Hi team, I'm Fitz Koehler, your very noisy race announcer and fitness expert from the fitzness.com and welcome to the fitzness show. Today, we are going to talk about one of the most magical race weekends of the year, the big sir international marathon, which had some very big excitement leading up to it. And of course, during race weekend. But before we get there, I want to ask you to follow the fitzness show wherever you're listening.
I don't care wherever you listen, click follow, and then please leave a review because it's the nice thing to do. And I'm looking, I'm looking to see your name pop up with a review. And I don't know, you might be, you might be eligible for extra hugs and things like that when I get my pants on you, if you do. So just, just enticing you right there. But we're going to start talking about that Big Sur Marathon, which I could only do.
I could only ethically and responsibly do if I invited my co-announcer, my BFF, who has the deepest history with the Big Sur Marathon onto the show. Mr. Rudy Novotny, welcome. Hey, Fitz. How you doing? Great to be on the show and can't possibly talk too much about the Big Sur International Marathon. No. So you are coming to us not from California today. Where are you? I am in the Garden State, beautiful New Jersey, staying at my sister's house.
I'm here for a wedding and it truly is the Garden State. It's beautiful here. Yeah. And are you having fun so far? So far, it's nothing but fun and very comfortable. And just kind of chilling. Yeah. And you're the oldest of how many siblings? I'm the oldest of six. I'm the elder spokesperson. That's so funny. You're their guiding light. That's very fun and funny. I don't know that I'm the guiding light. I think I'm more the black sheep, but it's okay. I'm still the oldest.
Oh, you can take that. I'm the black sheep of my family. You're going to have to be like the black goat or something like that. Okay. I'll do that. I accept the black goat, maybe the black raccoon. There's a lot of raccoons around here. No, you're kind of goatee. You are the greatest of all-time announcers. No, stop. Don't stop. Don't stop. Okay. Okay. So before we get all the way into the Big Sur stuff, let's just talk briefly about your history with Big Sur because I love it.
Oh my goodness. Well, you know, I started Big Sur as a competitor back in 1987. Oh, did I really say that? 1987?
Okay. Yeah, 1987. 1987 and actually i i ran big sur to qualify for boston or you know to hope to qualify for boston and and you know fortunately for me i did and it was such an incredible experience everything about the big sur international marathon just went right to my heart of course the course itself is just phenomenal there's no way to overstate how beautiful the course is running on the ragged edge of the Western world, but it was every detail of the weekend.
It was, you know, all the terms we use to describe Big Sur. It's a spiritual experience. It's something you'll never forget. It's all true. You cannot overstate the Big Sur International Marathon. Anyway, it was wonderful. And I just kept coming back. So I've run it, not continuously, but I've run it 13 times.
Times last time was a long time ago and i've been announcing it for about 16 years yeah about 16 years or so and when did you come on i can't remember when you come on doug thurston made a very very good decision to expand the announcing team yeah yeah change it up a little bit i think i came in in 2016 2016 okay change it up a little bit no all right hold on. But I'm so good. I'm so grateful he did. I just, it's something I count the day between Big Sur Marathon and Monterey every year.
It's, you know, as soon as we leave, I think, oh no, it's over. I have to wait six more months to go back. So that's the only bad thing about Big Sur. You know, I've got to, I got to share that, that, that concept with you, because I remember when I was running it, there really is a, for lack of a better term, a postpartum type of feeling. And I remember that that's exactly how I felt when, and I think that's kind of normal.
I think a lot of marathoners, particularly if you're really keying, if you're really, you know, pointing to a particular event, big sir, or anything, but you know, my experience with big sir, you just, it's over and you're like, oh, what now? You know, how am I, it's kind of like inside, how am I going to top this? How, oh, where do we go from here? Well, you know, what's so funny is, I mean, again, And we didn't even run the
thing. We just had to start and finish line. The whole experience, though, is so rich. Right. I go through the same thing. I go through the same thing as if I ran it. Of course, we didn't. But it is still such an all-encompassing experience, the whole weekend that, as you said, I start counting the days to my next Big Sur experience on the Monday after the event.
Yeah. And what folks need to know, I don't think everybody does know this, that the Monterey Bay Half Marathon is put on by the same exact organization. So many of the elements are the same. It is not the same race. It is not the same course, but there are so many elements that are shared between the two and Monterey is extraordinary.
So if you haven't gotten into the Big Sur Marathon or you really want to do the half marathon distance, you should come out to Monterey or if you just like us need to be there twice a year. So there's a couple of things you left out, which are always worth mentioning. So your two PRs, your two marathon PRs are where? At Big Sur, 1987 and 1988. 1987 was 2.58.23. It was my first time ever breaking three hours.
I crossed the finish line and I cried and I cried. And just recounting it, I can get kind of misty over it. It was just an incredible personal achievement, something I'd worked really hard for. And then the next year I came back and I beat it by six seconds, 258, 17. And I think I cried and I'm an emotional guy. I don't know how many people might be aware of that. I'm actually very, very emotional. And yeah, so, you know, you only have one PR. It's 1988 Big Sur International Marathon for me.
And it hasn't gotten any faster from there. No, no. But A, you're a weirdo because who PRs at Big Sur? It's one of the hardest courses on earth, right? But fantastic. And also, you sacrificed your opportunities to run Boston because you were so committed to Big Sur, correct? Eat it. I was just so, I was just so taken. I really was just, why would I, why? I mean, and Boston's amazing. One of us has run Boston Marathon and can talk about it. That would not be me.
But, and Boston's iconic. I know it's just everything about it is special. But after having experienced Big Sur, all I wanted to do was come back. And what weirdo, who in the world would run Boston, and then somewhere between six and 13 days later, run the Big Sur International Marathon. So I forgot. I let that go, and I just kept coming back to Big Sur year after year after year. Yeah. And to be clear with everybody, that wasn't a thing back then.
People didn't do back-to-back marathon weekends. It was unheard of. And so now it's a total thing. I'm guessing you would be a Boston to Big Sur runner if the times were different. Exactly. I mean, that's really, you, you described it perfectly. You know, we would do at the time we would do two marathons a year, maybe three.
But certainly not anything like that. And now it's a thing. The story goes, our race director at the time, Wally Kastner, started seeing people coming to his event with a Boston shirt on, the Boston shirt from that year, and said, wait a minute, you just ran Boston and you're coming here? And the light bulb came on and he created the B2B, Boston to Big Sur. Sure.
And boy, is it a big deal. And hundreds and hundreds of athletes who take on that challenge, they don't show up to Big Sur weakened by Boston. They show up strengthened and they crush it. They, they, they, they're first, they're age groupers. You were at the award ceremony. I mean, either they're winning the race or they're winning their age group. They fly. They're incredible. They are incredible. They're, they're a really, really fun group of people too.
They're, a lot of them are very serious. They're serious athletes, but they're just a really fun group. But yeah, I was at the awards and they get a special, really cool jacket from Big Sur, B2B, Boston to Big Sur. And I kept seeing the same jacket come up again and again and again in different age groups. And it's like, wait a minute, you just went to Boston. How can you run an effort like that and win your age group or come top three? It happened just routinely. It was it was impressive.
Yeah. And just so the audience is clear, I was nowhere near the award ceremony. I didn't see one moment of it, but I just know this while watching them perform. I know that every year our award ceremony is going to be packed with B2B athletes because they're just incredible. So let's get into the nuts and bolts of this year. So hopefully everybody knows the Big Sur Marathon course as designed is one of the most breathtaking, challenging courses in America, if not the world.
And on March 30th, while I was dancing with the stars, while I was jiving, there was a landslide, which took out... Big chunk of our course at about mile 13, correct? Right. It was technically called a slipout rather than what people would think of as a landslide where earth came down onto the road. It's actually an undermining of Highway 1, a significant part of it.
And just so everybody knows that Highway 1 is it. And as Fitz said, it's from Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to the crossroads in Carmel, help one way from the start to the finish and anything that happens in between can affect our event. Oh, and you know what? It's interesting to learn what you just said about the slip out. Cause in Florida, we don't, we don't have landslides here. So how terrifying that the ground just disappeared from underneath the road and it's a big old chunk.
And so at that point, our race director and our board of directors was notified and then they had to figure out what to do. Was there a safe way to get our athletes from point A to point B on the traditional course? That answer was absolutely not. And so they chose to reroute as they had done twice before for similar reasons.
So I think it was very swiftly and confidently handled by Josh Priester, our race director, Dino Pick, our board of directors, our president, and then of course, all of those traffic and safety personnel who came in to work with them. Yeah. As you said, it happened twice before. Once the difference being once, and I actually ran that year, we had, we had 13.1 miles that we could run from the finish line. Okay. Not the start line, but we go out from the finish line.
We were able to go 13.1 miles out to Bixby bridge, turn around and come back. And then the other time, it was more like this year where we couldn't go out 13.1. We had to go out, as we did this year, roughly 12.2, turn around, come back, and do a loop in a beautiful little area called Point Lobos, which was about three miles from the finish. I know a lot of people were using naughty words to describe, but it's beautiful. And then come in. So yeah, this is the third diversion.
And, you know, just a real testament to the organizational skills of the Big Sur Marathon Foundation and the Blue Jackets and everybody, everybody involved, Caltrans and everybody who said, we want this to happen. Yeah, absolutely. And thank goodness they did. I mean, I did have a little bit of a heart attack when I was told about the slip. And then I thought, nah, they're going to figure it out because the heart attack comes as I really want to be there.
Please, God, don't take another big, sir. We lost two of them during the COVID stuff. So the thought that this might not happen, oh, cause significant pain, but I, but it was short lived. And I thought, nah, they're going to make it work there. There can do people and they can did, didn't they? They did a fantastic job. It was a process. And of course, it was a huge process for the race organization. But the whole situation involved a grieving. Everybody was so sad. We can't run the OG course.
We can't run the Big Sur course, which, of course, to so many people, particularly someone either coming from another country, going from the other side of the world, or someone who hasn't run it before, it's about going over Bixby Bridge. It's about ascending and descending Hurricane Point. That's it. So they had to accept, they had to go through accepting and then, you know, and then affirming their decision to run what was going to be offered.
And then everybody, you know, I think generally everybody kind of turned around and said, we're going to do this. It's going to be great. Yeah. So there were some, some good decisions made. Our, our, the Big Sur Marathon foundation chose to guarantee folks who had registered for this year, a spot in next year. So this road will be repaired by them, which is so crazy. I, again, coming from Florida, I look at something like that and I think how in the world could you ever fix a road like that?
But those traffic engineers are pretty, pretty smart as I hear. So the road should be up and working next year. And so they guaranteed everybody a spot back because if you don't know this, you have to get into a lottery there. I don't know how many people apply for the lottery, but only a handful of people or a much smaller percentage get that. Guaranteed entry. And so they said, okay, next year you can come back and run the real course as is.
But, but then people had to decide, am I going to come and run the altered course or am I just going to, you know, cancel my travel plans? And so I say, sadly, some people made the decision to cancel their plans and I don't know what their, their budget is. And I don't know any of those things. So I'm not, I'm not judging them, but what they missed out on was pretty spectacular. And those who leaned in and said, yes, I'm going to do this race anyways, had a spectacular experience.
