Big Sur Marathon 4-24-2022 - marathon #25 for me.

The Big Sur International Marathon is a “bucket list” race for runners of all ages and paces. The marathon is held every year on the last Sunday in April, and registration is determined by a series of random drawings that open beginning later in the summer.

MY bucket list race is finally here!! After being postponed in 2020 & 2021 due to the pandemic, we finally get an in person race in California in 2022! Originally in 2020, I had planned to take a week long trip to go to Big Sur and I was going to take my mom. Then the race was canceled. Penny had done the race before and decided to enter the lottery again and said if she got in we should travel together and share expenses. Well, she got it in so that's what we did in 2022. We ended up making it just a long weekend. Penny is a school teacher so she really needed to only be away from her students for 2 days. We decided to fly into San Francisco so we could sight see there and then drive 2 hours to Monterey where we would stay for the race. We had the perfect plan all mapped out. BUT wouldn't you know it... plans change... especially with airlines! Delta changed our arrival time into San Fran from 10:50am to 1:50pm on Friday. We were sad, but still thinking we could get in a few things. HOWEVER, we had no idea the rental car situation was going to be another delay! We waited for 2 hours for our rental car! Penny stood in line for an hour just to get to the desk to get our car and then was told there were no cars so we would have to wait until one was available. Again..we were sad. But you know us... give us lemons and we are going to make lemonade!

Penny asked me what was my must see in San Fran (she had also already been there)..... I told her I wanted to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge. So we did just that! 😍

Some may not know the history of the Golden Gate Bridge so here are a few things:

1. It was a major engineering feat of it's time

2. It's a 9,000 foot suspension bridge. It was the longest in the world at the time of it's construction.

3. Built entirely of AMERICAN made steel

4. It was the gateway to Northern California where before residents made their way by ferry. This made it much easier for them to travel north up the coast from San Fran.

Here are a few pics:

From there we went to the Fisherman's Wharf where we could see Alcatraz from the shore

and we had a fabulous dinner.

We were starved! Apparently this clam chowder in their sour dough bowl is real popular. and it was really good! We had ate breakfast in Atlanta and then not had lunch due to our 5 1/2 hour flight into San Fran.. then being delayed at airport waiting on rental car... we could have ate an entire horse. 😆 And we saw Pier 39... LOTs and LOTs of seal lions!

me with my fanny pack 😂😂

By the time we finished it was getting dark and we decided it was best to make our 2 hour drive to Monterey. So that was basically all we had time for in San Fran and it was so dark driving we didn't see anything. We finally got to our hotel in bed around 11pm. Man were were tired! We had left Penny's house at 3:45am driving to airport to start our journey.

The next morning we tried to sleep in, but our bodies were up. So we grabbed a quick breakfast and made our way to the expo to pick up our bibs. It was mask on for expo. Good thing it was kind of crowded.

crab meat eggs benedict. OMG so GOOD

Found out how early our bus to the start line would be... 😏 They bus everyone out 26.2 miles and then you run back in. Because the road is 2 lane and winding around the mountains.. it took the bus one hour to get us to the start line.. The start line is at Big Sur on highway 1 at a Red Wood Forrest. It's beautiful. You run down highway 1 and finish at Carmel. Race started at 6:30am on Sunday.

We took them mask off after expo and headed out to see what we could of Monterey and Carmel. Let me just say that Northern California is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!!! It really comes close to Hawaii in my book. The coast line and the mountains in the background... just creates the most wonderful masterpiece I've seen!

We took the 17 mile drive to see Pebble beach and the other 16 stops along the 17 mile drive. It was pretty cool and I'm so glad I got to stand right there at the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. I had to send my dad a picture. He loves to watch Golf. 😍

More pics along the 17 mile drive:

From the 17 mile drive to headed to Carmel by the Sea. Such a cool little town. Kind of reminded me of Ocean Springs, MS. The beach was also very pretty there and lots of people were out on the beach.. but not in the water.. it was COLD. We were able to get in for a wine tasting and then headed down Highway 1 to Bixby Bridge. This would be the highway we would run on and I wanted to go see the bridge and get familiar with where we'd be when racing. OMG it's beautiful!! The scenery driving on highway 1 is amazing!!!

I could hardly believe I would run across this bridge the next day! We made our way back down highway 1 to Monterey where we walked down Cannery Row and found dinner. Another fabulous meal might I add! We were back in our room slightly before 10pm to wind down to get ready for our early race morning. I laid out all my stuff to make sure I was ready.

I actually slept a little better than I typically do the night b4 a race. Maybe the tiredness from travel was catching up with me...

It was a cold morning .. in the 40s and wind! So I was so glad I had carried my $6 jacket find from the thrift store! I literally kept it the entire race until the last mile. I would take it off and then we'd go through a section of very cold headwinds and I'd put it back on... Let's just say the race was challenging! Start Line Pics..

The course is absolutely amazing! You really forget you are constantly climbing hills and running on a terrible grade on the road most of the time. My take from the race... run some hills, maybe run in a wind tunnel, I'm not sure how to prepare for the constant change in grade on the road, but most of all ENJOY every minute! I've never ran a more beautiful course! It's simply AMAZING .. even the mile markers are hilarious!

The drummers were half way up the Hurricane Point (2mile climb)

The guy playing the piano was up at the Bixby Bridge .. that beautiful bridge we ran across. It was so cool. You could hear him playing before we even saw him as we rounded the mountains coming into Bixby Bridge. This was around mile 13.. half way to the finish!

On the bus at the finish line that would take us back to our hotel which was just 2-3 miles but it was nice to have that delivery service after running 26.2 miles. 😄

We did it! 😍 They say time is relative... and truly it is. Our time was like 5 hours 20 minutes for the 26.2 miles... Moving time 5:04 and check out the elevation... total ascent 1,848 ft and total decent 2,222 ...... I feel good about our time considering it is a hard course. Even the elite runners talked about how hard the course is.... I will say that a man won overall by running it in 2 hours 26 minutes! I have no idea how in the world he did that! His a 30 year old orthopedic surgeon from Maryland and he also ran Boston 6 days prior to Big Sur. He was among the 300 runners that did the Boston to Big Sur challenge... 2 marathons, 6 days apart.

We stopped took pictures, we walked when we wanted too, and we just had us a great time. It's the crossing of that finish line for me that is my memory I will cherish forever! 💓 Our shirts I had ordered were perfect! It is truly by God's strength not our own that we were able to finish 26.2 miles on that course. 💗🙏 I give him all the glory.

Penny also took me to a spa that she had been to before. It's called "The Refuge"... it's truly amazing! Hot & cold pools, steam rooms, saunas, and massages. I wanted to take lots of pictures inside the refuge, but they make you leave your cell phone. They truly want people to relax and enjoy quiet time. We did it all and man it felt great to do that after the marathon Sunday evening. 😍

I think I'll take a break from marathons till the fall. 😀 This one made the 3rd marathon for me since January. And 6th marathon in 7 months! (October - April) So I'm due a break. LOL I'm pretty tired today. Our travel home was a nightmare... lots of flight delays. We ended up being up almost 24 hours straight before getting home! Today was back to work for me and I've been struggling all day to stay awake. All the travel / jet lag has really hit me! BUT it was so worth it! I'd go again to Big Sur and run!

Thanks to my friend Penny for a really fabulous trip! We stopped and took in every flower, tree, beach, etc. Let me just say once again that Northern California is AMAZING! The vegetation there is out of this world! Beautiful Succulents everywhere!