Sunday, April 25, 2010

Wow! Big Sur 1st thoughts

This course/race is all it was made out to be and more. Bart Yasso's comment that if you are going to do only 1 marathon in your life and this is the one to do couldn't be more true. I've run 24 marathons now including 10 Boston's and I'm afraid to say that I now have a new favorite marathon (sorry Ann).
It's going to take me awhile to process what happened today, so just a few pictures and some short comments on the race. I took over 60 pictures and video clips during the race including my favorite here below on the Bixby bridge. My camera guy is funny bossing me around...


I finished with a big smile on my face but it is hiding a lot of pain in those old legs! If you check out my Dailymile or Running Ahead sites where my splits and stuff are stored you will see the obvious story of going out well but then paying a 'price' over the last 6 miles... Final result was a 3:51:13 finish, 538 overall and 46 in age group which was not too far off from the 'attempted' 3:45.
But more on that later after I've had time to process it a bit. Overall, I'm happy with how it went. It's a gorgeous brute of a course that would require some very specific hill work to do well on and it certainly adds 10-20 minutes to your time for a flat course which I now believe.

Now if I could only figure out an easy way to upload all those crazy pictures to my Picasa website... Off to the post race party where I hope to run into another Canadian by the handle of R-Cane runner. Kudos also to Punk Rock Tri-Guy, and Runner's Rambles who also challenged the big hills (there were many hills) of Big Sur today.

Good times and happy days!

9 comments:

Chrispy said...

Congratulations! The course looks beautiful. It must be a plus that you don't need to bring your own mp3 player since the music is provided on the course. :)

Trevor said...

Way to go Mike! I can't wait to hear all about it, and see the pics.

Andrew said...

Congratulations Mike! I can't wait to hear the whole story and see the photos!

Michael said...

Congratulations! A new favorite marathon... dangerous. Well done, looking forward to the details.

Ewen said...

The Boston/Big Sur double next year is going to be a tough one! Sorry I didn't get a chance to wish you well before the start Mike. Love that 'ready to roll!' photo - I'd say it's the Great Ocean Road of the US ;)

Bring on the photos/videos!

Grellan said...

Well done Mike, looks like a fantastic course to run - nothing like spectacular scenery to mask the pain.

Thomas said...

Really? You have a new favourite? Wow, that is some praise indeed! Congratulations on yet another marathon on your list, and a special one by the sounds of it.

MB said...

just heard from a local runner on doing his second double Boston-Big Sur-'it's punishing'

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

Wow! I would have loved to finish in 3:51! A challenging course, but worth every hill for the great views!