Big Sur International Marathon
28 April 2013

The 28th Annual Big Sur International Marathon had been sold out in 26 hours, which shows the popularity of this challenging, yet scenic, marathon. I flew into San Francisco on Friday, 26 April, took the Monterey Airbus, and checked into Portola Hotel and Spa in Monterey. A very nice hotel, located adjacent to the Marina and Fishermans Wharf.

The packet pick-up/health and fitness expo was in Monterey Conference Center. Each runner received a nice long-sleeved technical shirt. There were a large number of vendors.

On Sunday, at 4:15 AM, buses began transporting the runners to the start line. The temperature ranged from upper 50s to low 70s. It was overcast at times. We had to deal with some head winds. There were ample water/sports drink stations, sports gels and fruits in a few locations, strawberries at mile 23, and several bands and individual musicians throughout the course. The point-to-point course was on Highway 1, which was closed to traffic, from Pfeiffer State Park in Big Sur (elevation 300 feet) to Rio Road in Carmel (elevation 25 feet). As expected, the marathon route was hilly. The hardest section was from mile 10 (40 feet) to the Hurricane Point at mile 12 (560 feet). The 2nd half of the marathon included several rolling hills. The recovery food items and drinks at the finish area were sufficient. We were shuttled back to our hotels in Monterey.

There were 3121 (1576 males, 1545 females) finishers. The winning times were 2:27:46 (overall male), 2:50:02 (overall female), 2:34:52 (masters males), and 3:09:01 (masters female).

This was my 98th marathon & I truly enjoyed it.

If you are to run one race in your lifetime, make it be Big Sur. I promise you, it will not disappoint. It is breathtaking- both literally and figuratively. It ain't easy. But it is the race of a lifetime. Do it.

You can find my full 2013 Big Sur Marathon Race Recap on my blog here. Happy Running People! And get in those hill repeats. :-)

http://marathonandsprint.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/2013-big-sur-international-marathon-the-recap/

This is a challenge course. If you try to set your personal best, this course may not be the one. However, if you try to enjoy the fresh breeze and scenic view along the way of your entire marathon run, this is the one. Think about it, the beautiful highway one is for only runners during that few hours while you are part of the excitement.
If you are local, this is a good yearly event. If you are an out towner, this can be a perfect event to fit in a vacation plan.
This is a well organized event. The organizers have done their best to let everyone enjoy the event.
The population are not large in the area. Don't expect to have a large crowd. The entertainment along the road are good quality and cheerful.

If I died and went to marathoners heaven it could be no better than Big Sur 2013, perfect weather, minimal winds (for this course so I'm told), breathtaking scenery. This was my first time on the Pacific Coast Highway and I cannot imagine a better way to experience all this beauty.
If you want to focus on negatives one could whine about the hills (the one at mi 25 kicked my butt), the multiple races at the same time (spend lots of time passing people wogging the 21 miler), the stretches of slanted road surface (just give it up ... there is no flat spot). I'm going with the idea that the hills, the wind, and the mix a runners just adds to a fantastic experience and slows you down just a bit more so that you can more thoroughly soak in the heavenly experience that is Big Sur.

The Big Sur marathon is a treasure among marathons. The scenery is breath-takingly beautiful from start to finish, with fun music support all along the course. You will hardly notice the hills because the views provide such a wonderful distractions. A must run!

My worst time ever...and I'm glad I did it. Great scenery, a course to test you with the two mile uphill between 10-12 miles, off camber roads that trashed everything south of my waist, and chilly headwinds. I never hurt so bad in my life. It's like being in a four hour plane crash. I'm glad I did it. Only downside...idiot runners who would stop suddenly to take photos...of water, waves, hills, cows, etc. I had to duck underneath outstretch arms several times for marathoners who wanted action shots on their iPhones. Try doing that on Saturday next time. Overall, a great experience. Well done Big Sur.

The race itself was really difficult. The uphills were bad, but the wind was worse. Still, I managed to PR.

There was a woman playing a harp with her daughter around mile 22. My name was on my Bib and as I was struggling along they called out my name saying 'Way to go John'-for me this was priceless.

The strawberries were delicious.

I like the 'Finisher poster' in the background where pictures can be taken by family/friends WITHOUT being charged.

Call me crazy but I was a bit disappointed with Big Sur '12. I knew, and was ready for, the big hills. I appreciated the scenery, maybe not the fog so much. But, the headwinds were unexpected, especially after the starting line announcer bragged, 'There are NO winds coming your way.' (The evening news reported gusts of 40 mph.) And, yes, after coming off LA '12 and NYC '11, I was shocked by the lack of crowd support. Silly me!

Wow what an awesome course. It is truely as beautiful as the pictures you see and every bit as hard as people tell you. Everything was very well organized from start to finish. Expo was decent for a small marathon. Yes, you do have to be on a bus by 4am to get to the start, but who sleeps good the night before a marathon anyways. Once to the start, the holding area you have to wait in can get very crowded with people just sitting everywhere. Even so, never took me more than 5-10min to go to the bathroom. Plenty of coffee small snacks to keep you happy for 90 minutes.

They had 3 corrals. 2-3:45 / 3:45 - 5 / 5+ (I think). The start for me (Under 3:45 corral) was the cleanest start I have ever had. Course was awesome even though I had fog for 6-7 miles or so. Wind on the other hand...a 20mph headwind sucks no matter what which way you cut it!

volunteers were great. Aide stations well manned. Nice medal, great shirt.

The course is hillier on the second half than the profile suggest. Non stop up and down. My quads never hurt so bad in my life.

If you train hard, this course is nothing to get bent out of shape about. Yes it is hard, but so are all marathons! I even had a 2 min PR (4th marathon)!

I didn't stick around too long post race. Got a massage, grabbed my food bag, got a beer and headed back to the B&B.

The hills will take a severe beating on your quads and the slope (especially in the Carmel Highlands) adds one more layer of pain.

My only gripe, the walkers (there are like 5 races going on) always took the left side of the road which had the least amount of slope. The faster runners were forced right into the center of the road with the highest slope (and many times, the worst tangent). Still lots of room to get around them.

Overall, top notch race.