Jason Fingerman's Staging Area

Training
Signed up for Big Sur last fall, as I’ve done most of the spring marathons that are within a day’s drive of my Syracuse, NY home. I had been eyeing photos of Bixby Bridge in Runners’ World magazine for years and got the green light from my “activities coordinator” to register. Better yet I was able to convince a friend that I had not seen in more than 20 years, who has since moved to Florida, to also sign up, so I would get a chance to see her and her boyfriend and have some company to hang out with in Cali.

I run all year and my marathon training does not really impact my weeknight workouts. I tend to run three nights per week at an easy 8:30-9:00 per mile pace, for about a half hour. Sometimes I will stretch it out to four or five miles if the weather is nice or if I have some company, but usually not.

My weekends, then, are the only part of my running that I adjust to train for marathons. Big Sur was #13 for me, and I tend to do one (and sometimes two) per spring and fall. I start out with a weekly “long run” of about 7-8 miles, and stretch it out by 1-1.5 miles per week, and then dial it back once every four weeks or so. I’ll also combine local races with extra miles – so, for example, I did a 14 mile “warm up” before our local 4 mile St. Patrick’s day race, and I did an 8 mile warm up before a half marathon three weeks out from the race.

All of my long runs were also in that 8:45-9:00/mile range and I had nothing but comfortable, easy runs, with minimal health issues. The occasional knot in my glute or calves (and I ended up wearing CEP compression sleeves for all of my long runs as well as on race day) but nothing prohibitive.

My goal for every marathon is a sub 4 hour finish. I’ve been able to do that in 10 of the 12 marathons that I had done going in, only not being able to on two particulary hot sunny races (Vermont City 2016 and MCM 2017). I knew it was a tall order to try and get a sub 4 on a notoriously hard course, but I felt that it would make the expense of time and money more palatable to me to hit that mark.

Pre-race
Well, as the stories have been told, pre race is a bit ridiculous, just because of the hour that the day starts. I had a 4 AM bus ticket, and a 15 minute drive to the parking garage, and then needed time to dress. I had set my alarm for 3:00 AM but I was up probably around 2:30 and just taking easy deep breaths. I got maybe 4 ½ hours sleep in total. It’d be enough. I knew there was a big ol nap in my future.

Had a granola bar and some coffee in my hotel and then, on the hour+ bus ride, brought along one of those new “overnight oats” cups that had been soaking since the night before, which I ate around 5 AM. Had a quarter of a bagel and water at the race start and we were off right on schedule. I was in wave #2, starting at 6:50, and the race went off right on time.

Race miles 1-10
It’s hard to not go flying out of the gate in this race! The first four miles are downhill, at times a steep downhill, and miles 4-10 are a very gradual uphill (a gain of about 180’ over those six miles). I kept telling myself aloud to slow down as I was in a nice easy rhythm.

I generally pick a pace to run and try and hold it for the duration. Technically, long runs in the 8:45-9:00 range, I would have been trying to run low 8’s. Having driven the course the day before the race (so I could get some pictures, and get a sense of the course), I knew that was not sustainable. I fell into a 8:40-ish pace and just kind of cruised. Stuck with my normal nutrition, alternating Carb Boom! Gels and half packs of Shot Blocks every 45 minutes, with water. I used a hand held water bottle so as to be able to drink on my own schedule.

Race miles 10-12
This is “Hurricane Point.” It’s a legendary two mile hill with a net gain of about 500’ over those two miles, and starts at almost exactly the ten mile walk, and ends at almost exactly the 12 mile mark. I found mile 10-11 to be much steeper and a tougher climb, where as mile 11-12 was just a decent hill. My pace was in the high 9’s for the harder mile and then a lower 9 for mile 11. I felt good at the top of that hill and that is some view!

Race miles 12-14
This is the best part of the race — the big hill is conquered and it’s a fast push down the hill to Bixby Bridge, the famous bridge in the race logo and photos. It was full of energy, tons of runners that stopped to take photos of that part of the course, either as selfies or just to capture it. I was glad I had gotten my photos in a day sooner so that I could focus on running.

Race miles 14-22
I generally lump all of these miles together because there was an underlying theme to them. It was hill, then, hill, then another hill, and so on. There were some downhill sections as well, where I was able to sustain a general pace in the 8:30-8:40 range, but, as each hill came upon me, my uphill pace gradually climbed from low 9’s all the way up over 10 minutes per mile near the end. It was beautiful, there were several really lovely stretches of the course here, but the hills were a real mental challenge. I knew from driving the course that it would be like that, but around mile 19 or so I felt like I had had enough hills.

I ate my last gel at the three hour mark, around mile 20.5, and decided I had had enough running fuel. I spent the last stretch of the race eating fresh orange slices and strawberries where offered.

We had a couple of brief stretches of rain at this point, probably two intervals each lasting 5-7 minutes. I found it refreshing — as long as my socks don’t get wet, I don’t mind a bit of rain.

My glutes tightened up but it was not anything long lasting. The knots kind of came and went. My calves stayed well compressed with no aches at all. I actually didn’t have anything bothering me, aside from general fatigue of climbing so many hills.

Race miles 22-26
After mile 22 the race kind of veers off away from the sea and towards Carmel. There’s quite a bit of downhill here but it is tough to enjoy because of the extreme camber in the road. I found myself running on the wrong side of the cones where I could just because there were flatter parts of the course to be found there. I was still running around a 9 minute mile downhill, but my last hill (mile 25) was probably about a 10:30 pace.

I was tempted to take walking breaks but realized, based on the math I was doing in my head, that as soon as I added walking minutes to my time, I was going to not hit that four minute walk. So after the last water/food stop it was straight in to the finish.

Finally, at mile 26, with the finish line in sight, I was able to push out the last .4 miles (I ran long, typical for any marathon) at a nice 8:17 pace, to come in at 3:56:22. Good enough for 672nd out of 4500~ runners (though maybe a quarter of them didn’t have finish times? I wonder if the sweepers catch that many runners) and 75th out of 321 in my age group.

Top 15% overall and top 25% in my age group, and, enjoyed a ton of amazing spectacles, and didn’t walk, and finished strong? That’s a good marathon right there. It was my slowest sub 4 (I ran a 3:41:17 on a flat Wineglass course in 2014) but it was a sub 4 nonetheless.

I chatted it up with lots of other runners, from all over the world, and enjoyed it. For quite a few of them it was their first marathon! Hard to imagine that as someone’s first 26.2 mile race.

Next up is the Ottawa Marathon, 26 days from now.

Post race
The cloudy and cool (mid 50’s) weather didn’t allow for a ton of post race dawdling. My friend and her boyfriend were at a 6 hour finish pace so I knew I would not still be around when they came in. I put on dry clothes that were in my checked bag, then had my free beer and a few snacks and caught the shuttle back to my car. Then a drive to my hotel, a shower, some leftover pizza for lunch, and a two hour nap which I enjoyed mightily.