2010 Big Sur Marathon Report

Short story is I finished the Big Sur Marathon in 4:51:44. Had a great time. Perfect weather.I'm not sure I will have a lot to say.  This is one of those cases where pictures are worth a thousand words.

I arrived in San Francisco the Friday afternoon and drove to Carmel-by-the Sea. The weather wasn't so great and it was raining. Saturday things had cleared up and was looking to be quite the weekend. Steve who had the distinction of being the last official finisher of the 2010 Boston marathon came down from San Francisco and we caught up. Steve also introduced me to Hansi who is a 60-something runner who was also doing the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge. She's actually quite fast and finished 4th in her age group at Boston and would end up finishing 1st in her age group at Big Sur.  Thanks to Steve for the picture.

Steve, Hansi and Me

 Went down to the expo to pick up my bib and bought some stuff at the expo.  I purchased some salt pills cause I thought they would help to try and avoid cramps.  I had bought a salt shaker while in Vegas hoping to increase my salt intake over the days leading up to Big Sur but when I tried, I just couldn't eat salt straight or even mixed with gatorade. Tasted too salty!  Ha. I suppose that was the point. Much better to just swallow it whole.

Went to the race sponsored pasta dinner and headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night. The buses to the start line would start leaving at 3:30am, with the last bus leaving at 4:15am and therefore required a very early wake-up call.  I had been trying to stay on eastern time so this wasn't too difficult.

Rode the bus to the start line staging area.  Still really dark outside.  Wandered around a bit, used the facilities and ate a bagel. Sat down and tried to collect myself.  Then headed to the start line.

Start Line

My original pie in the sky goal was to beat my time in Boston so I had a 4 hour pace band and positioned myself near the 4 hour pacer.  When the race started however, I had to immediately reconsider my goal.  The first little bit of the race is on a downhill.  I hadn't run at all since Boston and though I was feeling fine walking around the day before, it became immediately clear as soon as I starting running that my quads had not fully recovered.  They were achy.  Not painful mind you, but achy.  This was a new experience for me.  Realizing that I was about to run 26.2 miles on a hilly course with achy legs, I turned to plan B which was simply to finish.  I decided to run as slow as I could and then walk for a minute after every mile marker. 

Running!

There goes 4 hour pacer

Rather than stick to a fixed schedule, I ended up just walking whenever I felt like it.  This would happen for pretty much the whole race.  My achy legs never quite got better, but they never got worse so i suppose in the end it worked out well.  The mile markers in the race were quite humorous at times. Some with interesting sayings or jokes.

It's funny cause it's true!

At each mile marker, they would have volunteers calling out split times, average pace and expected finish times.  I got a picture of every mile marker except for the first one so rather than post all 25 of them, you can see them as part of the picture slide show below. The finish times being yelled out started out at 4 hours but would slowly start to increase.

There were a lot of musicians at the race, playing all types of different music. I've got some short videos of some of the musicians which I'll post later after I get them uploaded to Youtube.

Harp player

 The first little bit of the race is actually through a forest area so the view though scenic for a forest isn't that great.  The view however does slowly get better over the course of the marathon.

First scenic view of the ocean

So the race continues on. I had worn my Boston 2 Big Sur shirt and it was pretty amazing getting lots of cheers from fellow runners yelling "Go B2B".  Two girls who were doing the B2B had worn their Boston bib on their backs.  During one of my walk breaks, i encountered one Korean fellow wearing a B2B shirt (you can see him below), he was stretching out his back.  We would play leapfrog for most of the race.  The last I encountered of him he was really hurting.  I sure hope he was able to finish.

 There aren't a lot of spectators on the course, other than the musicians and at the aid stations, but with the scenery, there sure is a lot to look at. 

Blue Girl- Body paint or special type of sun screen?

So there's a first hill right during mile 9.  Mile marker is sorta funny.

That Pinocchio!

It's funny cause the hill to end all hills begins soon after this.  The hills leads up to a point called hurricane point which is quite far up.  The grade isn't so bad. I've run steeper.  It's just that the hill is so darned long.  You can get a sense of the hill from this picture.

