Friday, October 13, 2017

Because Boston's Not Enough.....

Sure, everyone's so obsessed with That One Marathon in April, but it turns out that there are a few others. Pretty highly regarded ones, even. One of them is just down the road from here, along Highway 1.

I have lots of friends who have run this race (multiple times, even!) and absolutely raved about it. You also can't really argue with it being on the short list for marathons with the best views. So I've definitely been a bit Big Sur-curious for a few years now, but never pulled the trigger.

There are some good reasons for this. The main one is that my focus as a runner tends to mostly be on speed and working hard to have the fastest race I possibly can, and Big Sur does not really lend itself particularly well to that. It's not the Pike's Peak Marathon or anything, but there is 2,000+ ft of elevation gain (as opposed to, say, 200+ in the Eugene Marathon, 300+ in the Napa Valley Marathon, and 400-500+ in CIM) and there is the potential for heinous wind. Sure, I'm up for running the occasional casual race for the experience, but marathons suck up so much time and energy--to say nothing of the money involved when it's a destination race--that I've mostly limited that stuff to shorter races where I don't feel like I'm giving up 6 months of training for something I know isn't going to be a fast race.

Another reason is its insane popularity. I am super super turned off by races that sell out in minutes or hours or where you have to send your credit card info off into the void, cross your fingers, and hope you're randomly selected by the running gods. I just could not get that excited about the uncertainty of it all.

But then at some point last year I remembered the existence of the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge, wherein anyone registered for Boston can sign up to also run Big Sur 6 or 13 days later (depending on the year) and also get a bunch of nice perks as well. Since I was already committing six months to for-real marathon training and wouldn't ever be betting on Big Sur for a fast race anyway, I decided, what the heck? Let's see how these old legs handle two marathons in less than two weeks. (Thankfully, 2018 is a 13-day gap year; I don't know if I'm quite crazy enough to try this in a 6-day gap year!)

Since I have a conference to present at in DC in during those two weeks, however, things will be a bit shall we say interesting next April travel-wise.

Le Plan:

    Friday, April 13: Fly to Boston, do fun Boston-ish things

    Monday, April 16: ***Boston Marathon***

    Tuesday, April 17: Train to NYC, do fun NYC-ish things

    Saturday, April 21: Train to DC, do fun DC-ish things

    Monday, April 23: Speak at conference

    Wednesday, April 25: Fly to SF

    Thursday, April 26: Drive down to Big Sur, do fun Big Sur-ish things

    Sunday, April 29: ***Big Sur Marathon***


The plus side is that thanks to my conference, work will cover my flights; the downside is that there may not be as much rest & recovery during those 13 days as one might ideally hope for.

Eh, I suppose it's not called a challenge for nothing....

12 comments:

  1. Good luck! I'm kinda jealous that you get to do Boston AND Big Sur. It seems like the crowds at Boston are the best and the views at Big Sur are the best. Maybe you can get some rest during your conference? At least being busy with work, you probably won't work out a ton and maybe can rest your legs a little at least? If nothing else... compression socks work well under dress pants!

    Amy Lauren
    http://www.thetinyterror.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow - two premier marathons in 2 weeks. Le Plan will also need to involve lots of eating and drinking before, during and after. Pizza pies and cheese steak, perhaps?

    On the topic of marathons...any bay area readers have suggestions for a hopefully smoke-free 16-18 mile route in the south bay? Of course, and to be clear, this is a minor deal compared with the devastation and loss suffered by real victims of the fire, but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Tim, it can be tough to string together 16-18 miles without fighting traffic in the South Bay. That said, for road runners the Stanford foothills is a nice 4-mile loop you could repeat a few times (Saturday is Stanford vs Oregon day, though it's a late start). Or if you're looking for trails, Rancho San Antonio near Cupertino has some nice options. Hope this helps!

      Delete
    2. Thanks, Mike, for the suggestions.

      Delete
    3. Tim, check out the Stevens Creek Trail all the way into Shoreline and the Palo Alto Baylands. You can easily string together a 20 mile out and back in it and there are plenty of water fountains along the way. Only thing is it's rather flat.

      Delete
    4. Oh man. So much eating & drinking. 😊

      Delete
    5. @justrun thanks for the Steven's Creek Trail suggestion. I will look into it sometime. We've actually had relatively clean air in SF the last couple of Sundays (but certainly not all days) and the GG Park / Ocean Highway / Lake Merced circuit has served me well.

      Delete
  3. I ran Big Sur in a headwind/foggy year and, while my time was better than I had expected and I LOVED the piano on the Bixby Canyon Bridge, the logistics and fog-limited view made it a "one and done" for me. However, whenever I get to Boston in the far future, I will definitely try for the B2B challenge -- I think I'd regret not going for it, and I suspect you would, too.

    As for your schedule, I actually think it's doable because I'm a fan of active recovery. My two biggest surprise marathon PR's both came after a week+ of sight-seeing with a ton of walking, and both were on courses with significant hills so they're not typical PR races. While I don't think you'll PR at Big Sur, I also think you'll be okay because you are smart and have a game plan. Your April sounds like a blast!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes! Good call, Boston 2 Big Sur is a no-brainer despite the price tag. Your legs will be fine and you'll love the experience, if not the headwind and hills – though on the bright side, the headwind on Hurricane Point means you'll be able to hear the Bixby Bridge pianist from a mile away. I'd say treat Big Sur like a well-deserved victory lap – plan to carry your phone and take pictures, just to ensure you don't try to do anything silly like race the thing. 2018 is shaping up nicely!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What an adventure! I'm so excited for you! I loved Big Sur, I thought it was more like a trail race on roads. Enjoy every mile of B2B - all 52.4 of them!

    ReplyDelete
  6. For some reason, a ton of my friends do this challenge. One of them even won the challenge one year! And it was a hot year both places, too! She ran a 3:17 average for both races - not too shabby considering Boston was 90+ degrees and Big Sur was, well, Big Sur.

    ReplyDelete