Good friends and good causes make up the Big Sur International Marathon.

Keely Richter here, stretching my hamstrings and tilting my diet heavy on carbohydrates in advance of this weekend’s Big Sur International Marathon.

I’ve participated in the marathon relay a number of times and have run both the Monterey Bay Half Marathon and the now-defunct Salinas Valley Half Marathon, but this will be my first foray into road races since the pandemic. Covid-19 and accompanying disruptions to daily life put fitness on the back burner for me (and I know I’m not alone).

Five years later, I've finally worked my way back into something resembling fighting shape and I'm back in the relay. Marathon day is Sunday, April 27.

All of my Big Sur Marathon relay runs have been with a group of friends who form teams and while training, raise money for our good friend Rachael Short, who was in a car crash in 2010 that left her a quadriplegic. Before then she was an avid runner, so running in her honor in the marathon and raising money for her staggering out-of-pocket costs for therapies, training and treatments was obviously a good fit.

I lived in Big Sur when I started running the race and we’d often do our training runs in groups at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park among the beautiful redwoods alongside the Big Sur River. When the road washed out or was closed due to a landslide, we’d take advantage of the empty highway and revel in our good fortune.

In preparation for my run this year, I’ve thought back to race days of the past—the crush of people at the starting line, runners of all abilities oozing adrenaline, the unabating cheers from volunteers at the aid stations, the driving percussion from the Taiko drummers helping runners charge uphill at Hurricane Point, and the bruised toenail beds at the ends of wobbly legs, finishers wrapped in foil blankets slamming chocolate milk at the finish line. I’ve looked around and seen people I know from all over the community—including people I hadn’t known were runners (full disclosure: if they were having similar thoughts, I’m sure they’d never have expected to see me there—a doughy girl with a desk job).

I took some time to chat with Big Sur International Marathon Foundation’s new Executive Director, Jennifer Edwards, about the folks who run this race. My colleague Dave Faries had a more in-depth conversation with Edwards that appears in this week’s paper, but I was just looking for some data. While the marathon is a highly sought-after destination race for people around the country and world, Edwards reports that of the approximately 8,000 participants in 2025 racing across varying lengths—marathon, relay, 21-miler, 11-miler, 12K and 5K—almost 900 of them hail from Monterey County.

With 900 of your friends and neighbors in the mix, I’ll encourage you to come out and support them on Sunday morning at the finish line located at the intersection of Rio Road and Highway 1 in Carmel. It’s an inspiring gathering.