The Big Sur Marathon: the most scenic road marathon in the world

April 27th 2008 - our mission - to check out if the above claim was really true.

The Big Sur is a point to point marathon along the coast from Big Sur to Monterey about 100 miles south of San Francisco. As the road was closed for the duration of the race most competitors had to get the bus from Monterey at a ridiculously early hour. We had the foresight to book into a camp ground amongst the giant redwoods just 1km from the start - for which we were rewarded with a lie-in until 4.30am.

Despite this being the 23rd running of the event the organisers made a bit of a foul up at the start which found the road jammed with the slower runners and nowhere for the front runners to go. Eventually with a minute to go till the 6.45am start they announced that everyone should stay where they were and the rest of the runners would be “fed in” - after the 6 hour plus competitors had plodded past!! Our immediate reaction was “No way!” so we dived through the barriers, raced across the front of the start line and dived in from the side. A few lucky souls were quick enough to follow suit but then the marshals sprang into action and no-one else made it. Their problem, not ours - we were on the start line and ready to go.

And so finally, after months of planning and looking forward to the Big Sur, we were underway. The first few miles were slightly downhill or flat, winding through the redwoods, but we resisted the temptation to storm off and took it steadily. Martin was still suffering the end of a cold, which had left him with a nasty cough, and didn’t want to push too hard too soon. That suited me fine, neither of us was in top shape and we were happy to take it easy. Enjoying the route was more important than a decent time for us today.

After about 5 miles the sea came into view on our left and the first of many undulations began. At the same time we were treated to the first section where we were heading into a strong head wind. The first climb, although not steep was hard work but the views made up for it. The Big Sur marathon has an excellent website with a virtual tour - words simply cannot describe the splendour of this section of coastline - it’s well worth a look.

I was finding the race quite tough from fairly early on - an upset stomach was making life uncomfortable and I could feel a repeat of Venice coming on. I wanted to enjoy this race and not struggle for over half the way! However at about 8 miles we began picking off other female runners who had clearly gone off too fast and that improved my mood which in turn made my legs feel lighter!

There is one long hard climb up to the well-named Hurricane Point which begins at about 9 miles and reaches the summit at around 12. We reached the top and were rewarded with more fine views and a long swoop down to a picturesque bridge. On the other side I had to give in to the call of nature and pay a brief visit to a handy Portaloo - timed by Martin at 45 seconds - but well worth the wasted seconds. I felt soooo much better afterwards!

There were several bands and groups along the way and as the event also incorporated a 21 mile and 10 mile walk we were passing people all the time and the atmosphere was good. The whole route was undulating but the worst hills were during the first half, although as the miles ticked by I could feel myself slowing on even the lesser inclines.

The last few miles were tough but nothing compared with the hell that was Venice. We may not have done enough specific marathon pace training and doing a 50 mile training run just 4 weeks beforehand may not have been the wisest idea, but at least we were reasonably fit and could dig in when the legs would really rather call it a day. At every mile marker marshals were calling out not only the time but the average pace per mile and the estimated finish time which was really helpful. In the latter stages of the race our estimated finish time was 3.24 - 3.25 and that didn’t change.

We crested the final rise, with half a mile to go and a nice downhill sweep to the finish, we managed to inject some speed into our pace. Martin suggested sprinting for the finish line, I asked him politely what the hell he thought we were doing if not already sprinting? But then I noticed another woman about 20 yards ahead of us and we really went for it and swept past her in fine style (I was later extremely annoyed to find that she beat me on chip time anyway!!).
It was a great race, and I know we would both agree with the extravagant claims made by the organisers. We finished in 3.25.24/25 - 10 - 15 minutes slower than we were expecting, but the “undulations” had also proved tougher than expected. It was a good enough time to give me 2nd in the 40 - 44 age group and 12th overall. And in a field of well over 3000, we finished 126 and 128 respectively.

Straight after the finish we were herded through a tent packed with a huge variety of food - which would have been nice half an hour or so later but was way too soon for us - not often we pass up free food! Even more remarkable was that there was also free beer….but the queue for it was so long even Martin wasn’t tempted to wait for it!! Might have been an incentive to run a bit faster if only we had known!