I mean, I was so happy. I mean, it really gave me personal joy to see how much people enjoyed the experience. Yeah. It, you know, is it different? Sure. Is it less? I don't know that it's less, it's just different. Okay. Wait, you know, there's all controversies. Is it hillier? Is it not hillier? Is it harder? Is it not harder? So, but they, And the pictures, it was gorgeous. We had a beautiful day. They got a tailwind. Yes, you heard me right. They got a tailwind for 12.2 miles going out.
And of course, coming back, the tailwind was on their face. That's right, that face wind. They also got to go through Point Lobos, which is a real delicious treat. Everybody thought that was absolutely breathtaking. And they got everything on the course. They got Michael Martinez, our classical pianist. They got the twice, right? They got him twice. They got the Tyco drummers, which were, there were a few sets.
So, okay, let's, let's, let's go back to the start of the week because it was, you know, the race was great, but the whole weekend is wonderful. So a it's in Monterey and Carmel, California, which are. Oh my gosh. Just so lovely. And it's all ocean side. So when I arrived, I had a long flight trip into the hotel. I instantly put my stuff down and went out with Sean Matlock, one of our good friends. And we went and we, we visited with the seals and the otters and all the ocean life.
And, and of course there was a real chance at some point we were going to see an article in the Carmel pine cone that says Florida woman arrested for climbing over fence to adopt a deal. They're so darn cute. Right. Right. I can see it now. I just, Florida woman says, I just wanted to bring one home. I just, just want, and they sit there so freaking huggable because they're so fat bodied and they just are the perfect, perfect girth for my arms to go around.
I could just, yeah, I could totally make friends with this deal, but anyways, it's so lovely. It's just a wonderful place to be a great place for tourism. It is. It's so beautiful. I mean, And as you said, Monterey, Carmel, of course, Big Sur, Pacific Grove, like the whole zone, whether you're on the, whether you're looking at the ocean coming down Big Sur or you're on the Bayside in Monterey, it's just absolutely spectacular.
It is, you know, again, it's, you know, you can't overstate the natural beauty of the area. And as you mentioned, it's so walkable, everything is walkable, you know, so it's, it's gorgeous. Okay. Okay, so as far as the racy stuff goes, one of the most impressive things I saw, you saw this year, was the HOKA-sponsored ShakeOut Run, which was ginormous. It was over 300 people. They all met right at the Portola near the Monterey Convention Center where our expo is.
They all got HOKA shirts, and they all went for a little fun run together. It was wild. Yeah. I mean, I didn't make the run, but I think I went out for coffee about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour after it started. It was, as you said, it was massive. Hoka is a really exceptional sponsor. Big thanks to Mike Maness and all the people from Hoka. They really support the event. And it's one thing for a sponsor to support an event.
I know financially there's an an arrangement, whatever that is, but to really be involved, really care about what's going on and, and make it, make the event even more so by doing something like that. As you said, I think they have three shirts for the really nice shirts for the first 300 people that showed up. And they, it looked to me like it was five, 600 people for a shakeout run. So just kudos to Hoka and everybody would smile and what a great start to the weekend.
Yeah. And McManus is so dedicated to Big Sur. And as he stated at our VIP party, when he spoke, he was like, I'm not giving this one up. We're, we're wise words from a smart man. Also our expo was jam packed. I don't think I've ever seen it so busy. We did have a fall off of athletes who were coming and didn't come because of the slip, but it was packed wall to wall people. Yeah. It's not a, you know, I would call From what we see around the country,
I would call it essentially a fairly mid-sized expo. It's not really small. It's not really huge, but man, it was busy. We had great vendors, a lot of great charities participating, and it was busy. Of course, we had great presenters. The Monterey Convention Center there is perfect, multi-level, and it's all happening in one zone. own. Yeah. And so what I, what I found is all the people that they love the stuff they were buying, they were really excited about their purchases,
which is fun. I love shopping too. There's some sort of deep satisfaction and joy that comes with getting an exciting new toy or apparel item. And then all the vendors were so stoked towards the end of the expo on Saturday. How'd you do? Oh, we did great. I mean, they were so pumped and, you know, they have to invest to be there. They have to pay a certain amount to have a booth. And so I think they were all handsomely rewarded by their efforts at Big Sur.
It's a serious investment for them. I saw a lot of happy faces. What you want is you want happy faces on your sponsors and vendors and lots of empty boxes. Oh my gosh. Active Pacific, our sunglass provider, they were almost sold out of sunglasses. They're just wonderful people. That's a couple that comes back again and again to the Big Sur international marathon foundation events. And yeah, they did great. They had their, their displays were like vacant the
last couple hours. There was almost nothing left. Good for them. Yeah. It was barren. And so when I was making an announcement for them, I, I said, folks, it is illegal to run in California without sunglasses. And they just loved that. They were very excited. They asked me to tell everybody that again at the OC marathon the next weekend. And I did. So, you know, you know, are are just so brilliant and clever. And now we made I'm sure that's the reason they cleared out.
Right. Oh, of course. Of course. Hey, big, big thanks to Fleet Beat, too. They were they were more more involved than I think ever before. They've been involved with the event for many, many years. But they they really brought a lot of different products and different companies into their little inside village. And that was awesome. One of the companies I'd like to mention, I think it's called All World. It's a private label designer, a small business guy.
