Big Sur Marathon - D-Day
So, I have been a bit late in posting this - blame it on the mental and physical awe that follows a marathon. Rather than just signing it off with just the timing, I was collecting my thoughts on how the event/race went and also update whether I am up for another one or not.
I completed the stipulated 26.2 miles in 4 hrs and 24 minutes. Do I hear some applauses and whistles? :P .. no on a serious note, it is not such a bad timing for a first timer. This being my first marathon, I had imaginations of it being special and me completing it strongly, and, well well, things were all nice and pretty upto 11 miles. I ran non-stop, which is how I wanted to run, not even halting at the water stops. I had wild imaginations of the marathon being similar to the half-marathon I had run last October in San Jose. In that case too, it was my first one, and I had run the whole course non-stop. Oh, before all that, me and my two friends planned well, and we reached the Pfeiffer Big Sur Station by around 5 AM. There was lot of energy around. The MCs were bubbling with energy, and beginning each sentence with "this is the 25th Big Sur Marathon" and ending it with "life changing experience". There were people who had run the race 24 out of 25 times, such marathon/big-sur fanatics. After the bag checkins, we went and stood with out appropriate group of runners bunched by expected completion times - my goal being 4:10.
Things were super-smooth, and very soon I was at mile #9, at the start of the climb to Hurricane Ridge. People say that this is the killer, but, frankly they are lying. There is not one killer, and certainly this is not one of them. Well, lets call this a silent killer. The 2 mile climb wasn't that bad at all. Just when I was rejoicing reaching the top of the hill, and starting running downhill did my woes start. A knee injury I sustained during snow-boarding a month and a half ago decided to say Hello to Big Sur, and the pain as I pounded my knees while running downhill was well, lets call it unbearable, and I am not even half way through. I moved to the side to do flex my knee for a few seconds and continued. The greatest moment of the run, I had imagined to be running on the Bixby bridge, but, ironically, looking back, I don't even remember when I encountered the bridge. The prognosis wasn't looking pretty. I was doing quite good on timing. In fact, the halfway mark was done by 1:57 - which by the way, included that supposed killer. It is probably not too interesting to write more regarding the reminder of the race but suffices to say that I took regular stops, and kept running the mini-hills, and each of them felt like a killer. When the Sun decided to come out, it got worse. The only great memory I have is probably the last mile and a half, which I ran non-stop - so, technically I probably still finished strongly. On a funny note, some of the thoughts I was getting were whether I should hop on a passing cop car and get off at the end of the course. Even worse, when I heard the siren of an ambulance, I was secretly wishing that I could probably hitch a ride too :)
Some of the good pix:
So, I guess, the question is if I am doing another one. Of course, but not anytime soon, and will only happen with better training. Don't want to dream of ambulances and cop cars again :)
Peace y'all!
I completed the stipulated 26.2 miles in 4 hrs and 24 minutes. Do I hear some applauses and whistles? :P .. no on a serious note, it is not such a bad timing for a first timer. This being my first marathon, I had imaginations of it being special and me completing it strongly, and, well well, things were all nice and pretty upto 11 miles. I ran non-stop, which is how I wanted to run, not even halting at the water stops. I had wild imaginations of the marathon being similar to the half-marathon I had run last October in San Jose. In that case too, it was my first one, and I had run the whole course non-stop. Oh, before all that, me and my two friends planned well, and we reached the Pfeiffer Big Sur Station by around 5 AM. There was lot of energy around. The MCs were bubbling with energy, and beginning each sentence with "this is the 25th Big Sur Marathon" and ending it with "life changing experience". There were people who had run the race 24 out of 25 times, such marathon/big-sur fanatics. After the bag checkins, we went and stood with out appropriate group of runners bunched by expected completion times - my goal being 4:10.
Things were super-smooth, and very soon I was at mile #9, at the start of the climb to Hurricane Ridge. People say that this is the killer, but, frankly they are lying. There is not one killer, and certainly this is not one of them. Well, lets call this a silent killer. The 2 mile climb wasn't that bad at all. Just when I was rejoicing reaching the top of the hill, and starting running downhill did my woes start. A knee injury I sustained during snow-boarding a month and a half ago decided to say Hello to Big Sur, and the pain as I pounded my knees while running downhill was well, lets call it unbearable, and I am not even half way through. I moved to the side to do flex my knee for a few seconds and continued. The greatest moment of the run, I had imagined to be running on the Bixby bridge, but, ironically, looking back, I don't even remember when I encountered the bridge. The prognosis wasn't looking pretty. I was doing quite good on timing. In fact, the halfway mark was done by 1:57 - which by the way, included that supposed killer. It is probably not too interesting to write more regarding the reminder of the race but suffices to say that I took regular stops, and kept running the mini-hills, and each of them felt like a killer. When the Sun decided to come out, it got worse. The only great memory I have is probably the last mile and a half, which I ran non-stop - so, technically I probably still finished strongly. On a funny note, some of the thoughts I was getting were whether I should hop on a passing cop car and get off at the end of the course. Even worse, when I heard the siren of an ambulance, I was secretly wishing that I could probably hitch a ride too :)
Some of the good pix:
So, I guess, the question is if I am doing another one. Of course, but not anytime soon, and will only happen with better training. Don't want to dream of ambulances and cop cars again :)
Peace y'all!