David Ortiz's Staging Area

We all sign up for Big Sur in part to run across the iconic Bixby Bridge. Mother Nature caused a landslide that took out part of Hwy 1 and thus re-routed the course to an out and back. This meant no Bixby Bridge. 🙁 However, the course was still spectacularly beautiful and without question a great experience. Big Sur was my 52 marathon and one of my favorites.

You will need a lot of patience because there is an early, like super early, bus you need to take to the start. You hang out in a big field until the start to call your corral to line up. At this point, things start to move really quickly. Get to the start after a 10 minute walk and before you know you are off.

Let’s state the obvious, the course is hilly. But even as a flat lander, I found it a totally runnable course. I was super nervous about the course but it certainly was nowhere near as bad as I feared. It’s a lot of rolling hills so there is never any super steep incline. Slow down or walk the hills and you will do fine. That said the start of the race had some really tough sloped roads that were rather challenging on your feet and ankles…because it was out and back we had to run 3 or so miles again on the sloped roads.

Race production was great. Outside of the volunteers at the aid stations, there is no crowd support. But that is totally fine because you are enthralled with the beauty of the course.

So many runners are from across the world. I loved this aspect.

The expo is small, not too much happening there. There is a happy hour each day of the expo.

Monterey is GORGEOUS. A very quaint city with wonderful food and drink.

We stayed in Pasa Robles for half a week after the race. Beautiful wine country just 1.5 hours south of Monterey. A must do.

Run BSIM, you will love it!!!