Folks, look it up. It's not spelled as A-L-L-W-O-R-L-D. I think it's A-L-W-R-L-D. It's some clever- That's it. That's it. That's it. Okay. But this stuff is really nice. Much of it is made out of recycled fishing nets off of the Italian coast or something. The clothes are pretty. They feel good. They fit really nicely. They're super stylish. And Philip is the owner and creator of the products. And just being a small business person myself, I always like to give a little
extra plug to a little guy who's doing something great, right? Yeah. They have a really, really fine product. They've been around, I think, isn't it like about three years now, two, three years? And it's really nice cut, very sporty wear that doesn't look like you're wearing running apparel necessarily. You know what I mean? It's definitely upscale. Very nice. Very nice. They deserve a plug. Yeah. And so here's my confession is I really, they have those ribbed pants.
Oh, the ribbed were so soft and pretty and I wanted to buy some, but then I'm, I'm trying to dial it back. So I used some self-restraint, but it was really fabulous. So good for them. And they were very busy and they also showed up at the OC America on the next weekend. And I think they were very successful there too. So I'm, I'm rooting for them. They deserve good things. Okay. So the other cool thing at the expo this year is, so we always have clinics.
We always have, I don't know, five to seven clinics throughout the day. That's speakers. And they used to be standing room only packed for many years. And really, quite frankly, the marketing has fallen off for a few years. And when people don't know an activity is happening, they can't attend. And this year, they cranked up the marketing again. And all of our, almost all of our clinics were packed.
And it's so great because then we can inform and impact these athletes with quality information and entertainment. It was, you know, they were all, as you said, very, very well attended. You know, we had the grizzled vets doing a discussion about how to run the Big Sur International Marathon. That was, you know, that was, you know, virtually standing room only. You were out there for two great presentations.
I saw your first one. I saw your strength training, Three, that's right, three, excuse me. Drink training for runners, which unsurprisingly to me, it was absolutely packed. That's a really, really fine interactive presentation. People come in that one and say, yeah, I'm just going to take the load off my feet, sit down and listen and learn. And I just want to just listen casually. No, no, no, not with Fitz Kohler. You're going to get up out of your seat.
Limited, limited. I mean, I baby them because they're, they're going to do something very athletic the next day, but yeah, I like, but I heard you're stretching. You had everybody doing stuff. Well, you know what? That just kind of happened. I mean, in my mind, I was just going to bring one person at a time on the stage. Like I do with my strength training presentation and. Show them the house so they can take these exercises and do them at home.
But I brought the first person up on the stage to demonstrate some hip stretches. I got down with her and then I just kind of casually said, Hey, if anyone wants to join us, you can get down on the ground. All of a sudden there was a hundred people sprawled out all over the room on the floor.
And you know, it feels so good. And then halfway through it, I thought, huh, I feel like I, like when I was in college teaching fitness classes, I think I'm actually teaching a stretching class now versus is a stretching clinic. So it was, it was a lot of fun. We went over balance and yeah, yeah. Just pain prevention too. We talked about all those massage tools and how to use them effectively.
And, oh, that was wonderful. That was so wonderful. And, and you know what, as much as I love race announcing and I do the thing that I am as a teacher. And so it's, it's, it's so meaningful to me every time I get an opportunity to teach people, you know, give them, fill their brain up with ideas and information that they can use to do better and be better moving forward. Well, and of course, when you're doing something like that, I'm usually busy over in the expo or some other area.
So I don't get to sit in for a whole presentation, but I do love dropping in. And my favorite thing is just kind of looking through the crowd and seeing the head nods and the smiles and people getting, people having that aha moment, you know, like, ooh, yeah, that's right. right, I got to do that. I got to use that. And you know, you, you know, you know, you've hit home for something with them.
And, and, and frankly, that they're going to take something that you said, or some things that you said, and bring them into their, their training and training regimen and hopefully live better, stronger and faster. Yeah. Run further, faster, pain-free. That's the goal. However, so I was so excited. So for years and years, folks, I have been trying to get Rudy Novotny to be part of our speaker series.
Rudy's got not only so much wisdom on running and especially big serve, but he's got so many great stories to tell because of his long history with the sport, not only as an athlete, but as an announcer. And he always says, no, no, no, no, no, no. And so this year I said, Rudy, come on. And we scheduled a race fails and fun presentation where we both share some of our most, our silliest stories from the microphone and the road, right? Really? Yeah, that was, I'm glad I finally said yes.
You finally let go of my arm that you had pinned behind my back and straining with everything you had to make me say yes. I said yes. And And we had, of course, you know, it's always a good idea. I always say, Fitz, that was a great idea. Why haven't we done that before? Why haven't we done that earlier? Because you kept saying no. Anyway, that was great. We had a lot of laughs and, you know, shared a bunch of things that people don't know.
It's not just saying your name or, you know, bringing you in. There's a lot that happens in between, you know, some, most of it good and fun and funny. And some of it like, oh my God, that really happened. Yeah, yeah. We've gone through some crazy, crazy stuff as a result of race announcing. Folks, if you haven't done so yet, listen to my podcast.
Two of the previous, recently previous episodes, I'm going to say it again, listen to two of the most recently published episodes of The Fitzness Show, and they're race bloopers. It's Rudy, myself, and the voice of Iron Man, Mike Riley. There's two episodes because we had so many great stories to share, but they're wonderful, so fun, and I think you'll be surprised.
So listen to those. But Rudy, kudos to you because it was your first time speaking, doing a clinic at Big Sur and you hit it out of the park. You were wonderful. And thank you for agreeing to it. Well, thank you, Fitz. It was a lot of fun, you know, with watching you and watching a seasoned professional like yourself is a little daunting and, and it was great. It was a great time.
