This past Sunday, my family and 9,000 of our closest friends, ran along the Monterey Coast in the 10th Annual Big Sur Half Marathon. The weatherman predicted a cold rain but the good Lord thought otherwise. We were blessed with warm air, sunny skies and no wind. A runners delight. All this set against a backdrop of incomparable beauty and a restless sea. It could not have been better for the runners but it was truly magical for two very elite athletes.
For the first time in modern day running history, methinks, a husband and wife won their respective divisions in the same long distance race. Arizonans Ben Bruce, 30, and his wife, Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce, 29, won first place in both the men's and women's division. At one point, I saw Ben cruising at top speed with three Kenyons in hot pursuit on his tail. At mile 9, Ben had a healthy lead over the Kenyons but was still concerned. "Even when I got the big lead, I was wondering, are they coming back on me? You feel hurt, too. It just becomes a matter of hanging on from there." Boy, did Ben hang on and beat the tireless Kenyons. Impressive. His time was 1:04:45. A shade under 5 minutes a mile. First place for men.
His wife, Stephanie, was equally impressive. I saw Stephanie motoring back to the finish line in pure chettah stride. Her body was and is a finely tuned machine with every muscle in concert with one goal...to go really fast. A lovely athletic motion to witness. She finished the race with a personal best time of 1:12:19. A shade under 6 minutes a mile. First place for women.
And that's not all regarding the husband and wife dual victory on Sunday past. You ready for this? They were on their HONEYMOON!!! Forget Cancun. Forget Hawaii. Forget Bahamas. 'Babe, let's run a marathon together...and win the darn thing on our honeymoon. OK.' Incidentally, they both won $3000 each for first place and guess where they are headed next? To run in the Honolulu Marathon next month. Now those are some runnin' foos!
Congrats to Bruce and Stephanie and I hope you have a very happy life together. And major props for all of us runners who gutted it out and rode in on Ben and Stephanie's wake. It was a spectacular race and an astonishing accomplishment for the entire field of runners.
Everybody won that day.
See you next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment