Big Sur International Marathon - Getting There, Staying There, the Expo, and the Races
Participating in the 25th Big Sur International Marathon has to be one of the highlights of my life as a runner and walker.
Getting There We flew into California's San Jose Airport on a Friday morning before the marathon on Sunday.
Thanks to the economic powerhouse of Silicon Valley, you can fly into this airport from many other cities.
The airport was under construction with some beautiful new buildings in the works.
(Aren't all airports always under construction?) And some automotive traffic was diverted in and around the airport, but everything flowed relatively smoothly.
We caught a shuttle bus to our rental-car lot, picked up our rental car, and drove south for less than two hours to Carmel.
You may want to have a GPS system with you because you must change highways a few times to get to Carmel.
Staying There We stayed at Carmel Mission Inn, which is across the street from the finish line.
The Friday- and Saturday-night room rate was almost double the Sunday-night room rate.
I do not know whether this was typical or reflected the high demand of marathon weekend.
A large complex of shops and restaurants called The Barnyard was on the back side of the hotel, so we walked there for one of our dinners and some window-shopping.
The Expo We drove back north Saturday morning -- not all the way to San Jose but instead a few minutes up Highway 1 to Monterey to attend the expo, where we had to pick up our race packets.
The expo is open and free to the public, and we heard excellent speeches by Dean Karnazes and Jeff Galloway for race participants.
Dean is the man who ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, and he had a two-hour-long queue of people waiting to get his inspiring book "50/50" autographed.
The Races Big Sur hosts several races on the same Sunday morning:
6-miler all use Highway 1 (closed by California Highway Patrol for several hours), with the marathon starting the farthest south of the finish line and with the 10.
6-miler starting in the parking lot of Rocky Point Restaurant, where the evening of race day we ate delicious meals and watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.
The 9-miler occurs mostly in a wooded area not very far south of the finish line.
The 5K race begins and ends at the marathon finish line.
The 3K is for children and happens around the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
So, although Big Sur does not host a half marathon on this same weekend, there are many other races from which to choose when you are with someone who wants to run or walk something shorter than a marathon.
Put simply, I highly recommend that you run or walk Big Sur at least once in your life!
Getting There We flew into California's San Jose Airport on a Friday morning before the marathon on Sunday.
Thanks to the economic powerhouse of Silicon Valley, you can fly into this airport from many other cities.
The airport was under construction with some beautiful new buildings in the works.
(Aren't all airports always under construction?) And some automotive traffic was diverted in and around the airport, but everything flowed relatively smoothly.
We caught a shuttle bus to our rental-car lot, picked up our rental car, and drove south for less than two hours to Carmel.
You may want to have a GPS system with you because you must change highways a few times to get to Carmel.
Staying There We stayed at Carmel Mission Inn, which is across the street from the finish line.
The Friday- and Saturday-night room rate was almost double the Sunday-night room rate.
I do not know whether this was typical or reflected the high demand of marathon weekend.
A large complex of shops and restaurants called The Barnyard was on the back side of the hotel, so we walked there for one of our dinners and some window-shopping.
The Expo We drove back north Saturday morning -- not all the way to San Jose but instead a few minutes up Highway 1 to Monterey to attend the expo, where we had to pick up our race packets.
The expo is open and free to the public, and we heard excellent speeches by Dean Karnazes and Jeff Galloway for race participants.
Dean is the man who ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, and he had a two-hour-long queue of people waiting to get his inspiring book "50/50" autographed.
The Races Big Sur hosts several races on the same Sunday morning:
- Marathon
- Marathon Relay
- 21-Miler
- 10.
6-Miler - 9-Miler
- 5K
- 3K
6-miler all use Highway 1 (closed by California Highway Patrol for several hours), with the marathon starting the farthest south of the finish line and with the 10.
6-miler starting in the parking lot of Rocky Point Restaurant, where the evening of race day we ate delicious meals and watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.
The 9-miler occurs mostly in a wooded area not very far south of the finish line.
The 5K race begins and ends at the marathon finish line.
The 3K is for children and happens around the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
So, although Big Sur does not host a half marathon on this same weekend, there are many other races from which to choose when you are with someone who wants to run or walk something shorter than a marathon.
Put simply, I highly recommend that you run or walk Big Sur at least once in your life!
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