Ben Rosario is the executive director of professional running team HOKA Northern Arizona Elite based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Ben served as NAZ Elite’s head coach and executive director from 2014 through April of 2022 before handing off the coaching duties to Jack Mullaney. This fall, Ben stepped back into his role as coach when he agreed to help us support a group of 15 people to train and race the Big Sur Marathon, a historically beautiful and brutally hilly course on scenic Highway 1 in Northern California. Ben shared his experience below.

When the HOKA PR department came to me last fall and asked if I would be interested in coaching a group of media members/influencers as they prepared for the 2024 Big Sur Marathon, I didn’t have to think too long. Pretty much right away I said, “Sure.” Coaching has been a part of my life for the last 20-plus years–from working at Van Hoosen Middle School in Michigan when I was 23 years old to coaching Aliphine Tuliamuk at the Olympic Games in 2021. And because I’ve coached everyone from eight-year-olds to eighty-year-olds, and beginners to Olympians, I know that each person’s running journey is special in its own way. But when I got that email last fall, I could not have possibly known just how special this particular set of journeys was going to be.

What was originally supposed to be a group of 10 quickly became a group of 15. I guess when HOKA puts the word out that you’ll get free coaching, free shoes and apparel, and an entry into arguably the world’s most beautiful marathon, people are going to want to sign up! My first order of business was to get to know everyone. I scheduled video calls with each participant in late November to learn about their training and racing history, their goals for the program and for Big Sur, any injuries they might be dealing with, etc. All pretty normal stuff. What I found out was that we had a super eclectic group in terms of their running backgrounds. On one end of the experience spectrum was someone like Hellah Sidibe who’d run across America, who’d run the Western States 100, and whose running streak was sitting at more than 2,000 days when we started the program. On the other end were athletes like Natalie Arroyo Camacho, Cassell Ferere, and Mikey Lullo who had never trained for a marathon and had never even done what you would call a long run. Well, that’s not completely true, Cassell said he had run 10 miles once, “just to prove to himself that he could.”

So off we went. Training started on December 11. Each week I would open up Final Surge and write individualized workouts for all 15 participants. For people like Jeremy Rellosa, or Kevin Sintumuang, or Allen Ye, who had all run marathons or half marathons before, I was pretty aggressive. For someone like Tarah-Lynn Saint Elien, who was starting from complete scratch, we started with 15-minute walks. And then there were athletes like Ciara Lucas (London) and Danny Perez (Houston) who had other marathons they wanted to do before Big Sur. Hellah was in that boat as well. He was preparing for Rotterdam. For those three I needed to think about how to best prepare them for their flat, fast races, while still keeping the hills of Big Sur in mind.

Part of the program included additional individual video calls each month. It was fun in January to hear that someone like Jen Acker, who had been a competitive runner in high school and college, was enjoying doing structured workouts again–proof that mile repeats can be fun! And it was super interesting for me to hear about the travel schedules of some of the participants and how they used running to see the world. Oneika Raymond, for example, has traveled to 120 different countries and run in places like Brazil, India, and Morocco…to name a few. Writing training for someone who travels for a living was new for me, but I enjoyed hearing from Oneika on the various ways she found to get her runs in–even if it meant running back and forth on the same small stretch of road for eight miles.

In February, we were able to break up the monotony of training with a trip to Flagstaff, Arizona, where I am based, and where I direct the HOKA NAZ Elite professional distance running team. What an awesome few days. The MMN participants got to meet pro athletes like Olin Hacker— just a couple weeks before he finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships, reigning U.S. steeplechase champion, Krissy Gear, and one-hour half marathoner Wesley Kiptoo. The pro athletes got to meet some of the most popular influencers in the running space including Kate Glavan–a HOKA ambassador and part of the MMN program. In fact, Kate, Hellah, and HOKA NAZ’s Stephanie Bruce spoke to all of the participants at our Tuesday night dinner, sharing their individual stories and inspiring the entire group. You’d be surprised how many similarities there are between the pros and runners of all ages and abilities.

A highlight for me was the last night when we got to “let our hair down” a bit and experience some Flagstaff nightlife. Not to go into too much detail, but I will say that former football player and 3:23 marathoner Brett Williams can sing some mean karaoke! But I can’t recap the Flagstaff trip without mentioning our run in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. It was so cool to see the entire group, including some life-long east coasters, run on the red rock trails together–for many it was their first ever trail run. That post-run pic is a keeper.

As we got closer to the big day, I found myself having the same sorts of conversations I’ve had with pro athletes over the years. There was nervousness, excitement, and worry. Injuries popped up that threatened the ability to run the race. Life schedules got in the way of training. One member did have to make the difficult decision to scratch and another, Tarah-Lynn, ended up switching to the 12k at Big Sur instead of the marathon (finished with flying colors by the way). These things happen of course, and in the end I thought it was one of the ways that the program was such an authentic look into what it’s like to take on the challenge of training for a marathon.