Those little specs are people

At the base of the hill, they have people beating rhythmic drums to try and get you to charge up the hill.  

Photo op!

You then proceed to spend the next 2 to 3 miles climbing up to Hurricane Point.  They put a nice sign at almost the top of the hill for you to get you picture taken.  If you're racing up the hill, this certainly is the correct description.

It's funny cause it's true!

After you crest Hurricane Point, there's a slight downhill to the next interesting point which is the half way mark and Bixby Bridge which is famous for having the Grand Piano and a pianist playing.

I gotta run over there?

Once you get to the bridge, you encounter the wonderful sounds of a piano playing all sorts of different types of music.  You can see my previous post for a video of the piano player.

Getting closer...

I'm here!

 I'm not sure when i crossed the half mark.  They had a timing mat there, but they don't seem to have published split times.  I seem to remember it being between 2:20 and 2:30 which seems to coincide with the drop in heart rate on my monitor when I stopped for 5 minutes or so to record the video and enjoy the piano a bit. At this point, I remember thinking that beating 5 hours would be a doable goal.

Some more scenery.

Those Kenyans

More scenery.

More piano playing.  Not quite the same, but he was quite good!

Up until this point, I had been doing the walk and run thing and it had worked out quite well.  Somewhere during this time, I encountered Jeff Galloway and his group.  Galloway was doing a run walk thing and was aiming for a 5 hour marathon.  I would leap frog with him for a little while but I realized that my legs weren't getting worse so I thought it might be possible to bump up the pace a bit.  I would still do the walk breaks but would be a little faster on the run portion.

hmmm, strawberries.

Continued on and as I pass the 26 mile marker, I decide to bump up the pace a bit trying to pass some people so that I can position myself so I can get a nice finish line picture. All of a sudden, I guy I had passed decides he doesn't like being passed and starts to run faster to pass me. I suppose the testosterone got the better of me and I turned the jets on. When he realized that he couldn't stick with me, he just yelled "screw it" and slowed down.  My finish line pic looks like I'm grimicing in pain, but I'm actually laughing at the whole situation. 

So final finish time of 4:51.  Got my medals, my bib and the jacket which I quite like.  Ended up wearing it around for the next few days even though it was clearly too warm to be wearing. I bumped into a few others wearing the jacket in the days following and we would nod our heads acknowledging each others achievement.

Jacket

Went to the post race party and met up with Loves2Run.

I really had a fun time.  Not quite sure that it's better than Boston.  Sure it's more scenic and more interesting than Boston, but the fans are what makes Boston great.  I do however agree with Bart Yasso in that if you could only do one marathon in your lifetime, it should probably be Big Sur.  Would I do it again?  For sure!  I just don't think I'd do the Boston 2 Big Sur thing again.  In fact, almost all the B2B participants I talked to afterward said they would never do it again. Mind you, this was mere hours after having completed it so understandably people have no interest in subjecting themselves to the feeling again.  Given time, they (including me) might change their minds.

As you can tell from the pictures, it was almost perfect weather.  Not a cloud in the sky.  The sun was beating down on us for most of the race, but the breeze coming of the ocean helped to keep us cool  I ran the race with a white long sleeve t-shirt and think that was the right call.

Very challenging course. Couldn't imagine trying to race on this course. 

Well that's about it.  Spent a couple of extra days in Carmel, Monterey and then San Francisco.  You can see more pics from the days follow below.

Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon

I don't have much to report about Las Vegas or the Grand Canyon. I would have liked to spend more time in the Grand Canyon. I didn't realize that there's a lot stuff to do there other than look at the Canyon. I'll just leave you with a slide show of some pictures I took.



Picasa Link


On to San Franciso and Big Sur!

2010 Boston Marathon Report

How do I start?  It seems I have so much to say regarding the two marathons.  Boston marathon finish time was a 3:57:58.

