My Ridiculously Long Napa Valley Marathon Report
On Sunday I finally raced another marathon. This was my third overall marathon. I ran/walked/limped my way to the finish line of the 2001 Rock ‘n Roll Marathon with a time of 4:35:37 and ran the 2003 Mardi Gras Marathon with a time of 3:30:44.
I had initially hoped to run a marathon last October, but I ended up getting slightly injured, waited to register, and the race filled up. My next plan was to run the Pacific Shoreline Marathon in February, but that race also filled up before I registered. I ended up at running the Napa Valley Marathon. Because I had started training for the two previous marathons, I had run ten, 20 milers and had averaged 55 miles a week since last August. I had missed a few runs here and there, but I knew my fitness was there to easily pass my previous PR. With that in mind, I set a goal for this marathon to average 7:00 minutes per mile, which would give me a finish time of 3:03:24.
Like most of us I started checking the weather as soon as the ten-day forecast became available. The predictions called for cold, rain and wind. Not the ideal racing conditions. The forecasts turned out to be fairly accurate, but the weather still wasn’t too bad. At the start of the race, I found the temps to be slightly cool and the wind wasn’t too strong. During the race, the rain was a constant drizzle. Other than soaking my shoes, socks and feet, it wasn’t a big factor.
The race started on time, and I was able to cross the line after only a few seconds. After the usual jockeying for position for the first quarter mile or so, I easily found my stride. My one goal for the first mile was to not start too fast. I got into a rhythm pretty early and mainly tried to stay around other people. The wind wasn’t too strong, but I figured I’d save what energy I could by staying in a pack. I hit the first mile at 7:17. I wasn’t on pace, but I was pleased with this time.
I don’t have my splits available, so I can’t give a mile-by-mile description of how my race went, but I remember enough to give an overview. The second mile went by pretty much the same as the first. I stayed with other runners when possible. Sometimes I led the group and other times I followed. I made up a few seconds during this mile, and hit the two mile mark at 14:11. During mile three, the runners spread out a bit, and I was running alone until another runner came up behind me and drafted for a mile or so. He then moved in front of me and told me to draft off him. I stayed right behind him for probably three quarters of a mile. However, without me in front of him, his pace was quicker than I wanted to run. I ended up running mile four at 6:40 pace, I stayed with him a bit further and went back and forth in my mind whether I should stay with him and share the duties of cutting the wind or if I should let him go and move back to my goal pace. It didn’t take long for me to come to my senses and let him go ahead.
By the time I reached mile five, I was approximately 25 seconds ahead of my goal pace. I maintained this cushion for a while. The first two thirds of the course were rolling hills. On the more uphill miles I would give back a few seconds and on downhill miles, I would gain them back. I pretty much continued this routine until mile 16.
Right about the time I hit the 16 mile mark, the wind seemed to really pick up, and I started giving back time pretty quickly. During miles 17, 18 and 19, I averaged approximately 7:20 mile pace. Mile 20 was mostly a long, steady uphill climb. I knew this hill was coming, but believed that after this hill, it was mostly downhill to the finish line. With this in mind, I pushed the effort up to the 20 mile marker and the top of this hill. I ended up crossing the mile marker just over a minute behind goal pace.
My plan was to take advantage of the downhill and try to run 6:50 miles to the finish. This pace would put me right at my goal pace. The problem is that after a short downhill, the course was mostly flat for the final six miles. With the increased wind and without a downhill course to take advantage of, I just didn’t have enough left to make up any time. After staying even for a couple of miles, I started giving time back. At this point of the race, I can’t really say what my pace was. In my head I thought I was making up time; however, when I got to the 25 mile mark, I realized that I was over two minutes behind my target pace. Realizing that I wasn’t going to reach my goal, I started concentrating on catching two runners who were in sight ahead of me. I slowly gained on the runner in front of me and finally caught him with close to a half mile to go. Just as I was passing him, we came to a corner. I heard a spectator say (or at least I thought he said), after the corner, you can see the finish. I turned the corner, and a ways ahead I could see people standing around, so I thought that was the finish. I pushed the pace and started working towards a strong finish. The next runner wasn’t too far ahead of me, and she was struggling. I past her about the same time I realized that what I saw wasn’t the finish line but was the next turn in the course. I made this turn, and still only say another turn – no finish line. However, at this point, I could hear cheering and knew I was close. I started sprinting (or doing the best version of a sprint that I could muster) and just hammered to the finish line.
My official time was 3:06:39. I finished 49th overall; 47th male, and 13th in the 40-44 age group. My average pace was 7:07. I didn’t reach my goal of 7:00 minute mile pace, but I’m happy with this race. I made some smart decisions by not going out too fast, working with other runners when possible, and knowing to pull back when the runner I was with was going faster than I was prepared to run. The only real bad decision I made was running too hard up the hill at mile 20, but even that decision was made based on bad information about the course. Who knows, with dry shoes and no wind (or a tailwind), I may have been able to hit my goal time.
I enjoyed this race. It was very well organized. The only downside was that the entire race is run on cambered roads. I’ve never had a problem on these types of roads, but I know they’re killers for a lot of runners. Also, the soup they served was horrible. It was basically water with a few vegetables. The only good thing about it was that it was hot.
The two best things I've seen at the end of races are the ice cold towels at the end of the Sunburst Marathon and the hot showers at the end of the Napa Valley Marathon. I was freezing after this race. That hot shower was great!
