Once in a Lifetime?

so last year started out with my first Half Marathon, and ended with my first Half Ironman. In between were a slew of pool and open-water sprints, and swim or bike legs of various relays. And thus was my indoctrination into the sport of triathlon.

Team Z focuses winter training on running, and people elect to do a Half or Full spring marathon as the culmination of their winter training. Obviously, I chose the Half last year - Shamrock. I figured I'd eventually run a full marathon as a part of all this, but didn't want to commit until I really thought I'd be ready. I'd assumed that I'd do something flat, and fairly "easy" in marathon terms... like Shamrock.

In July last year, as I was driving with friends to my first open-water, non-local triathlon, Musselman, I got an email from Active.com. I skimmed it as I was on my iPhone and chatting.
It said "Congratulations! You are now registered for the Big Sur Marathon."
This did not register in the form of comprehension.
My thought was - Why is Active sending me emails promoting California events? Did I ever use Active to register for an event in CA? no... hmmm...
why. stop.
Wait.
That email said that I was REGISTERED!
what?!
OMG! now my brain was frantically trying to figure out if I had done something by mistake!
and then I figured someone must have done this to me!
At first I thought it was my BFF... but then I figured she new better than to do something like this... and so my next thought went to my [insert adjective to describe a noun that represents the person with whom you share your life, so is therefore more than a "boyfriend" but you are not married, so is therefore not a husband].
He was in Afghanistan at the time, and since the timezones were still in my favor, I forwarded the email and asked "Was this you?!".

Yip - he had registered me for the M%^&$# F@$&*!& Big Sur Marathon.

So, here we are in February, and I am trying to get ready.
Everything I have ever run is 90% flat.
My coach suggested I run hill repeats... there is a hill in front of my house.
On Wednesday's I'm going to run repeats of this hill.
I'm so excited... can you tell!?

On the Plus side... I'm thinking I may only run a marathon once, so it may as well be:
"Best Marathon in North America" - The Ultimate Guide to Marathons

Check It Out! this is actually the quote on the website:
"If we were told that we could run only one marathon in our lifetime, Big Sur would have to be it."
Bart Yasso, Runner's World

Report out of hill repeat week 1:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





(the joke is that I got retribution for the marathon registration by signing up [adjective noun] for Ironman Wisconsin. I did sign him up, but it was at his request as he was stuck in a meeting that day with no access to the internet.)