I am not a religious man.
An interesting place to start when this post is supposed to be about a relay I ran, but bear with me here. I am not a religious man...I'm ambivalent about the existance of a God. I'm more of a Deist and a Taoist than anything else. And I think the idea of organized religion is silly in that, if there is a God, I'd think he won't care too much about what rituals you perform, but more that you were a good person. And I'd like to think that I am.
That being said, running the Big Sur Marathon course is certainly my kind of religious experience. It's chilling, overwhelming, and completely gorgeous. If you ever wanted to convince me of the existance of a God, your best chance would be when I am running along Highway 1, overlooking the most gorgeous coastline in the world.
And that's what brought me to the Big Sur Coast this past weekend...a chance to run a portion of the Big Sur Marathon as part of a relay team. I had leg three, which runs North from the bottom of Hurricane Point, to the top, then down to and across the Bixby Creek Bridge, and then another 4 miles past that along some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. And for those 55 or so minutes I was out there, traversing just under 7 miles of Highway 1, I was competely at peace with the world. An extreme calmness invaded my soul, and everything just seemed to make sense. Shitty paying job? No worries, you're running on the Big Sur Coast. Approaching 30 single and without a real direction? No worries, just look around at nature. Life is so much simpler when taken one step at a time.
If this sesems a little overly poetic to you, my apologies, but you kind of have to experience it to understand the feeling. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself during my run. The rest of the relay experience I could do without, though. The 3am wake up call, the 3 hours on the bus before I ran, and then the 3 hours waiting for the bus to leave after I ran. Too much time on a bus. No thank you. Worth it, for the experience of running the Big Sur Coast...but too much waiting around.
It was sitting on the bus, waiting to come back, that I made a decision I'd been struggling with for over a year now: to run the full marathon or not. I think the waiting on the bus sold me...next year, I will be running the full Big Sur Marathon. 26.2 miles along the most gorgeous coastline in the world...and I will conquor them all. It will take months of training...hundreds of miles of running...and hopefully no injuries. It will be boring, hard, and exhausting. But, when I set my mind to something, you know I accomplish it! I know no other way of approaching the challenges I set before myself.
So, if anyone wants to run a marathon, come train with me after Chrismas! I'll be devoting my life to running at that point!
Anyways, the Big Sur Marathon Relay was legit. We ran well. And if not for a handoff snafu, we would have crushed our old best time on the course by minutes. Ah well, still legit. Still amazingly beautiful. And still worth the early wakeup calls, the hours on a bus, and all the hassle!
Next year, we do the whole thing!
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