I had initially hoped to run a marathon last October, but I ended up getting slightly injured, waited to register, and the race filled up. My next plan was to run the Pacific Shoreline Marathon in February, but that race also filled up before I registered. I ended up at running the Napa Valley Marathon. Because I had started training for the two previous marathons, I had run ten, 20 milers and had averaged 55 miles a week since last August. I had missed a few runs here and there, but I knew my fitness was there to easily pass my previous PR. With that in mind, I set a goal for this marathon to average 7:00 minutes per mile, which would give me a finish time of 3:03:24.
Like most of us I started checking the weather as soon as the ten-day forecast became available. The predictions called for cold, rain and wind. Not the ideal racing conditions. The forecasts turned out to be fairly accurate, but the weather still wasn’t too bad. At the start of the race, I found the temps to be slightly cool and the wind wasn’t too strong. During the race, the rain was a constant drizzle. Other than soaking my shoes, socks and feet, it wasn’t a big factor.
The race started on time, and I was able to cross the line after only a few seconds. After the usual jockeying for position for the first quarter mile or so, I easily found my stride. My one goal for the first mile was to not start too fast. I got into a rhythm pretty early and mainly tried to stay around other people. The wind wasn’t too strong, but I figured I’d save what energy I could by staying in a pack. I hit the first mile at 7:17. I wasn’t on pace, but I was pleased with this time.
I don’t have my splits available, so I can’t give a mile-by-mile description of how my race went, but I remember enough to give an overview. The second mile went by pretty much the same as the first. I stayed with other runners when possible. Sometimes I led the group and other times I followed. I made up a few seconds during this mile, and hit the two mile mark at 14:11. During mile three, the runners spread out a bit, and I was running alone until another runner came up behind me and drafted for a mile or so. He then moved in front of me and told me to draft off him. I stayed right behind him for probably three quarters of a mile. However, without me in front of him, his pace was quicker than I wanted to run. I ended up running mile four at 6:40 pace, I stayed with him a bit further and went back and forth in my mind whether I should stay with him and share the duties of cutting the wind or if I should let him go and move back to my goal pace. It didn’t take long for me to come to my senses and let him go ahead.
By the time I reached mile five, I was approximately 25 seconds ahead of my goal pace. I maintained this cushion for a while. The first two thirds of the course were rolling hills. On the more uphill miles I would give back a few seconds and on downhill miles, I would gain them back. I pretty much continued this routine until mile 16.
Right about the time I hit the 16 mile mark, the wind seemed to really pick up, and I started giving back time pretty quickly. During miles 17, 18 and 19, I averaged approximately 7:20 mile pace. Mile 20 was mostly a long, steady uphill climb. I knew this hill was coming, but believed that after this hill, it was mostly downhill to the finish line. With this in mind, I pushed the effort up to the 20 mile marker and the top of this hill. I ended up crossing the mile marker just over a minute behind goal pace.
My plan was to take advantage of the downhill and try to run 6:50 miles to the finish. This pace would put me right at my goal pace. The problem is that after a short downhill, the course was mostly flat for the final six miles. With the increased wind and without a downhill course to take advantage of, I just didn’t have enough left to make up any time. After staying even for a couple of miles, I started giving time back. At this point of the race, I can’t really say what my pace was. In my head I thought I was making up time; however, when I got to the 25 mile mark, I realized that I was over two minutes behind my target pace. Realizing that I wasn’t going to reach my goal, I started concentrating on catching two runners who were in sight ahead of me. I slowly gained on the runner in front of me and finally caught him with close to a half mile to go. Just as I was passing him, we came to a corner. I heard a spectator say (or at least I thought he said), after the corner, you can see the finish. I turned the corner, and a ways ahead I could see people standing around, so I thought that was the finish. I pushed the pace and started working towards a strong finish. The next runner wasn’t too far ahead of me, and she was struggling. I past her about the same time I realized that what I saw wasn’t the finish line but was the next turn in the course. I made this turn, and still only say another turn – no finish line. However, at this point, I could hear cheering and knew I was close. I started sprinting (or doing the best version of a sprint that I could muster) and just hammered to the finish line.
My official time was 3:06:39. I finished 49th overall; 47th male, and 13th in the 40-44 age group. My average pace was 7:07. I didn’t reach my goal of 7:00 minute mile pace, but I’m happy with this race. I made some smart decisions by not going out too fast, working with other runners when possible, and knowing to pull back when the runner I was with was going faster than I was prepared to run. The only real bad decision I made was running too hard up the hill at mile 20, but even that decision was made based on bad information about the course. Who knows, with dry shoes and no wind (or a tailwind), I may have been able to hit my goal time.
I enjoyed this race. It was very well organized. The only downside was that the entire race is run on cambered roads. I’ve never had a problem on these types of roads, but I know they’re killers for a lot of runners. Also, the soup they served was horrible. It was basically water with a few vegetables. The only good thing about it was that it was hot.
The two best things I've seen at the end of races are the ice cold towels at the end of the Sunburst Marathon and the hot showers at the end of the Napa Valley Marathon. I was freezing after this race. That hot shower was great!
posted by Bart at 10:55 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for the great race report. I have to disagree about the soup. Maybe I was just too hungry to care, but it tasted great to me. I agree with your assessment that a 7:00 minute pace is in your grasp with favorable conditions. Great race and congratulations on yet another PR.
Thanks, Drew. I was initially disappointed with not reaching 7:00 min/mile, but after reading more Napa race reports and giving it a couple of days to let it sink in, I'm really pleased with my results. As far as the soup, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Great race, and great race report. You are lowering your PRs at a frightening rate! What’s next, a sub 3:00 finish?
Thanks, Thomas. I would like to make a run at sub-3:00. I'm aiming for the Bizz Johnson Marathon in October as my next race. According to Marathon Guide it's run on a fast course, so who knows.
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