BeachBody Day72 – Sunday – Big Sur International Marathon!!

Those that follow me on Twitter and Facebook know that Big Sur went well :-) I had a blast!! The weather was perfect and it was just an absolutely beautiful run. I was so happy to share the experience with my Aunt and Sister. We all did better than we had expected :-)

Our morning started early. My aunt’s 21miler had her up at 3a :-/ We did not envy her. She said that she didn’t sleep for more than a couple hours because she was nervous. And despite that she still beat her training time and came in under 4 hours! Way to go Aunt San!! My sister’s 5K and my 9miler started at the same time. We were up at 5a.  We got dressed and packed up because my aunt had already checked us out when she left for her race. At first I thought her race would start before mine. We were happy to be able to start together. My sister ran her whole 5K – which she hadn’t planned on doing because of her hip – and beat her expected time too. I am so proud of both of them.

I was separated from my sister early on. I tend to get very focused and just run.  Our courses split after a run on a trail by the water. It was just so beautiful. I wish I could have stopped to take pictures and just take it all in, but I had to keep running. It was 50 degrees and overcast when we started. I really couldn’t have asked for better weather. It’s what I’m use to running in. What I wasn’t use to were the hills :-/ I knew that there would be some hills, but I wasn’t expecting it to be hill after hill. lol. Not that they were all big hills, but it there wasn’t all that much flat areas. It would level off and then I was going either up or down again. I could definitely feel my booty getting worked! I didn’t run with music because I wanted to enjoy the course.  There was plenty of entertainment.  There was a Samba band, a flute player, a guy playing the bag pips, a band singing, and people cheering you on all through out the course. It also helped that there was just beautiful scenery throughout the course. The beginning took us through a really nice neighborhood in Carmel. I would love to live in one of those houses. There were several ocean views and the run through the park was wonderful. It felt like I was running through my grandfather’s property.

I had my phone in my belt so I didn’t see what my time or pace was. I had no concept of how time at all. There were only a couple mile markers that I could see.  The 1 mile point and the 25mile marker which marked the last mile for all the courses. I felt like I was running slower because of the hills and that I was getting passed up. When I could feel it in my legs I was hoping that I was getting close to the end.  During training, it was the last couple miles that my legs would start to feel tired and my knees got achy. This time, I could feel my booty and my calves too.  I loved that there were people all throughout the last half mile cheering you on. It was so cute to see the little kids cheering.  They also had cardboard cut outs that were funny.

I could hear the announcer as I got closer to the finish line. I used everything I had left to go faster at the end. I almost couldn’t believe that I was done when I crossed the finish line. It didn’t feel like I had been running for over an hour.  A girl came up to me and handed me a finisher medal and I wound up posing for photo. I was directed towards the tents and told to grab a brown paper bag and go. I took half a blueberry muffin that was offered to me and called my sister to find out where she was. She wasn’t expecting me for a while so she was a little shocked when I called her. We stretched out and went to starbucks for coffee and tea. We had a couple hours before my Aunt was expected to finish her race so we walked around the Finisher’s Village. There were tents for the special groups and sponsors. You couldn’t miss the Michelobe Ultra tent if you tried. lol.

We decided to go to finish line and watch the racers come in. I was very inspired by the marathoners crossing the finish line. Many had big smiles on their faces as they crossed that finish line. I loved how many of the spectators cheered all of the runners on at the end. There was just so much positive energy and excitement. I was impressed by those that did the Boston to Big Sur. I really can’t imagine running one marathon and then running a second one only 13 days later :-/ We were trying to catch our Aunt coming across the finish line. We watched for two hours and then we started to think we must have missed her. My sister got a call from a local number it was my Aunt calling from someone’s phone. She had finished an hour earlier. lol. We met her at the Info booth. Obviously we didn’t have a post race meet up plan set up. We asked a volunteer to take a picture of us then headed out to lunch. I was starving! I decided to have 1 slice of pesto pizza as a treat. Then it was time to drive home. I had to fight falling asleep O_o I was sooo tired all the way home.

Turbo Fire Day 70 – I did not get a chance to rest once I did get home. Ben went to run some errands which meant I had the boys to take care of and it was almost dinner time. I forced myself to do my Turbo Fire workout for the day. I kept it low impact on the fire drills for Fire30 but I gave the workout everything I had left. Stretch10 was great. My sore muscles enjoyed the extended stretch.

I have to Thank my boys for being extremely good that night.  They saw that I was extremely tired and didn’t make things hard for me. They ate their dinner and went to bed without any trouble.  They also gave me Big Hugs to make me feel better :-)

I know that I didn’t have to do a plank for the night, but I told myself that I could do anything for 1min so I did a one minute plank on my elbows :-)

Meals –

M1: Whole Wheat Bagel Thin w/ Almond Butter and a banana. Zico to drink.

Carried a 20 oz. bottle with Zico for my run. Stopped at the last 2 aid stations for water.

M2: Half of a blueberry muffin and Starbucks Iced Green Tea/ Luna bar and Chocolate Zico.

M3: 1 Slice of Pest Pizza from Pizza My Heart and a Chicken Walnut Salad.

M4: Almond Coconut Kind bar – on the ride home.

M5: Quinoa w/ turkey spinach red sauce.

60 oz. water and 3 Zicos.