Big Sur Marathon 🌊💙✨ On any given year, the marathon is a point-to-point course, starting in Big Sur and runners move along Highway 1 to end in Carmel, California. Well, at the end of March, a large chunk of the Highway 1 coast (part of the marathon route) fell into the Pacific Ocean in a landslide. Nobody could have predicted that, except maybe the late Warren Zevon (cue “Desperados Under the Eaves”). So this year’s course was changed to an out-and-back, starting and ending in Carmel.
Big Sur Marathon has been on my bucket list for several years. I did a lot of training for this marathon and felt I was on track to PR my marathon time. Well, soon after experiencing the course — constant hills with 2,150 feet of elevation — my PR dream went off the side of the California cliffs along with the chunk of the Highway 1 marathon route. And the Big Sur Marathon became all about finishing the distance I came here to do.
This was probably the hardest race I’ve ever done (including trail ultras). And I walked way more than I planned. But, I kept reminding myself that as tough as it was, I GET TO DO THIS! At one point, I took out my AirPods just to listen to the waves crash next to me. The Big Sur Marathon was humbling, beautiful and very special in its own right.
