Don’t Forget About the Hills at the End of Big Sur

In a little less than 13 weeks, we’ll be lining up in Big Sur, ready to run our 26.2 miles to Carmel. This will be my fifth time running the Big Sur International Marathon and, over those previous four attempts, I’ve learned not to forget about the hills at the end.

People have a tendency to focus only on Hurricane Point because it’s so big and so intimidating. It’s smart to focus on it—but it shouldn’t be your only focus. The entire second half of the course is a series of rolling hills. None of them are significant climbs on their own, but the cumulative effect—especially on tired legs—can be tough to handle. (They don’t all show up in the race’s fairly smoothed out official elevation profile, Yes, Hurricane Point is the biggest of the day. But its not the only one Races - Places.)

To make sure I’m ready, I like to mimic the course as much as possible with my training routes. Lucky for me, there’s another doozy of a hill less than a mile from my house. Reservoir Hill Road is a steep, 1.2-mile-long climb that acts as my own mock Hurricane Point. I start many of my long runs with a climb up it, then continue through the rolling hills that lie on the other side. By doing this, I’m not only prepping myself for the rolling hills, but I’m prepping to run them on legs tired from a big ascent and descent.

The only problem is that we get a lot of snow here in Pennsylvania during the early spring (a.k.a. prime Big Sur training season) and those country roads aren’t safe in bad weather. So, I end up spending a lot of time on the treadmill. That’s helpful for getting through my cheesy movie queue, but not in prepping for the downhills that come after the ups.

There are two indoor options to get around this problem: Find a gym that has a downhill treadmill or modify your home treadmill, as Coach Budd Coates demonstrates in this video. And, if you live someplace hilly but not too snowy, there’s an obvious outdoor option too: Run down hills often in your outdoor training runs.

The other big challenge of the Carmel Highlands miles is the steep camber of the road. On fresh legs, a tilted road can be uncomfortable; on legs that are 20 miles into a marathon, a tilted road can be a soul-crushing, energy-sapping disaster. Unfortunately, there’s no real way to prep for this if you’re doing all your training on a treadmill. So, try to get outside for at least some of your training runs and then, more importantly, seek out the flattest parts of the road on race day, even if it means leaving the tangents. You’ll be rewarded for running a few extra steps by avoiding the extra ankle, knee, and hip pain that running the shorter, but more cambered, route would cause.

Follow this advice and you’ll coast into Carmel feeling like a million bucks. Well, maybe not—you did just run a marathon after all—but you’ll feel a whole lot better than you would have if you weren’t prepared properly for those final miles.

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Robert is training in preparation for the 2017 Big Sur International Marathon with Runner’s World VIP. To learn how you can be part of the RW VIP program, click here.