you to the finish line! We aren't leaving you behind!" and began to tell jokes, point out funny things, and generally just chatter to me so that I wouldn't focus on the pain.
I am so thankful for their help. Those last 8 miles would have been very, very difficult without them by my side. Knowing they'd see me through to the end meant the world.
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| It also meant I had someone to take pictures again ;) |
Around mile 22, I finally got a cell signal again. Justin and I had designated a meeting place after the race, just in case my phone died or I couldn't reach him. But when I could actually get a text off to him, and he sent one back, it made me start crying. From fatigue, or happiness, or something in between, it was so awesome to have that little pat on the back so late in the race:
After a lot more pain, a few more SLOOOOOW miles, and a few more selfies, we were almost at the finish line. I couldn't believe it. There was a strawberry farm at mile 23 that handed out fresh strawberries right off the vine, and those tasted like heaven.
All of a sudden we were at the mile 24 aid station, and they were yelling "Only 1.4 more miles! You can do it!" and I remember asking "are you lying?? Cause if you're lying, I'm coming back to beat you up!" I really couldn't believe we were so close.
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| Hallelujah indeed!! |
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| Nothing - NOTHING - beats the feeling I had right here. |
Here's my FitBit log from the day:
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| And the sign on the door that the kids drew for me. |
Now that it's taken a few days to sink in, and the soreness has worn off, I can reflect back on what I actually did.
I learned a lot about myself during those 6 hours. I also have a new attitude towards a lot of things now: I can do anything I put my mind to. Nothing really frightens me now. Anything I want to attempt, I know I can do it. It's a hugely powerful moment to step across the finish line after doing something only 0.5% of the United States population has ever done. I am proud of myself. I'm sorry if I talk about it a lot in the coming weeks. It took an extreme amount of effort, a ton of support from Justin and the kids, and a whole lot of faith in myself.
I ordered digital copies of all my race photos, so I will be posting those when I get them, and you can officially meet Maria & Rachel in those. They look great and I can't wait to share the pictures.
The best part was late on Sunday night when we were playing with Caroline and asking her silly questions: "what does Jack do?" "Color!" "what does Daddy do?" "WORK!" "what does Mommy do?" "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN!" It's all worth it!
