Pedro Valencia's Staging Area

This was my first Big Sur Marathon and I loved the entire experience. When I first began preparing for it, I didn’t have much of a reason other than to check it off my bucket list. A few months into the prep, I was invited to be a part of the Relay For Rachael team in order to help fundraise for her care costs for the year. Rachael is a paraplegic that hosts fundraising events through the year to help pay for her costs of living and caregiving. This was a huge motivator for me, it gave me a bigger purpose for running other than just checking a race off my bucket list. It was such a pleasure to participate in the entire event. The harsh part for me was that J injured my achilles the Monday before the race, it was a week of healing and icing. The Saturday before the race I woke up sick with sore throat and coughing, this was not going to stop me, I prepared for too long to stop and not complete what I promised Rachael I would do. I ran it sick and with an injured achilles, which luckily didn’t bother me until mile 21, and the most important part, I had a blast running the most beautiful highway in the west coast ! I am super excited to prepare for it again next year !!