Sur Thing

I'm drowning in grading, editing a final video for my online Intro to Theatre course, admin reporting, and putting my entire life into storage, buuuuut I also need to take occasional breaks, so a quick report on the Big Sur Marathon after the jump!

First thing to say is that it was incredible. For this race, they close down Highway 1 (the PCH) from Big Sur up to Carmel, and you basically run 26.2 miles straight up the coast with mountains to your right and the ocean to your left. Photos will be below (let's pretend taking those is why I got the pace I got) but suffice to say it was endlessly stunning, yet another reminder that I would live in Northern California in a heartbeat if such a thing were possible for we poor sinners in the humanities.

Dad tells me it was shakily organized in comparison to years past (a followup email from the org acknowledged they shrank their staff for this one) and I'll say the starting camp was a real ugh-o-rama. Nothing surprising; if you bus a few thousand people down the coast at 3:30 AM and drop them in a park entrance with (not enough) port-o-johns and (just about enough) coffee and water on a 50 degree morning when most of us are dressed for the 65 degrees it'll be when we finish the run... well it was a crowded and mutter-heavy spot, intermingled with the excitement of what we were all about to do.

The other thing Dad had questions about were the musical acts. This is one of the huge draws for the marathon - they'll often have marching bands, drumlines, jazz bands, etc. all along the course, usually with a grand piano at the midpoint of the bridge that is the iconic halfway point, and Taiko drummers halfway up the climb to Hurricane Point. Here, the drummers were the first musical performance we encountered, and it was only in the last 8-10 miles or so that we started regularly getting performers. I go back and forth on this; it would have been great to have more music, but it kind of worked in that starting with the adrenaline of the start of the race, and the gorgeous landscapes, carried you through to that steady climb to Hurricane Point, after which everything remained gorgeous but less of a surprise - so adding music then was a nice way to feel like something new was happening.

Anyway, I was shocked that for the first half of the marathon or so I stuck to my "only run the aid stations" plan - they're generally 2.5-3 miles apart on this course, and I usually take walking intervals at 1.5-2 miles. Fortunately, I pushed too hard in the wake of Hurricane Point and had to fall back to a more typical run-walk pattern the rest of the way.

In the end, I ran the whole thing in 4:33, or just under 10:30 a mile. For me, that's a great outcome - I'm not a blazingly fast runner, and my long runs here in Michigan were routinely coming in at 10:30 or even slower, so this actually represents a real leap for me. Though one I am unlikely to repeat, as - truly - the long-run training legs were just too much time devoted to a thing I've grown to enjoy in short bursts. Anything more than a 5k in training? No THANKS, in my opinion!

Corral D, for "Death by marathon"

You start in a FOREST for this marathon! In my opinion it should END with a forest (sunburn) but go off marathon organizers

Hmmm I guess we ran this entire coastline? Very implausible but apparently true!

Scenic vist-oh I see this other dude in a hat wants to do the same thing we all are doing, ah, yes, well.

Hey that's the halfway point! Hey that's where we're supposed to run past!

This is probably some kind of bay or "cove," which as I understand it is like a "bay"

Arguably a very beautiful landscape eh

How come it's so great when there's rocks by the shore. Pretty great to have rocks by the shore in my opinion.

A PALE VIEW OF HILLS

A Crick Runs Through It

Hey it's me (below) and that guy who inspired this marathon and inspires ME (above) ps it's my dad thanks dad love you dad

Now that it's done, I'm back to the frenzied final stages of the semester: I'm grading a huge pile of papers and exams, editing this video, throwing my life into storage, and weathering some exhausting personal stuff. But it's all good - the school stuff marks the end of a long and rewarding (if often insane) journey, the storage is all in service of an exploring summer that I cannot wait to have, and the personal stuff is hard but necessary, and proving to be a marker in my continuing growth in being able to name needs, discuss feelings, and sit in conflict and have that all Be Okay. We're never in charge of outcomes, but we are always responsible for how we show up, and I feel really good about how I've been able to do that, personally and professionally, this year.

Next up: who knows! I may have some stateside updates from my impending "MY FRIENDS!!" road trip and Chicago reunions. I may have some more blibs-and-blobs navelgazing posts. Or maybe when next you hear from me, it will be from the Port of Athens, where I will - in less than three weeks - be boarding a ferry to Lesvos for a week of food, long walks, good books, and whatever adventures I'm allowed. Oh, the hope of Now!