Napa Valley Marathon - RunMarathon


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Napa, California
United States
Sunny
 		Total Time = 3h 54m 2s
Overall Rank = 575/1757
Age Group = M 40-50
Age Group Rank = 85/167
Pre-race routine:

Checked in on Saturday. Woke up at 3:30 on Sunday, and ate a big bowl of oatmeal, banana, and OJ. Woke up the family and drove for an hour to the race. They were bussing racers to the start, so stood in that line. Had a cliff bar and some GU20 while on the bus. Got to the start, met up with my running buddy, who was still trying to get over the creeping crud. They had us take off sweats about 15 minutes in advance, and put our bags on the bus. It was COLD once we were in racing gear, with a very brisk wind. Huddled up in the start area, trying to use the other racers to break the wind.
Event warmup:

Not a whole lot. Did some light stretching.
Run
  • 3h 54m 1s
  • 26.1 miles
  • 08m 58s  min/mile
Comments:

A course designed to give runners delusions of granduer. The start was weird, since no one could hear the announcer. The front people at the start, just started moving, so we just figured that the race had started. Since it was a small race, the crowd pretty well thinned out in the first half mile. Mile two, I looked at my split, and it was a low 8, so I needed to slow down. From mile two to about mile 20, I was maintaining a good 8:45 pace, walking through the waterstations every other mile. I was in a good zone, with some of the mile markers coming very quickly.

The wind helped. At one point, I was actually putting on the breaks as the wind was pushing me uphill.

At mile 13, I realized that I had just set a PR for my half marathon, by over a minute.

The legs started twitching at about mile 15, which is normally what happens in training runs, but I got over it. At mile 20, my legs went numb, which was a really strange feeling. They had recovered by about mile 22.

Then in mile 24, I lost it. I think that the problem was that I knew that I had my sub-4. My splits, which were already going up, shot up to 9:45s, and I did 2-3 walks. Just didn't have anything at the end to kick it up.
What would you do differently?:

I got what I was training for, so next time, start training for a faster pace.
Post race
Warm down:

Water, walking. I couldn't even bend over for 10 minutes. Did some stretching, grabbed a soup, and then drove home for a late breakfast of pancakes and strawberries

Event comments:

Lots of fun. Nice course, nice organization




Last updated: 2007-10-16 12:00 AM
Running
03:54:01 | 26.1 miles | 08m 58s  min/mile
Age Group: 85/167
Overall: 575/1757
Performance: Good
Starting in the 8:30s, with 8:45s to 9:00s every other mile when there were water stops. Dropped to high 9:00s after mile 22.
Course: Point to point run, net down hill with some rollers in the first 20 miles. Beautiful course, through Napa's Vineyards. One feroucious tail wind.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5