Arrived on Saturday. If I had to do this again, I would have arrived earlier in the day. By the time, I had checked into the hotel, the expo was close to closing for the day. Though I probably would have been able to pick up my bib, I would have ended up going back on Sunday anyways to check out the expo which is fairly large. Saturday night, had dinner with Lee and Yumke and their significant others.

Come Sunday morning, the BAA 5k is run which I went out to watch last year, but decided not to this year. I had a number of things to do starting Sunday which included picking up my bib, checking out the expo, going to the RedSox game, eating the pasta dinner and attending a church service.

Last year, on my way to the Hynes convention centre through the Prudential Center which is an indoor shopping mall, I stumbled across a little catholic chapel that's located right in the Prudential Center. It’s literally right beside where you enter the Hynes centre to pick up your bib. It looks out of place. Guess what the name of it was?

St. Francis Chapel

Last year, I took this as a sign from above that I should probably attend a service at my namesake chapel prior to my first Boston marathon where I would attempt to run a negative split personal worse time.
Considering that it seemed to work last year and that my training this year hadn’t gone as well as I would have liked, I thought I would head back for some heavenly intervention.

During the service, I noticed a woman across the aisle wearing a Boston 2 Big Sur(B2B) T-shirt. The Big Sur people had bribed the B2B participants by promising us a free Runner’s World book if we wore our training shirt to the expo. I'm all for free stuff so I wore it. Talking to the race director at the Big Sur booth, he said he was tired of hearing people at the Boston expo say they couldn’t do Big Sur because it interfered with Boston. It was his intent to try and get a bunch of people walking around the expo with B2B shirts so that he could point us out whenever someone complained. Seems like a good marketing strategy. I ended up chatting with my fellow B2Ber after the service as we made our way to pick up our bibs.  As it turns out, she was not only running Boston and Big Sur, but she's doing a third marathon the week after Big Sur as part of a marathon maniac meet-up.  That's hard core!

So picked up my race packet and checked out the expo. I ended up buying a race jacket. Though the one from last year will always be special since it’s my first, I really don’t like the colour and don’t like wearing it in public unless it’s at a race. My plan was originally to not buy a jacket in Boston since Big Sur is giving us a special jacket for doing the two races so I thought that could be my official 2010 race jacket. However, the Big Sur race director was telling us that the jacket was navy blue fleece. I wanted something a little more water proof so I ended up buying a black one that can convert to a vest. I think it’ll get much more use.
Went to the official pasta dinner on Sunday night. Sat with some nurses from California all doing their first Boston. Though I’m no Boston veteran by any stretch of the imagination, I did my best to explain the Boston experience to them. Headed back to the hotel and went to sleep at around 11pm.

Sunday morning, met up with Lee, Yumke and Soran and headed down to the buses.

Waiting for the buses

Though we had qualified with much faster times, Kenny and I were trying for a 3:40. I had thought this would be a relatively easy pace. We had decided to start at the back of the first wave which seemed like the best option since everyone in the first wave would have qualified with a 3:35 or better.

Back of the first wave

 

So the jets flyover and the race starts.  Before we actually cross the start line, there's a lot of walking.  It takes us about 10 minutes to cross the start line and then we are off.

Looking behind at race start

Yumke, my running compatriot

So we were motoring right along at the start and clicking off the miles, feeling generally good.  Though we had both decided to bring our cameras along, Kenny had gone the extra step and was actually tweeting during the race, including a pic of me downing a beer.  I had grabbed it with the hopes of sipping on it for a while, but all I could hear were the college kids yelling "Chug, Chug, Chug" and so I obliged.  Some other sights from early in the race.

Bandit in a suit

Taking a quick break

There must be an interesting story behind this sign

Chicken on a bike

Santa and a slightly overgrown elf

Steve (far right, almost out of pic) and Mike who pulls an oxygen cart behind him

Wonder where it leads?

Homer!

So right before the half is Wellesley College which as you may or may not know is famous for its female spectators offering kisses to all-comers.  I commented last year of making the mistake of tearing through this without stopping.  This year I stopped and managed to get a video of the experience, so here you go.  Be warned though, you may get some motion sickness with all the bobbing. 

