Big Sur Marathon 2016

 Big Sur Marathon

April 24, 2016

4:55:21  2076/3237 overall   22/46 Age Group

Jodi 4:55:23   2077/3237 overall  144/312 AG   144/312 F

Boston 2 Big Sur Double

Combined 9:20:11   336/402 overall   150 of 175 Male

            Six days after running the Boston Marathon, I was set to run the Big Sur Marathon with Jodi as part of the Boston to Big Sur Challenge. I had spent the week resting and going to Barrows for physical therapy and was apprehensive of how I would feel. Jodi and I drove to Monterey Saturday morning and had a wonderful clam chowder lunch on the wharf and went to the expo in the parking lot there. While on the wharf, we spied a lady walking around with her Big Sur bib attached to her shirt; hadn’t seen that one before. Definite rookie! lol

            We enjoyed a wonderful pasta dinner at Fish Wife in Pacific Grove with cousins Paul, Linnea, Clara, and Leslie Koopmans. Linnea was doing the Boston 2 Big Sur double and Paul was running Big Sur. It was so fun to see all of them back in the area where they were raised.

            The trip to the starting line started early with a 3:50 wake-up and 4:30 bus ride to the start. The ride was in the dark on the winding road that is Hwy 1. In the waiting area, Jodi got a picture with a guy named Tai who is currently on the TV show, Survivor. Once we started running, I was hurting a bit, but after a few miles, I could run fairly well and felt pretty good. As I did at Boston, I ran a few miles and then walked a couple of minutes. Because of the mountainous terrain, this varied a lot, but we did a lot more running than I did at Boston because I had Jodi to pull me along. We stopped to take pictures of the gorgeous coastal scenery especially the Bixby Bridge, the drummers, and the grand piano player.

            There is a two mile mountain from mile 9 to 11 and we ran most of that so were happy about that. Jodi ran the mountains really strongly and then would slow so I could catch up to her. It was a very fun atmosphere during the race. We even got strawberries near the end of the race.

            Afterwards, we went to the special B2B tent where I go my B2B medal and jacket. They had tri-tip sandwiches and pasta salad to eat, so it was much better than the usual post-race fare. Quite an eventful coast-to-coast adventure!

This was Marathon #148; 21 states on 2d go round; 9 Canadian provinces. Next up: Prince Edward Island Oct. 2016.     

Pictures at: https://www.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1JcNWbVkxZ3s&emid=shareprintviewer&linkid=link

Boston Marathon 2016

Boston Marathon

April 18, 2016

4:24:50  21,195/26,639 overall   229/547 Age Group 

            This Boston Marathon (my 18^th Boston, most of any qualifier in the Fresno area) was dedicated to my own dear cat, Boston, who was named after the marathon and who died in January.  Also, my uncle Howard Duncan passed away at the age of 94 on Friday morning April 15^th so I ran the race in his honor.

            I went to the expo onFriday where I immediately ran into J.K. and shared the moment of silence at 4:39 in memory of the victims of the Boston bombing 3 years ago. I saw Kathrine Switzer who was the first female entrant to run Boston. I’ve met her a few other times including arranging for her to come to Fresno to speak at TC Marathon and FSU so she remembered me and was nice enough to sign my bib in honor of Uncle Howie. I also got to talk to Bart Yasso whom I’ve met at various marathons from Vermont to Saskatchewan.

            Jodi texted to tell me how much she’d owe me if I got a picture with Meb so I took ones with some cutouts and posters that were all over the expo and sent them to her. But the secret was that I had talked to the folks at his booth about this and they gave me a ticket to go to the head of the line and indeed talk to Meb and get his picture. (See all these and other things I mention at the Shutterfly link.)

            After leaving the expo, I went by the finish line and through the Boston Common on the way to Cheers where I had a wonderful dinner and fun time seeing the Cheers gang. I went down Newbery Street, the famous shopping street in Boston and then headed back to Dayville, CT where I stayed once again with my cousins, John and Linda Duncan. We visited a cool waterfall and enjoyed some great sunsets and went together to church in Marlborough on Sunday. They both were great chauffeurs to and from the marathon and Linda made sure I had great pre and post race meals!

            For the first time in 36 years of running I had been experiencing a running injury that noticeably affected my running. I was also going to do the Big Sur Marathon in six days so my plan was to run 2 miles and walk 2 minutes through most of the race. I stuck to my plan and didn’t have a fast finish time, but was a lot less sore than usual after Boston or other marathons. I did run a relaxed race and even took time to take a few pictures along the way. It was a fairly warm day with temps in the mid 60s and bright sun so not a day for fast times anyway. I saw one lady with yellow and blue tutu and told her about those Boston colors being the theme colors for Jodi’s and my wedding and I avoided the temptations of the girls of Wellsley College, even the one who had a sign that said, “Kiss me; I’m from California”! I did have a nasty blood blister on my toe so skip picture #129 if you don’t want to see itJ

This was Marathon #147; 21 states on 2d go round; 9 Canadian provinces. Next up: Big Sur on April 18 and 24, 2016.     Pictures at: https://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1JcNWbVkxZ2o