As Marcus Nuckolls approached Friendship Park in Imperial Beach, California — the final destination on his three-year journey to run the entire West Coast of the U.S. — the gate was closed, and so was the park.
He planned to stride onto the beach, welcomed by the cheers of his wife and two daughters. Instead, after confirming a trail to the beach was available for public access, he walked, sang songs and danced with his family the final 1.5 miles of his nearly 2,000-mile running project.
“It was pretty precious, and it was something I didn’t know how badly I wanted it until it was there — the family finish,” Nuckolls said. “I couldn’t have asked for a weirder or better way for that to be brought about.”
After running an average of 40.3 miles for 16 consecutive days (about 645 miles), Nuckolls completed the final stretch of the California coast — from San Francisco to the Mexico border — on Wednesday, July 5. It was his highest average of any segment from the 1,985-mile project, split up over three years.
Now, after a four-day trip home to northern Skagit County, Nuckolls is taking time to reflect and recover.
“It was like saying goodbye to an old friend,” Nuckolls said. “[That’s] kind of how the last 24 hours have felt. That part of my life was so constant for years.”
Coincidentally, Nuckolls and his family were driving back into Oregon on Sunday, July 9, the same date — exactly one year ago — that he began running the 366-mile coast of Oregon. That was a staunch reminder of just how much he has accomplished in the last 365 days alone.
“It was pretty wild driving north and having the opportunity to relive so many moments over the last few days,” Nuckolls said.
Over the first three days of running, Nuckolls said he was struggling mentally to find a rhythm. He was self-supported during that period, meaning he had to carry or push everything he needed for three days, aside from what he could purchase.
Nuckolls found his groove on day four, he said, and he began to push forward with full confidence.
After battling — and ultimately avoiding — various road closures and military bases, Nuckolls had a calf strain on day 11 that forced him to walk a chunk of miles. While messages poured in imploring him to take a rest day, he pushed forward.
On day 12, after walking 10 miles along Laguna and Newport beaches, his calf relaxed. Nuckolls began running again on day 13 and did so until the end.
“You think your body is saying, ‘No, I’m done,’ but it’s not. Unless there’s an injury that’s happened, it’s just the body reacting to the impact,” Nuckolls said. “I just kept believing that it was going to recover.”
Aside from California’s perks, the increase in daily mileage was a struggle, Nuckolls said. Each additional step of the project meant more miles per day, especially since southern California was the longest of any.
“The variation between a 36-mile run and a 42-mile run — those [six miles] are some of the hardest miles,” Nuckolls said. “Having every day be that 40-plus, it was much harder.”
Nuckolls, through it all, said no single stretch of the coast stood out as his favorite. They were all different.
Running the coast of Washington, where roads were heavily trafficked with few paths or shoulders for him to feel comfortable on the highways, was his original goal. He ran mostly self-supported in Oregon, which presented a heavily taxing mental component. Central and southern California had stretches of walking and biking paths that made for great running.
So many memories, places and new faces he met throughout the journey made their own case to be his favorite moment.
“Each part of [the coast] just has a place in my life, in my mind, in my spirit,” Nuckolls said. “The coast really holds a lot of me now.”