Youtube Link

Even with the two stops, I still sped through and got through the whole thing in about 2 minutes.  Ended up having to wait for Kenny at the end.  Oh well, I'll get it right eventually. 

We end up hitting the half at 1:48:55 which is about a minute faster than we were expecting.  We continue clicking along for a while.  More pictures.

Canadians!

Entering Newton (and the hills)

By the time we started into the Newton hills, my quads were starting to tighten up.  They were starting to get achy. Usually, I don't feel this way until after mile 20 and then it's usually after I've been doing full on marathon pace.  Considering I was running slower and was starting to ache at mile 17 or so, I was starting to get concerned.  I knew at this point, I was going to have to back off a little bit and so the pace slowed down.  My goal at this point was to get through heartbreak without having to stop and then figure out what to do from there.

Music

More Canadians!

More bands!

So we made it up the Newton hills and up heart break and at around the 22 mile point, we took a walk break. I had thought I could do a 10/1 run/walk thing and tried to start up again soon thereafter, but my quads were close to cramping at this point and with all the downhill running ahead of me, I thought it would be a bad idea, so i started walking again.  I told Kenny he could go on ahead and so we said our goodbyes and he took off.  I ended up walking most of the last 4 miles with the occasionally slow jog just to keep the muscles moving.  During one of my attempts at jogging, my quads seized up and I had to grab the spectator barrier to stretch it out. I continued to walk. At this point, I was eating anything that was given to me: Orange slices, little candies and a Recess Peanut Butter cup. I remember thinking that was the best piece of chocolate I had ever eaten. I had hoped to run the last mile in, but I continued to walk.  I did mange to run the last half mile including the turns from Commonwealth onto Boylston, including the last little bit at a quicker pace.  So happy with that.

Finished!

Here are some other pictures from Boston.




Picasa Link

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I had a miserable last few miles, because I didn't. I had a grand old time. If I didn't have to do another marathon in 6 days, I probably would have been able to just run through any difficulties, but with another hilly marathon looming, I thought it best to err on the side of caution. I did cross the finish line with my arms raised and a slight victory smile.

So looking back now, I realize that I had done a lot of things differently this time around.  My training wasn't close to where it should have been.  I did a 12 week plan with a maximum of 55 miles, but a lot of the weeks were in the mileage of low 40's.  I also didn't take any salt pills.  I had learned this lesson the hard way back in 2007 and for every marathon since that day, I have consumed salt pills in the days leading up to my marathon.  I didn't do that this time around and I'm fairly certain that is what led to the quads cramping. Also, I've also not been sticking or foam rolling my legs as much lately. I tried to foam roll my legs in the days leading up to the race and it hurt like hell. Gotta work on that.  

One thing I learned is that I think I ended up staying at the hotel (the Back Bay Hotel) with the perfect location for wave 1'ers. I was pleasantly surprised after picking up my gear and hoping to find an alley where I could change when i found myself standing outside my hotel.  Even though the hotel is quite a ways from the finish line, since they force you to walk down the street to get your medal, food and gear, the actual exit of the finish line staging area for the wave 1'ers just happened to be right where my hotel was. It also has the benefit of being across the street from the massages.  I skipped the massages and rather headed back to the hotel for an ice bath.  On to recovery. 

Next stop, Las Vegas.

Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge, done.

2nd half of the B2B Challenge is complete.  Finished in a tad under five hours.  Yeah my slowest marathon by a long shot.  Race reports are still being contemplated. I should probably start committing my thoughts to paper (or computer) before they become a distant memory.  


I wanted to share one of the highlights of my 6 days of marathon madness which is the grand piano at Bixby Bridge during the Big Sur marathon. Michael Martinez is the piano player who replaced the original Bixby Bridge player who passed on recently.  He's quite the piano protege.  Enjoy!



