GOING TO CALIFORNIA--ANY SUGGESTIONS?

I am a long-distance runner who was laid up most of last year with a knee injuries, which is pretty boring because it seems that most runners get laid up with knee injuries at some point during their career. I've done 9 marathons and my 10th is the bucket list race--the Big Sur Marathon on April 27. This is ridiculously exciting to me because I've never been to California and we're taking two weeks after the race to tour, focusing on the area between Paso Robles and Healdsburg, including San Francisco. The training is going well, did 18 miles today with a couple of running friends, which is the farthest I've run since doing the Hartford Marathon about 15 months ago. So tell me, any Californians or experienced travelers out in blog land--any place off the beaten path where we're going that you'd recommend? We'll be doing a bunch of wineries and so forth--but I'd love a native point of view. Also, any runners out there who have done Big Sur. We can swap stories about doing Boston, NY, Marine Corps, Philly, and Steamtown. I believe this is what blogs are for.