A Love Letter to the Big Sur Marathon
Running is one of my great loves. I'm not very good at it, and it's taken me a long time to be okay with that. I think that one of the big journeys that I have been on since turning 30 is learning to enjoy things in spite of being bad at most of my hobbies. I am not sure exactly where this idea came from, but it always felt like things weren't worth doing if I couldn't do it perfectly. Yes, I am a recovering perfectionist. Last weekend I participated in the Big Sur Marathon... not the full marathon... the 12k.
I have been dreaming of doing the actual for many, many years. It's still a dream!! I even signed up for the full marathon twice and injured myself... twice. Both of those failures really crushed me. My relationship with running and myself were in a dark place for a while. All of the miles, hours of running, and running essays I read were worth nothing because I didn't make it to the start line.
The Big Sur Marathon is... special. It's really not a good choice for people who are looking to run their first marathon. Although this year was not the usual course because a portion of Highway 1 washed out in a storm. It is also either one of the, or THE hilliest marathon in the country. Those heights pay off though because you're running along one of the most iconic roadways in the world. And because it's on Highway 1, which means they need to close the highway for race day means that there's a pretty strict time limit of 6 hours. There's something about the combination of the scenery, the physical challenge, and that ever present threat that the highway will one day completely fall into the ocean makes me really want to experience the full 26.2 mile distance on foot.
Now that I know where I'm at with my running better now, I think that I could maybe make it to 6 hours on a perfectly flat course. Realizing I was going to fail this race not once, but twice really felt like I died trying. To my credit, I recovered and kept running, I set more realistic goals, and am keeping the marathon on my bucket list. I actually ran my first half marathon in March! So I would say that I'm well on my way to making it to the start line again. I had the time of my life this weekend running along the highway for a bit and then through Point Lobos Reserve was a dream. Gorgeous. I went into Sunday just wanting to have a good time.
I'm a little bit weirdly obsessed with this race, but it turns out that I'm not alone in that. I feel like I got a taste of the experience that I was craving. The only sounds at one point were my footsteps and the waves hitting the rocks down below. It was beautiful and I felt strong. I had a plan for when I would eat my little snack, I knew exactly when I wanted to take a walking break. Much to my amazing luck that was also the point where the big 12k photo op was, so my pictures make it look like I just went on a nice seaside stroll, looking for mermaids.
All of May 2024, I will be participating in weblog posting month created by Annie Greens
For a list of other participants, go here
For a list of my topic ideas and some rules I wrote for myself, go here
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