I'm sorry. I haven't done it earlier and I hope to do it again with you more and good times, good times with good friends. Good times. I'm glad you've come over to the dark side. Okay. And then that evening, boy, we have the largest pasta parties on earth. There's multiple seatings for the pre Big Sur Marathon pasta party. And it is packed not only with our athletes, but with their friends and family, they have to purchase a ticket to it. But if you're in town, you should join us.
Josh Priester, our race director, speaks at each sitting, gives a little pep talk, maybe a little information and those things are are crowded they're so wonderful yeah i think we had like a 4 30 and a six o'clock seating and you and i you know closed down the expo and went over the six o'clock it was it was very well attended the food was fantastic i personally i think it's a really great option very convenient being in the marriott and you know and you
make new friends we made a whole bunch of new friends it's just you know and yeah everybody is there to either support a runner. A lot of families, they're supporting their runner. And it was super fun and delicious food, a great way to spend an evening pre-race. Yeah. And I say, folks, if you're coming to one of these marquee events, do everything you could possibly do to become embedded in the culture, embedded in the race family, especially if you show up alone.
You will make friends. You know, sometimes it's Rudy and I saying, okay, everybody introduce yourself. But our running family is so kind. And if you sit at one of these tables of eight, you're going to make friends. So the food is actually great. It's top tier pasta, vegetable salad, dessert. It was wonderful. But it's the people. And sometimes there's a pasta party where maybe 22 awkward people show up. And this is hundreds and hundreds.
And it's not hundreds in a bad way where you're going to be claustrophobic and wait in line. You just go in there, enjoy your dinner, but it's, it's certainly worth committed to if you're coming back in 25 or anytime in the future, I think the pasta party is essential. Yeah. You know, I think you just hit a really good point though, that, that I'd like to echo.
And that is, I know we have a number of people, you know, probably a substantial number of people traveling by themselves and maybe a little nervous about, you know, I don't know anybody in the area or whatever. It's just a, and I'm sure it's not particular to Big Sur, but we have such a welcoming, wonderful community of runners there. It's just you, as you said, you will meet new people. You will make new friends. It's very easy to be comfortable in the environment.
I think it feels incredibly safe and yeah. And it's just, it's from, from Thursday or Friday, whenever you come in, if you can give yourself another, if you give yourself an extra day on the, on the front front end or back end, do it, do it. It's, uh, it's, it's do it. It's just wonderful. Good point, bitch. So I'm, I'm skipping over the race part now, but on the friendship part, when the Monday after Big Sur, you and I went for a walk just to stretch our legs and stuff.
And we run into these ladies, they're walking in front of us and they're screaming, Ooh, Ooh. And they've got their camera out. And I wish I could remember their name off the top of my head, but they. They were, they had caught a whale, a humpback whale leaping and they had been tracking it. And so we said, oh, can we join you? And we walked over onto these big rocks behind a restaurant and we did some whale watching together.
And now, of course, I can't remember their name, but we're Instagram friends and I believe we will probably be best friends for life, especially once I remember their name. Yeah, we were just right down from the aquarium and the beautiful, huge, really healthy kelp beds in the bay there, where we very frequently see otters and sea lions jumping around and everything. And then it was, I'm not sure if it was a gray or a humpback. We saw several of those right in the shoreline.
I mean, really, really close and very, very shallow water coming through and just saying hello. That was awesome. Yeah. Those whales were also at risk of being adopted by me, but I decided the water was too chilly. So I would leave them, leave them be. Yeah. One toe in the water and Fitz Kohler would have been screaming for help. Yeah. No, no, no. Okay. So now let's go to actual race morning. And I am so delightful. I'm so delightful. I am so delighted with this.
This is the first time I've actually been able to start the full. So the way things normally work is Rudy gets up. I don't know what time you wake up at one o'clock in the morning or something. Oh, it's super early. Super, super early. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. The day before. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he gets on a caravan that drives him all the way down to the start line and big surf for us. So, and that's how all of our full marathoners have to be driven by I bus all
the way to the start line. So he's down there. And then a board member starts off the 21 miler somewhere in between. There's the same for 11 miler. And then I man, the finish line the whole entire day to make sure every last one of our athletes has an excellent finish. I also start the five can 12 K and I love that position.
But having said that, because of the way things work and this course being point to point and there, there being no helicopter to drop us off at the finish line, this was the very first time I got to be with the full marathoners and the 21 milers at the start of their day, which was awesome. Yeah, I'll tell you, to be completely honest, I was perhaps a little concerned about the mass number of people that we were going to have in one spot for the start line, which of course was the finish line.
As you said, it's a point-to-point event. So if If you're not familiar with it, Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park is where the marathon starts, five miles down the road, because the foundation uses every bit of Highway 1 weekend. So five miles down the road, you're starting the 21th. And then down the road further, you're starting the 11. And then right at the finish line, as per usual, we'd start the 12K and the 5K.
So I just thought, oh, my gosh, we're bringing, you know, potentially 5,000, 6,000 people who are usually down, you know, down course to the finish line to start them. So I'm like, oh, how's this going to go? It was it was awesome. It was flawless. us. Everybody really helped us with the organizational part of it by being, by corralling on time, by, by corralling properly. And, you know, we had a bunch of waves. It was, it was just the morning went off like clockwork.
And they were so fun. So that's really what I focus on. I'm like, are people happy? Are they energetic? And they were, they were so darn excited. They They were jumping up and down. They were laughing at all of our nonsensical jokes. They were real team players. And that's what I need. I need the energy. I need the vibe. That's a perfect start line to me. And they were the perfect audience for us. They were so excited to run Big Sur, even as an altered course. It was so meaningful.
