My great friend from grad school used to live in Pacific Grove and was an amazing tour guide. We started off in Carmel by the Sea. Everything I have ever read about Carmel was true. I would love to live there but couldn't even afford a shack. Wine tasting rooms, amazing seafood, beautiful views, and the people are wonderful. I loved Carmel.
Then we moved on to driving Big Sur and checking into out Monterey hotel. We managed to do our packet pick up early and found out that about 65% of the runners were female for this race.
As for race day. This was a whole new feeling. Not having to park and having the race end behind our hotel was amazing! It seemed so easy I would do it again.
The race had hills. The big sur 1/2 is advertised as "gentle rolling hills" they are only rolling as you are not in San Francisco.
Miles 1 my phone range and it was the security company! I didn't answer I figured they would call 1 of my 2 back up people.
Mile 2-3 were flatter and great. It involved running in a tunnel that was an amazing view and there was a guy playing bagpipes.
Mile 4 My phone rang again!! Security company so I finally answered, gave them a back up number and called my mom. It was a little hard to run up a hill and talk.
Miles 6-9 were tough as the road was something I have never seen before. It was larger rocks that were sealed onto the road and they were actually painful on the feet. This was the consensus of everyone around us too.
Miles 10-13.1 were great. We were back by Lover's point and there was packed sand to run on. This was a relief to the feet and I got some of my wind back.
Overall a finish of 2:44 Better than what I had planned after 5 months of physical therapy and basically 5 weeks to train. All my running before that had to be 3-5 miles.
Now that the race is done my PT and I agree, 6 weeks to shut down the leg and then hit the running mechanics again. I can run but back to 3 miles to ensure no flare ups, no KT Tape, and no Lido patches. Our goal is to get me running with no items to "get me through".
The trip as a whole was amazing. I cannot say enough about these areas.
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| Heaven! |
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| Bixby Bridge |
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| Monterey Aquarium |
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| Seal Rock |