And for those that are reading this in a reader here is the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTyw2kKxdmk

In Vegas

Just updating the blog for those not following along on twitter. Boston marathon done. Final time was a little under 4 hours. I'm posting from Las Vegas right now.  On to the Grand Canyon in a hour or two.  I leave you with a little reminder of Boston. 

Trying to keep up with Ryan's recovery pace

I think I'm showing strain cause I'm running in jeans and he isn't. Yeah, that's it.  I have a bunch of other photos but my USB cable is on the fritz and I can't get them onto my computer to upload.  It's amazing how of all the cables I have at home, I pack the one that doesn't work.  Go figure.

Prepping for one heck of a week and a half.

Time for a monthly update.  Getting ready for the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge.  To be honest, the races themselves aren't really stressing me out.  What is stressing me out is the stuff I have planned between the two races.  In a little over a week and a half, I will be staying in seven different hotels, flying across the country and driving for hours on end, all by my lonesome.  In hindsight, I think it would have been much easier to just fly back to Toronto after Boston and head over to California the following weekend, but in the rush of the moment, i thought I'd be able to squeeze a side trip of Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon between the two races.  Will it work out?  Not sure. I'll be sure to let you know in a week's time. 

I'm pretty old hat at packing for a marathon trip, but how do you prepare for two marathons?  Pack light, pack a lot? With all the traveling, packing light seems to be the best option, but they'll be a wide range of possible weather, being from a tad chilly in Boston to downright hot in Vegas.  I'm sure there's going to be a mess of errors along the way.  In fact, I fully expect them to lose my checked luggage between Boston and Vegas. I have 50 minutes to make a connecting flight in Philadelphia.  Though I'll probably make the connection, based on past experience, my luggage won't. 

Anyways time to sleep.  I have to start packing at some point.  More to come in the next few days.

Blur of thoughts...

With my lack of posting, i suppose there's a lot of stuff that i should write about so this will seem a little all over the place.

I did my first VO2Max workout today for the training session and it was hard.  Only 5x600m but it felt much tougher.  It's been a while since i've run that fast.  I was supposed to do 5x1000m 2 weeks ago but had to skip it since there was still lots of puddles and ice at the track.  Anyways I think i averaged about 6:50 pace for them which isn't too hot compared to what i was doing last year.


Last week i managed a 55 mile week including a 20 mile run.  The longest I had done for this training cycle was 17 miles.  I thought i'd be able to handle it okay so i did my endurance building run which is to try and run slow and do the whole thing drinking only water (no gels, no gatorade).  First half went okay and i was able to pull off some 8:30 pace miles, but the second half, i started to feel like crap and managed about 9:10 pace.  At least it wasn't raining.

I entered the NYC marathon last week, hoping not to get in.  I'm trying for the three strikes and you're in thing which would mean running it in 2012 if i'm lucky (or unlucky as the case may me).

I'm looking at doing the Toronto marathon this fall since this'll be the last year that they have it during the fall.  Next year, it's moving to the spring.  

Boston bib numbers are out.  I'm 6862. I may have found a pacing pal in Yumke who'll be in the same corral as me and we might be running the whole thing slow since I'm fairly certain i don't have a chance at coming close to anything approaching a requalifying time.  I did this last year with Alex and had a great time, though i think it was a little too slow for me so no, i won't be going for a personal worst again this year.  Here's a collage i made of last year's race.  I've been meaning to get this framed along with my bib and medal, but i wanted to add a few more pictures to it first.

 I also have my Big Sur bib number which is 75.  This is a special Boston 2 Big Sur bib number.  There's only 400 of us (might be 300) so it's one of only a select few.   Apparently i have to bring proof of finishing Boston before they'll give me the Big Sur bib.  I wonder how strict they'll be? 

Daylight savings time has kicked in and now i have an excuse not to get up in the morning cause it's still too dark.  I can now run after work where it's still light outside.  heck i even ran in a short sleeve t and shorts today.  Summer is on it's way.

That's it for now.  You may notice that my posts will be sporadic for the next little while.  I tweet more often since it's quicker and easier to do, so if you have a twitter account, follow me.