Yeah. First off, of course, we got the marathoners, got them on the course with a couple minutes in between. And then in that last corral, the 21 milers were off and we had a lot of room at the start, you know, waiting for our 12K and 5K runners. The 11 milers were already out there. The 11 mile course was as it always has been. You know, they took them 11 miles out from the finish line and they came straight back.
But yeah, everything just was, it was the morning was essentially perfect. Nice and cool. Nice cool start. Perfect weather. And it was clear. And yeah, like you said, a lot of fun, a lot of excitement. People were just ready to fly. And then you have never started the 5K, 12K before. So how did you like that? It was great. It was great. Yeah. We both had firsts. Your first time starting the marathon, my first time starting the 5K and 12K with you. And it was super fun, super fun.
And boy, Boy, the 5K and the 12K, they were packed. They were absolutely packed. Everything essentially sold out. As you had mentioned, we did have a significant number of people that opted in for next year, but it was still full and just so much fun. Okay. And so mind you, we always have a blast at the 5K, 12K start. And the reason being is all of these people are so happy not to be running the full marathon, right?
So they're showing up, they're going, I don't have to do all this stuff my brother's out there doing or my spouse or whoever's. It's so fun. I really love these people. So because you were with me in the tower, I had a little flexibility. I walked down in the start corral and I try not to go over the the top with my gator stuff. I mean, there's a few reasons that a proud, noisy Florida gator would speak up at races.
And we do a little here and there, but I go walking down into the star corral and there's this ginormous man. He's probably six foot five wearing this Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt and I was like, you, he was very funny. He actually was like trying to be a little, little mean about my gators, but I let him have it because his gators, his dog, his dogs have been doing great lately. But yeah, it's funny how you can make these random friends.
All you got to do is show up and introduce yourself, right? Well, let's be maybe a little more clear about things. Let's just say we have 20,000 people participating. I can virtually guarantee you on Monday, day, if you asked 19,950 of them where Fitz Kohler is from, they'd say, Gainesville, Florida, go Gators. That's right. That's right. Well, and you always introduced me as your favorite Gator from Gainesville. It's funny. You did that at the start line of the full.
And it was, I mean, incredible how many people started chomping. I don't know. There was a lot of chomping. If they're all gators or honorary gators, but we had a ton of gators. And then when they came to the finish line, there was chomping all day. So great. They know what's good for them. They know the procedure. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So they say the gator nation is everywhere. And I truly believe that. Okay, let's go to the finish line.
Which I love. And I was so happy to have you with me for more than you normally get to be there this year. Thank you very much. Yeah, it was, I mean, yeah, it's such a busy finish line, which of course it always is. But I, you know, since I haven't been there for 5k, 12k before, and for a lot of the 11 milers for that matter, because I'm coming back on the caravan. Or the 21. Yeah. Or the 21. It was like, wow, there's a lot of people here. So many. And again, such wonderful spirits.
So some of my favorites of the day, I'd like to start with Carmela Kuva, who's a nurse. She is someone who has in her past run Boston to Big Sur three times. So a legit runner girl. In 2022, she had a massive life-threatening stroke and terrified her and her family and her friends. Everybody was worried about Carmela, but at some point Carmela told her, her people that she was a legacy athlete. That means she had completed every single one of the Monterey Bay half marathons since its inception.
And she was going to do it again this year. So that's how Rudy and I met her in November of 22, where post-stroke she ran her first half marathon. Since then she has completed the other Monterey half. And in 23, she did the Big Sur Marathon. And this year, once again, she completed her second post-stroke Big Sur International Marathon. And she was just bursting at the seams when she came through. What a doll.
Very, very joyous. And what a great story. Seriously, a triumph of spirit and determination. It's just great to see her. And, and you and I always managed to just kind of bump into her in Monterey and going to breakfast or going to lunch or whatever. And, and there's Carmela. She's a, she's a doll. Great to have her there. Yeah. And the thing is, besides her determination and discipline and, and real chutzpah, right?
She's so darn sweet and so joyful. And, you know, I've been through hard times it's, and you've had your hips replaced. It's not easy to be delightful when you're struggling. It's not easy, but if you're intentional about it, you can be. And Carmela is intentional about being delightful. And besides her athleticism, I really respect and admire her attitude. She just oozes positivity and it's so appreciated. So inspiring, right?
Very, very, very. So, you know, as you have discussed so many times, it's really all about your intentions and, and what you, how you decide yourself, you're going to handle something, you know, you can go to the positive, you can go to the negative. And, you know, the difference, of course, between the two is dramatic and, and, you know, your, uh, your results will be guided accordingly. Yeah. She just, oh, I, and so I happen to be down in the finish line when she came through.
I didn't need, I wasn't waiting for her. So folks, there's sometimes we're waiting for you. Rudy or I will, will, if we can keep track on athletes, if we know where you are, some of our running BFFs, we try to go down and meet to escort through the finish line, or at least give a hug or a high five while we're down there. And so I wasn't even expecting her, but she ran up and that was one of the best hugs of the day. So great. So great. So another of the the greatest hugs of the days.
Uh, we have four grizzled vets. That is four humans that have completed every last one of our, is it 37 big sir? It's 37, 37. Yeah. Yeah. So this was year 37. If you can imagine so many people are terrified to do that big sir course once. Imagine having it be something you do every single year. And, uh, one of our besties out of the grizzled vets is Bob Utley. Rudy, tell us about Bob Utley. Bob is, boy, of course, he's a legacy. He's a legend. He's done them all.
And he's a Blue Jacket. Bob has been a board member and a volunteer for so many years. I shared the microphone with him at the start line where. He gets everybody fired up with me and we have a real good time since I can't have Fitz Kohler. I have a legacy athlete and legend like Bob Utley and boy, I'll tell you what Bob's lived all around the world. I mean, he was living in Netherlands for, I think two or three years and, but he's there big sure weekend.