My final talks happened the week of the race either on a call early in the week, or in person at Big Sur. Again, like with the pros, some runners prefer to get the race talk over with a few days before the race so that they can relax and stop thinking about it. Others like to wait until the day before. Some like a long, very detailed race plan. Others like more of a short, almost informal chat about the race. By the time race week had arrived I felt like I had a pretty good idea of who needed what. The easiest two talks were probably with Ciara and Hellah who had both crushed it in their “A” races earlier that month. Ciara ran a monster personal best of 3:50:19 in London and Hellah had broken three hours for the first time with a 2:55:33. All they needed to do at Big Sur was have fun!

But for the others, regardless of their time goals, there was a definite seriousness about what they were about to do. Think about it; for the last four-and-a-half months they had been preparing for this one day. They had gone through ups and downs, made huge breakthroughs, and many had suffered through a pretty nasty winter in New York doing long runs in freezing temps, snow, and rain. As I had told everyone in Flagstaff though, it’s the entirety of the training that creates all of the emotion you see at a marathon finish line. Runners are raising their arms in triumph and smiling ear to ear, not only because of what they did the last few hours, but rather because of what they’ve done the last few months.

And boy did we see some emotion at that Big Sur finish line. By this time, this wasn’t the HOKA Media Marathon Network. We were a team. I sat anxiously in the finish line area with Angie Freda, Mallory Kantowski, and Brandon Smith–the all-world PR squad that had organized the program. The four of us had all 14 MMN runners plugged into the tracking app and so we scrolled feverishly as each split popped up on our phones. As the first few athletes neared the finish, we made our way down to watch each of them cross and have that triumphant moment.

I loved watching Hellah, who was the first MMN finisher, stand there for two straight hours congratulating each member of the team seconds after they crossed. I can vividly remember, for example, seeing him high-five an exhausted Kate Glavan who ran a 4:25:49. Big Sur meant a lot to Kate for reasons she’s shared publicly, and she’d been one of the athletes who was dealing with an injury in the weeks leading up to the race. But there was no way Kate wasn’t going to get this done. I was so proud of her.

Danny Perez, who had run Houston in a PR of 3:59 back in January, ran Big Sur even faster (3:51:00) but had to go to the well to do it. He celebrated later that night on crutches as his adductor was so sore. Jeremy (3:32:34), Brett (3:34:29), Jen (3:44:08), and Allen (3:46:11) all came in within a half hour of one another. Kevin came oh so close to breaking the 4:00 barrier with his 4:00:46, but it was still a nine-minute PR. Casselle, the guy who had only run 10 miles once in his life when we started the program…somehow…amazingly…ran 4:33:53. Oneika, who definitely won the busiest life schedule award, conquered all of her crazy travel and finished in 4:52:38. Ciara, who was just running for fun after her awesome race in London, soaked up every minute of the Big Sur experience–even stopping to play the drums with a band on the side of the road, and finished in 5:28:54.

But perhaps the two most emotional finishes for me were from Mikey and Natalie. Both were completely new to marathoning when the program started. And both completely committed to doing every single run on the schedule, no matter how daunting, no matter how seemingly impossible. Nearly every week they were running more than they’d ever run before. Nearly every long run was their longest ever. I kept telling each of them, “I hope you’re proud of yourself because what you’re doing is not easy.”

To watch Natalie cross the line full of energy (okay I guess that part isn’t a huge surprise if you know Natalie), was so inspiring. Natalie’s a writer so I’ll use a theatrical analogy; if you’d have written a movie script about this crazy journey of hers, that’s exactly how you would’ve crafted the final scene–Natalie literally jumping across the line…putting a stamp on the fact that she was now a marathoner. Mikey’s finish was in some ways different, but in some ways very much the same. Though she allowed herself a small smile across the line (I swear I saw it), her immediate post-race reaction was one of disappointment that she hadn’t hit her time goal. And there it is right; while Natalie’s jump for joy was her way of celebrating being a marathoner, Mikey’s emotional reaction to her time was hers. This is what marathoners do. They set an ambitious goal, pour their heart and soul into going after that goal, and if they achieve it they jump for joy, and if they miss it (even by a mere two minutes) they are completely gutted. But before the night was over both of them were already talking about what races they were going to do next. Now that’s being a marathoner!

For me, as the coach who got to be a small part of each athlete’s journey, I just have to say thanks to HOKA for making this program happen and thanks to each and every MMN participant. You made these last five months incredibly fun and rewarding for me and I hope to see many of you down the “road.”

Learn more about Coach Ben & HOKA Northern Arizona Elite on nazelite.com.