Ryan Nevin's Staging Area

I will try to do this race again in my lifetime, two more times if I’m lucky. It is so beautiful – I took lots of pictures and they don’t do it justice. As such, I did not pay attention to how fast I was going – that burned me big time. After by 6 miles you’re out of the forest and get blasted by the wind, and then double-whammy with the hills in the middle. Make sure you include hills in your training! The finisher’s medal is really nice, but swag otherwise was a big letdown: the long sleeve technical shirt was a light seagreen color and I wished it were a ‘safer’ color, like the blue of the shirt I ended up buying for $40 shirt. Also, I got a running cap for $43 after tax, which is crazy. The branding of Big Sur is expensive for the longer distances, hence my race swag score is very low. Plenty of ‘clearance’ items for the shorter distances. Other lessons learned: (1) aside from a hotel, book a restaurant reservation months out if you’re staying in Carmel – Carmel is not designed to house and feed thousands of extra people. They do their best, but reservations fill quick. We had to do delivery. (2) wear two additional layers plus a poncho to the start; it will be up to two hours after you arrive for the race to start. And if it rains…could be miserable, unless you camp in a port-a-potty! Haha! As such, you don’t need to be on the very first bus, but do show up on time. (3) hill training is essential (4) fly out two days before the race – getting from SFO can take longer than you may think (5) confirm where you stay has adequate parking – the Pine Inn did not

Great start time at 9am, so I didn’t have to get up super early. The long sleeve shirt is good quality, Storm Creek. Course is mostly flat and out and back course for the 10 mile with 4-6 challenging hills. Very good production as usually with TCM events. Free races for the kids was great. Unfortunately I was unable to stick around for the post-race festival, but the fact they had it was a real nice idea. This is a good race to kickoff your race season and assess you state of fitness.

Course is around the corn fields and around the farm. It is flat but the terrain is really uneven – I wore trail shoes to help with my time. It’s easy to twist an ankle! Race organization was done really well. For an extra fee, I ran with a pumpkin, which got me a “Tough Pumpkin” medal in addition to the regular medal. Both medals are really nice and the back is magnetic in case you want to put it on the fridge. Aside from a ‘free’ pumpkin and cider, the basic race entry includes entry to the farm, which has a LOT of activities for kids. Kids 3 and under get in free. Spectators have to pay. There is food onsite also. Great ‘trail’ run experience if you’re looking into doing longer event.

The course is great – almost completely covered with open air on the bluff and lake. Starting early helps get to the bluff without bumping into hikers.

The field size is several hundred people, and ability varies widely, so there was little bunching or bumping into others. The trails for the most part were wide, with the only bottleneck being near the bluff – other participants taking group pictures, and you have to hop down a couple rocks. If it isn’t apparent from the map, you only traverse the EAST side of the lake, the race does not go around the lake. I think going around the lake would be cool, but logistically challenging. This course IS hilly, so practice running up steep grades, the first half was tough, after that most of it is minor ups/downs.

Near the start, porta-johns were plentiful, I didn’t have to wait long to go, even <10min before the start. The 10k race started at 8AM, and it was already heating up. I passed a handful of half marathoners, who started at 7am. I don't envy the 50-miler runners that started at 5AM, it was getting pretty hot when we were hiking later and still saw them going…kudos to them. All other distances than the 10k see more of the park, I think the 50 mile had a lap to do, out-n-backs.

Packet pickup was quick, they asked people to look up their bib number before approaching which always saves a LOT of time. I did not go to the pickup the night before, but it went to 8PM – rare for a packet pickup and great for out-of-towners. Regarding swag, the shirt was wicking with the DWD logo and name on the front – pretty standard. The medal was nice, but same for the 10k and half marathon, the only difference being the neck ribbon. I don’t know what the other distances medals looked like – I’d hope if you do a 50k/50mi you would get an awesome looking medal. I’d definitely do this race again, probably the half marathon, but a longer distance…the heat and humidity would be the one thing holding me back.

well run production, great swag, very nice expo, strong city support, little to no bad views throughout the run. I’ve done this course 4+ times and plan to do it again. It can be quite cold at the start.