Road Trip!!! Part Three - The Marathon Route

The Pre-Race Photo Tour
So, when you're running a marathon - or any race really - it's no fun to have your camera sloshing around in a fanny-pack. Runners do it all the time - I've done it before. I don't like it. So, the day before the race we took a little drive along the course. Really, we wanted to see what I was in for - rumor has it that this is one of the most challenging marathons in existence. It's also been said that if you could only do one marathon in your lifetime - this should be the one.
Here I am! This is the staging area for the starting line. Don't be fooled by the downhill start or the lack of wind - those things go away in a few miles....

The first several miles of the course run through forested areas like this. So completely nice. I'm glad the sun was out for the photo-tour. For the race it wasn't.

The first half is sort of rolling hills. Hills that were more long than steep and hills I could totally run up. At mile 6-7 the wind picked up. The marathon runs from south to north. Sadly, the prevailing winds blow from north to south.

I think this is a photo of Hurricane Point. I wish it was better. At mile 10 you have to run 2 miles up a 5% grade. The top is called Hurricane Point. Of course, I walked some of that. Earlier in the race someone said that they thought we would run into fog. Yeah, they lied. We got wind. What was AWESOME were the Taiko drummers at the bottom of the hill just before you start your climb. So, the problem with this section of the race isn't so much the incline as it is the environment. The higher up you get the colder and harder the wind blows. At the top there were hats and sunglasses flying off all over the place. There were a few runners wearing wind breakers and they blew up like a puffy nylon balloon. The wind was blowing all the way through the mesh in my shoes - It was SO COLD!!!! But then you get to run down the other side and as you get lower it gets warmer and, after a while, less windy....

At the bottom of Hurricane Point is the Bixby Bridge. I LOVE to run on bridges - especially cool ones like this! This bridge sits at the half-way mark for the race. SO cool. This thing is gigantic! As you come off the bridge there is a guy in a tuxedo playing a black grand piano. Super Cool!

How many ways can you say GORGEOUS!!!!!! Time went by really fast in this race because there was so much beauty surrounding you every second.

Carrie and I at one of the 'scenic overlooks'. See my hair blowing in the wind. Yeah, I ran in that.

This is the Rocky Creek bridge. I forget where this falls in the race. Probably around 18 where I lose the ability to count. Isn't this spectacular?!!!

More pretty things.

FABULOUS!

See the road in the top. See how it's going down. I got to run down that. See how far down it is from the camera's vantage point? That's a hill I got to run up.

The second half of the course was tough. There were more hills. Shorter but steeper hills. By the end if I even tried to run up any sort of incline my hamstrings would SCREAM at me to 'please not do that again'. I did a lot of walking up hills.

My finish time was 5 hours 4 minutes. Not my fastest, but not my slowest by any means. Really, this race wasn't about a time - just about the experience. I felt so grateful to be out there running in such an amazing place.

TOU 2003 - 5 hr. 8 min.

SLC 2004 - 5 hr. 5 min.

St. George 2005 - 4 hr. 55 min.

TOU 2006 - 4 hr. 32 min.

Sanfrancisco 2007 - 4 hr. 53 min.

TOU 2008 - 4 hr. 30 min.

RNR Phoenix 2009- 5 hr. 14 min. (untrained)

Big Sur 2009 - 5 hr. 4 min.