Wow it’s been a while

So four weeks since I’ve last posted.  I’ve been meaning to post something, but I guess the Olympics got in the way (Go Canada!) as well as other stuff.  Training over these past few weeks has gone okay.  Not quite the mileage i would have liked, but okay I guess.

The lack of mileage has really killed my speed and so I’ve come to the realization that I probably won’t be racing Boston, rather I think I’ll just run it at a comfortable pace.  This was all but confirmed this past weekend where the training plan had a 15 mile run with 12 at marathon pace on and out and back route down by the lake.  Started out with 2 warmup miles, but just didn’t feel like battling the wind on the out portion.  On the way back, i bumped it out to marathon pace with the last two at an LT effort.  The marathon pace portion was at around 7:50, but considering that I had the wind at my back, it probably should have been at around 8:00 min/mile. 

Well this upcoming week is supposed to be the peak week at 55 miles and even with the crappy training so far, i’m going to try to squeeze it all in.  Thankfully the snow has all mostly melted so i can start squeezing in track workouts so maybe the speed will come back.

So, I’ve been meaning to post these calendar sayings at the beginning of each month, but I skipped February and it’s now March so you get two for one today!

Good running all!

My Hood (kinda)

Slowly building up the miles.  Managed to get up at 4:45 this morning for an 11 mile run which surprised the heck out of me.  Had an after work engagment and knowing that I wouldn't be able to do the run afterwork was pretty much the only thing that allowed me to get it done in the morning. 

Last week i did 40 miles which included a 15 mile long run downtown.  In fact, it was the same route I did two weeks ago. Took my point and shoot camera with me.  I got a small waterproof camera for Christmas and it's the first time I've really used it.  I initially had thoughts of filming my swimming stroke or checking out my flip turns, but as with any piece or pricey technology, there's just something about dunking it into water that doesn't seem right.  I've been thinking of maybe doing the Boston marathon part II picture thing.  One thing from last year was i don't think i got enough pictures of the race itself.  Sure I had a lot of pictures of me standing in front of mile markers but i had very little else from the race which i sort of regret. I'm definitely going to do the picture thing in Big Sur. Anyhow, i thought i'd give you a tour of my waterfront route since it was such a nice day, not a cloud in the sky and very little snow on the ground.. 

 Boats Stuck in Water

 Abandoned Soy Silos 

 Red Path Sugar Factory

 Closer look at artwork

Boats anchored for the winter

 Skating rink at Harbourfront

 Pier at the harbourfront

 Sailboat without sails

 Rogers Centre and CN Tower

 Ontario Place and the Molson Amphitheatre

 Windmill

 Ice

 Birds

 More Birds

 

 Pictures taken on the run

 Swans, (wonder if these are the same ones from last year)

 Floating restaurant on a boat

More Boats 

 

The Beach where i start and end my route

The Second Job

Today, I managed 8 miles with 4 at a tempo effort  The 4 LT miles ended up being at about 7:35 min/mile pace which is about where i was expecting it to be. Got up in morning to do it.  I've realized that I can't do runs after work. I just can't motivate myself do anything more than a short recovery run at the end of a long day.  

So today, good old Wiarton Willie predicted 6 more week of winter.  If it's 6 weeks more like the winter we've been having, that's fine with me.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to to take advantage of the lack of snow this past week.  Last week was the first week of a 12 week plan and it didn't go too well.  Only managed an 8 miler and a 6 miler and skipped the long run.   This whole training thing is started to feel like a second job.  I had this feeling leading up to my May marathon back in 2008.  At the time, the close to 70 mile weeks and the 6 days a week of running started to drag me down, but i kinda put up with it since I was so close to BQ'ing at the time.  Now with 2 hours of commuting on weekdays, i'm starting to get that same feeling but with far less running which is causing me to rethink this training plan and what i want to accomplish in Boston. Do i really want to requalify?  I'm already qualified for 2011 and probably won't be running it anyways, so the motivation is extremely lacking.  It's just very easy these days to put off runs.  I need to find where my mojo has gone.