Right coast to Big Sur by wnewsham

I have a recommendation for anyone planning a Boston/Big Sur double. DON"T!

This course is damn tough.

Despite going out easy by 4M my quads were complaining and I knew I was in trouble. I actually felt better two days ago. Then I got out of the woods and hit the straight at 6M and POW! Headwind. I immediately changed my race goals as I battled ths stiff wind for the next 3M. Unfortunately I was also alone at the time so drafting was out. After holding a sub 3 pace for close to 10M I hit the hill into Hurricane point and for me this was the highlight of the race. Running uphill actually felt much better and I chugged up that baby with no problem catching back a few people. By now I was also noting the walkers. The downhill from Hurricane did me in. My quads were in open revolt and I hit the Bixby bridge in 1:33. ...feeling BAD. From here on in I was purely in survival mode wondering if I could actually stagger for 13 miles to the finish. The only thing I'm proud of about this race was that I actually never walked, although after dragging the 2nd half in 1:50 I came pretty close finishing in around 3:23 and change. Much was said about the tilt in the road in the later sections. I actually was bothered by this throughout the entire race. Somewhere around 21 or so while reaching for a glass of liquid I had a walker step out in front of me and as I was looking to the side to grab fluids I plowed squarely into the back of her. She was a larger woman and while I slammed her forward she also brought me to a dead stop. From here on I got pretty pissed at the large groups, some completely blocking the whole left lane at times. In fact this might have actually carried me thru the race. I ran the last 5 ANGRY, aiming like a cruise missle for anyone wandering out into the center of the road. At the end I must have looked pretty bad cause I practically had to beat off the medical personel; however later I was temped to go looking for THEM.

It took me ages to get out of the athletes village. The legs were shot and I couldn't walk. I finally wandered out into the streets and found a nice park bench to sit on. A guy came by walking his dog and I asked him where the Marriot was. "Monterey" he says. "Oh" I said "this is Carmel isn't it". So I was back up staggering around and finally found the buses back to my car. I'm now going to raid a Round Table Pizza place I spotted in town. Hope they have enough dough and possibly a wheelchair.