Bob is there now living in, I believe kind of down the street from you, right? Fitz and Ocala. I was just at Bob's house yesterday at Bob's ranch. That's right. I went to, yeah, Bob, they, and they have lived in New Zealand and other places, but yeah, they live in horse country, Ocala, Florida, and they have beautiful property with incredible. Competition horses, him and his wife, Elizabeth Brinton, who's one of my BFFs too, but such dear, darling people.
I adore them and their dog, their little dachshund, Minnie Pearl, who I was so grateful they brought with them this weekend. So I could, I mean, Minnie Pearl wants to make out full time. She's not just like a kiss on your cheek. She wants to get into your mouth. And anyways, it's just fine by me. I mean, many Pearl and I are engaged, but poor Bob, you know, you have this, this commitment he's making. It's not an obligation.
It's his commitment to complete the Big Sur marathon probably as long as he's alive. Right. But he had Achilles heel. He had a tremendous pain coming into that race and, you know, he and his wife discussed it. And they just decided that, you know, like all gladiators, if he was going to die, go die out on that course, right? He was going to die trying. So he and those other grizzled vets, they stayed together and it was so delightful.
I was looking for him. In fact, Elizabeth came into the tower with mini Pearl to record Bob's entry breath, but I was able to catch them at the finish line and they were wearing their brightly colored yellow grizzled vet shirts, which makes Rudy and I's life far more easy. We want to acknowledge those people. Just help us find you amongst the masses. And they came in arm in arm. And it's just what a wonderful group of gentlemen.
Very special moment. And we can't possibly celebrate the grizzled vets or, to be fair and to honor them properly, any of the legacy runners in any event that have been there They're 15, 20, 25, 30 years, 35 years, 37 years, 40 years. Just do the numbers. Just run the numbers. It's incredible. So at Big Sur, if they started at 30, they're 67. There's a lot of life happening in between there. You know, the kids are, the kids are grown. They're through college there.
They've got, you've got grandkids. You've moved 10 times, whatever happens. Yeah. I, as a fitness pro, one of the things I love is it's a real commitment to lifelong fitness, lifelong athletic adventure.
It's that people, people, many people lose motivation, but these legacy athletes do not lose motivation because they have almost a threat of the big marathon coming again, or, or the Buffalo Marathon, or whatever it is, my request, if you're a race director or a race professional listening to this show, and I know many do, is please make sure you identify these people in a big way so your announcer can see them coming, and so the whole world can celebrate them.
If you have a bib on their back, my God, what were you thinking? We want to be able to see them as they approach, as they're coming towards us.
We want to be able to easily identify there's one of the main stars of the show let's give let's give a hand for suzy or joe whoever it is so some identifying feature these bright yellow grizzle vet shirts were perfection, yeah i like your point about you know that they've got the commitment but it becomes it becomes something even more than that you know the this something you just don't want to lose how many how many friends and how much on social
media how many times on social media do we see someone saying, oh my God, I can't lose my legacy status. Oh no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have any option to get overweight and out of shape. You have to maintain your fitness so you can keep going. And I love that. Okay. Tell everybody about Adam Roach. Adam Roach, five times, five times he won, he's won the Big Sur International Marathon. Just one of the nicest people, a local resident, I believe he's in Monterey or Monterey or Pacific Grove.
I should know. I don't recall. He and his wonderful wife. Join us, you know, pretty much every year, Adam was looking for number six and he was feeling really strong. And we were, you know, we, we saw him at the VIP function and, uh, just kind of like, kind of like the mayor, you know, if, if I may. And, and, and with all due respect to the mayor of Monterey, who's a really cool dude, Adam Roach is our, our running mayor. And again, one of the nicest people you could ever meet.
It wasn't Adam's day. I believe Adam finished fifth or sixth, and had still an incredible performance. And Adam's just a very special person who receives accolades and cheering at the finish line, worthy of the champion of the largest race you could ever be at. So Adam Roche, we love you. And we hope you're back next year. Of course, of course. Now, if my memory serves me, he was our master's champion, correct?
Correct yes yes i did the i did the uh awards and you know we allow people to double dip you know you're you're in and you know in the top group coming in overall top men overall age group winner or or or top yeah and then in fact he was age group winner master's winner monterey county, monterey county winner things yeah it's like adam would you please just sit in the front row and you can just back up the truck, get your swag. So yeah, Adam is just, you know, super strong runner.
And you know, what means as much or more to us is just a wonderful human being that, that supports the event in, in many, many ways, even outside of running. Absolutely. He was so great. So one of our other athletes, I have a few that were not the first and they have not been there the whole time, but I'd like to acknowledge. So number one is a friend of mine from Gainesville, Florida, Rick Chin. He lives probably five miles from me. I almost never see him here in Gainesville or Florida.
We always see each other in California, but he has run the 11 miler, I believe for the third time. It might've just been his second time, but last year he finished the 11th miler and the wheels had fallen off and he really struggled through the finish line. But this year Rick came back, he was well-trained. He got the new pair of Hoka's who he claims they've taken immediately 30 seconds per minute. Off of each mile. And Rick came in so strong and it was his 11 mile PR and he was just elated.
So congratulations, Rick Chen. And if I can grab the same concept, I'd like to throw out a shout out to a very good friend of mine and a good friend of Team Noisy and supporter of ours. And that's Andrew Ware, who ran his 26th consecutive Big Sur International Marathon. Okay. Maybe not a a grizzled bet, but man, 26, that's incredible. That's a very, very big deal. We have Sean Matlock who did the 21 miler. Sean, I love Sean's one of our besties for sure.
