The Big Sur International Marathon!

Today is the 29th of April!! Which means I ran a marathon yesterday. And not just any marathon--Big Sur was absolutely spectacular, but very challenging. The views were amazing, the entertainment along the route was fabulous and it was a really well organized run. The weather was absolutely perfect AND I beat the six hour cut-off time! I can go into the details, but there would be a lot of runner jargon about split times, pace, blah, blah, blah. So, I'll just go over the highlights first.

Hills. There were lots and lots of them. And not my usual Floridian "hills" (what we have in Florida are just swells, I have discovered, not real hills), but ones that went on for forever...or at least a mile or two at a time, which felt like forever as I was going up them. I started out with the 5:30 pace group, which is a time I would have loved to finished this run in. I kept on with them until around mile 11, when the Hurricane Point hill began (THAT went on until almost mile 13!) and I needed to figure out how to best manage my pace, not go along with theirs. Which was really too bad, because they were a fun group to run with. But I decided that, for me, walking up the hills and letting gravity carry me down the hills and just running the flats was my best option.

 At the bottom of Hurricane Hill were the Taiko drummers; I'm fairly certain this is a Polynesian tradition (though I could be wrong?) and the sound and the beat of those drums could have made me run forever!! At the top of the hill was a classical piano player. He definitely made the climb worth it, to hear both of those and the scenery in between was just amazing.

What can I say about the rest of the run? It was slow going, but I never felt like I couldn't finish. This is one of the few times I've been very careful about my pace though--normally I just run and don't worry about it. But because I'm slow I had to be careful to not hit the six hour mark. The scenery was so distracting that I was generally surprised at each mile marker: "wow, already?"

I really appreciated all of the people along the route who cheered us on, the volunteers were awesome, and it simply could not have been a better day.

I am also proud of the fact that I raised $1116 for Autism Speaks. When I was still with the 5:30 pace group, we were dedicating a mile to a person. When my turn rolled around I dedicated mile seven to my niece, Hannah, who was the reason I started this charity run to begin with.

 I'm going to add some runner jargon below--you can find the hills based off of my pace, lol:

Split     Time            Pace
1          11:51.0       11:51
2          11:46.7       11:47
3          11:59.0       11:59
4          11:43.9       11:44
5          12:17.8       12:18
6          11:51.9       11:52
7          12:10.4       12:11
8          12:23.5       12:24
9          12:25.6       12:25
10        11:55.9       11:56
11        16:45.0       16:45
12        16:01.8       16:02
13        12:29.7       12:30
14        12:24.4       12:24
15        13:47.0       13:47
16        13:50.9       13:51
17        14:24.1       14:24
18        14:49.8       14:50
19        13:25.2       13:25
20        14:23.7       14:24
21        14:23.9       14:24
22        13:25.2       13:25
23        12:43.6       12:43
24        13:53.8       13:54
25        12:57.7       12:58
26        13:32.1       13:32
27        6:21.0         13:09

Summary
5:50:04 26.48 13:13 
Overall time: Time: 5:50:05
Moving Time: 5:32:57
Elapsed Time: 5:50:18
Avg Pace: 13:13 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:12:34 min/mi
Best Pace: 5:41 min/mi

 Elevation:
Elevation Gain: 2,598 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,910 ft
Min Elevation: 30 ft
Max Elevation: 623 ft

Tomorrow is the big day!

I hit my goal for Autism Speaks!! To run the marathon, I had to raise $1K...and surpassed my goal by over $100!! I really appreciate everyone who donated--it means a lot me and I'm quite certain to the organization. My niece has a disorder on the spectrum, so it really meant a lot for me to be able to raise money for them. In case anyone is interested, there is more info on my donation page that Autism Speaks set up for me: http://events.autismspeaks.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1029858&supid=369166142 While this is not my first marathon, it is my first Big Sur International Marathon. I'm a bit nervous about it--I keep hearing about all the hills!--and there is a six hour time limit. My plan is to run with the 5:30 group, since they do the walk/run that I like to do. I feel as though I'm as ready as I can be...so here's to hoping I make the six hour time limit!! I have being doing training, but it has been more short/taper type runs and cycling for less than an hour. My husband came out to visit me this week, so I was glad that I was in taper mode and could get up early to knock out my workouts while he was still asleep. I will post a blog again tomorrow and let everyone know how the run went. :)

13/14 April (20 miles)

Hello! This weekend's run was supposed to be a straight 20 miles, on Saturday. Unfortunately, my calf had other plans. I injured my right calf during a mud run about a month ago and have been nursing the injury since. I thought it was back to 100%, but found out otherwise yesterday. I decided Friday night to get up early (the 20 miles wasn't the crazy part on Saturday...getting up at 0400 to run 20 miles so that I could make it to a 1000 massage appointment...that was the crazy part) so I could knock the run out early, but being a female I worry about running alone sometimes. My thought was to get up, out the door by 0430 so that I could start the first part of my run on base, which is somewhere I worry less about (for the most part). Unfortunately, the base I'm at right now is very small and built in only two directions--uphill or downhill. I decided to run the first 1.5 miles uphill and get it done...very bad plan. I think that's where I injured my leg again; being a Floridian, hills are still a surprise to me and I can't seem to run them without something happening. As hot as Florida will be when I get back, at least it is flat. Anyway, I got to mile 6.5 and realized that I couldn't finish the rest without a serious injury. Fortunately I was only around 2.5 miles from the base, so I just did a limp/jog/walk back and got in nine miles. Not the prettiest miles, but nine miles is still nine miles. I came home took and quick nap and went to my massage appointment. My masseuse just happens to be a long-distance runner herself, and gave me the most glorious massage **ever**. She iced my calf, massaged it, iced it, massaged it and I left feeling like a million bucks. Another short nap and I spent the rest of the day relaxing and hoping I could finish my run. Turns out, yes. Yes, I could. I did 11 miles this morning without any real problems and actually had a pretty good run. The area I like to run here in Monterey is along the coast and it is amazingly beautiful. This time of the year there are fields of flowers that lead right to the shores. It's easy to get lost in thought, staring at such beauty. On Saturday, I was able to see some of the seal pups along the way but I'm assuming they hide when the sun comes out because I didn't see any today. I've come to realize that the scenery here is both a good and bad thing. The weather is so amazing that I should be running with really good times...but I tend to get lost staring and wind up slowing down. Can't really complain about it, but it is something I've noticed. Here are my times: Saturday: 9 miles, 2:10 Sunday 11 miles, 2:25