(#43) Big Sur Half Marathon – Part 1 (Signs & Fun)

November 18, 2012

This race was one of the last ones I added when making the schedule, and I’m glad I added it. It may have just cracked the top 5 of the year.

People were saying it was most likely going to be cold and rainy the morning of the race, but the weather was lovely.

Before the race started, the announcer came over the sound system. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, we need someone out there to sing our national anthem. Seriously. One of you, please volunteer.” You know I would’ve been first up on the stage in this scenario, in most cases. However, I was about 80 million miles from the stage in one of the last corrals. I couldn’t teleport over there, and someone got to it before me. Ah, well, perhaps next time.

I wanted to see how long I could stay with the 3-hour pacer in this race. However, there was no 3-hour pacer. So, I lined up with 2:45! And I actually made it for almost 3 miles. Mike was taking a run/walk approach. It was sort of nice ’cause the walk breaks were lovely – but that meant we had to go all that much faster when we were running!

He was a fun pacer, and it was a fun group. I knew there was no way I was doing the whole race with them, but I told them I’d hold on as long as I could. Mike had a little speaker system with him and said we could request songs. Everyone else was pretty quiet about their requests, so everyone once in a while, you’d just hear this struggling voice toward the back of our pack “Maroon 5!” “Carly Rae Jepsen!”

After I lost the group, I slowed way down and just sort of chilled out for a few miles.

The mile markers in this race were hilarious. I loved them so much. There were cute little cartoons on every one!

There were some great signs in general at this race. Someone had one that said “Stop reading! Run!”

Then there was an apartment building I passed that had signs all along the balcony: “Choices. – You could be watching football and drinking beer.” “Don’t worry, everyone gets a trophy.” “Some people won’t drive 13.1 miles today.” “You’re NOT almost there yet.”

Whoever lives there – thanks for putting signs all along your balcony. We are now friends (even though we do not know each other).

Someone else had Justin Bieber cutouts along the road, which I thought was pretty funny and random.

There was a guy holding a sign that said, “Run faster! I just farted,” who was out there all day cheering for people. Big ups to you, man.

Once we got to the turnaround, I got a new burst of energy. As soon as I made the turn, for some reason I felt like as long as there were people on the other side of the turnaround who could see me going the opposite way – I had to jog, as though I had to justify being ahead of them in the race. It was fun because it gave me and added burst of energy.

I tried to cheer for everyone I passed. Our names were on our bibs so I told people great job by name as I jogged along.

Then something scary happened. And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

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