And he travels around the country running all sorts of races and, and death definitely makes a trip to come see us. I've Sean has been in almost every corner of this country with me, which I adore. So congrats, Sean. And then Tim Patton, who he's also one of my hotties folks. I tell you about my hottie Hottie Body Fitzness Challenge. Rick and Sean and Tim are all part of that. Rick is from Cleveland. He's recently retired as a police sergeant. He's an outstanding runner.
He's PR'd with me a ton. And so he came to Big Sur, but without any plans of PRing. He's just decided he's going to have a whole bunch of fun. And of course he did. But I went down on the course to find Tim and to wait for him and to give him, you know, to escort him through the finish line and celebrate with him. And as I was looking for him, a, an athlete brought her family onto the course, which is not acceptable folks. It is totally inappropriate and, and we'll get you disqualified.
If you bring a baby, a boyfriend, a child, a grandpa, nobody should be on our course other than our, our registered athletes. So I had to turn my attention to encourage her family to get off the course, which they did. And then as I turned back around, Rudy was yelling, Fitz, Tim Patton is waiting for you. So as I was dealing with our interlopers, Tim passed me by. So I was able to run and hunt him down before he crossed the finish. But boy, what a strong guy.
He picked me up and swung me around on Big Sur Marathon running legs. I thought that was mighty impressive. And I think this is one of the few occasions Tim Patton did not run a PR. I mean, the guy has a PR like, you know, almost every marathon he's run. He's taken off 10, 15 minutes of his previous time. Never missed. If I remember right, Miss Boston by 11 seconds. Missed the cutoff by 11 seconds. That's a that's a tearjerker. Yeah. And he's so determined, though. I know he's going to qualify.
I know he's going to make it happen. But yeah, but it was great. It was great to see him. I felt bad that he got by me. You know, the other people that we need to acknowledge there that just fill our hearts up with so much joy are our Blue Jackets. We've got Claudia and Shirley and Tino and Alice and Dino. And I mean, fill in some blanks, Rudy. Wow. You did a really good job. Of course, Dino picked the current board chair.
Tom Rollander, our friend Kath, Ben Ballester and all the relay people, you know, handling all the relays. It's just it's a it's it's a family experience I know that might be overused but boy when I when I come to Big Sur I just feel like I'm coming into family and I think Fitz you've shared the same thing it's just that that sincere feeling that you're part of and I think a lot of our athletes feel the same way you really feel like you're part of something more than just a race event.
Yeah. Yeah. I totally feel like it's family and, you know, Hugo for Lito, Hugo and Karen. Hugo and Karen. Yes, please. I'm the best, right? Hugo always tells me, he's like, I feel like you're my daughter. And I feel like I would love to have you as a dad. How lucky would I be? You know, I love Hugo. I love them all. Kath and Muddy and, oh, it's such a great group. And, and folks know that if you show up at one of our races, you're part of that family.
And the 5k or the 3k. This is a group that really wants to absorb you all into our culture and make you one of ours. And it's a, it's, it's a real love fest the whole weekend. It is. Lovefest is probably one of the best words to describe what is the Big Sur International Marathon weekend. Yeah. And way bigger than any landslide. So listen, I'm going to wrap things up. I'm so grateful you agreed to be on my show again, Rudy. I love having you. Oh, it's great.
Sharon, anything about Big Sur? I could talk about Big Sur for 24 hours nonstop. Fitz, of course, great with you wrapping it up. I just want to mention, I know a lot of people, Hopefully, we get a lot of listeners and a lot of them listening have Big Sur on the bucket list or perhaps returning. Just want to clarify that next year is going to be especially hard to get in.
So maybe bookmark Big Sur International Marathon on Facebook, on Instagram, so you get all the messages about when registration is taking place. If you want to get in, you've got to get in that. You want to get in the lottery earlier. There's several other opportunities.
Opportunities there's charity opportunities there's there's a number of ways to get in you're serious please do so early we don't want you to be disappointed or have regrets hopefully hopefully mother nature cooperates and all the roads are open and we're point to point with the og course next year and i think it's going to be bigger than ever and unfortunately Unfortunately, the other part of that is harder to get into than ever. That's okay. That's okay. You know what?
It'll be fine. Some things are hard. Some things are worth waiting for. And this one certainly is. So we are going to switch to the song of the week. And I was going to invite you to come up with song of the week, but I came up with a song of the week that we both love because we were both rocking out in the car. It's from a performer, a singer named Shaboosie with his song.
It's called a bar song or tipsy. So we want everyone to look up Shaboosie and add a bar song to their workout playlist, whether you're running, walking, dancing, cycling, swimming, lifting, whatever. Shaboosie, right, Rudy? You got it. I love it. Okay. And where can they find you if they want to follow you on social media? I am on Instagram, but pretty much best place to find me is on Facebook. I try to be really responsive. If you have any questions, comments, or whatever, hit me up.
And if you're not a friend, let's become one. I can't have too many friends. That's right. Just not one of those creepy girlfriends. Not one of those fake ladies. Fake ladies that want to be friends already. Folks, I'm at Fitzness, duh, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Fitzness.com. In fact, Fitzness.com has had a facelift. I would love for everybody to go to Fitzness.com.
Let me know what you think. And yeah, that's about it. Are you ready to get out of here, Mr. Novotny, and go hang out with your family? Let's move on out. All right. Tell them to get to work. Ready, set, go. Get to work. Get to work. All right. Love you all. Bye. Bye-bye, guys. Hi, this is Rudy Novotny, the voice of America's marathons. We all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives. so much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner.
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