Napa Valley Marathon

Yikes. It's been more than two weeks since I've blogged. Guess it's time for some catch-up!
Last week at this time I was running through vineyard country in northern CA, running my 25th marathon, the Napa Valley marathon.
The trip west brought us first to a four hour layover in Salt Lake City ...

and then over the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range.

A stop on Friday at one of my west coast faves, even though I am not at all a fan of chain restaurants or fast food. But this is totally different, as In-and-Out Burger fans can attest to. : )

Napa Valley marathon. What a first class event. It's a runner's race, directed by an old school runner (Rich Benyo, who writes for Marathon & Beyond) ... just a marathon (no half, relays, 10K, 5K), no pace teams, no charity groups. Just a point-to-point foot race. My left hamstring has been bothering me again the last month or two, my training has not been quality training, so my goal was just to finish. There would be no PR, no BQ and I was OK with that. Just wanted that finisher's medal! There was chatter of wine being available at the water stops, but that wasn't the case. There was one vineyard sampling wines at the expo though. It was a relatively small race as marathons go (field limited to 2500). A nice size, actually. A small expo, but nicely done.

After picking up our numbers, duffle bags and shirts ...

we lounged poolside enjoying the beautiful 70-degree sunshine and planning our race strageties for the morning. The consensus ... finish!! Me, injuired. The rest? Illness. And I was a germophobe!!

Pre-race carbs were enjoyed at Mary's Pizza Shack (they also have pasta) with Mike and Rita, Yvonne and Gil and Gil's cousins, who own a vineyard. Sadly, I didn't get a group photo there. I wish I had. I was feeling like I was taking too many photos, but looking back I wish I'd taken more.

Race morning dawned bright and early (4 AM) as the race started 26.2 miles up the road and the shuttle buses left between 5:15 and 5:30. So we loaded up the truck and were headed up the valley. (There's a slight reference to the Beverly Hillbillies theme song in there somewhere! Humor me!) I didn't bring my camera or phone to the race, so sadly I have no photos. The grapevines were dormant but the countryside was still beautiful. The course is hilly and the roads, especially in the first half, very steeply pitched side to side. And there are lots of tangents to run. The dilema ... running the tangents and the steep side-to-side slopes or stay to the middle of the road? I did a little of each. I looked at my Garmin when I first felt my hammie and it said .64 miles. I knew it would be a haul to the finish and I was just hoping to not be injured any further at the finish other than the usual marathon fatigue. At 1.5 miles an older gentleman let loose some explitives and pulled to the side with a pulled hamstring, furthering my resolve to take it easy and enjoy the ride so to speak. I stopped 2 or 3 times to use "the facilities" (running off into the fields behind some bushes as there weren't many porta potties that I noticed anyway) and stopped once to take a stone out of my right shoe. Had the usual cramping issues but I was jogging slow enough that I was able to run through them. It was sunny and warm, and I got a sunburn. I would have loved to have run faster, but I was OK with my 4:12:06 finish all things considered. I've been diligently stretching, strengthening and now icing the hammie and it's feeling pretty good again. Hoping to get into shape this year and get in more quality miles.

After cleaning up, it was off to San Francisco where we spent a wonderful afternoon walking (4.5 more miles!) the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge.

And then eating our way through Chestnut Street!! Sliders and fries at Mel's Drive-In. (We were craving french fries.)



My first falafel at Marina & Kebab.

And then a donut at Donuts by All Star.

Oh my ... I think I carried my I-can-eat-what-I-want-for-the-rest-of-the-day-after-a-marathon rule to the extreme!! Not to worry ... I'm back to eating lots o'veggies again. : ) And there are no cookies in the house. : )

Monday morning, Jay, Brad and I went for a 10K run down to Fisherman's Wharf to shake out our legs. Needless to say, they were doing better than I was and they'd run 3:13 and 3:10 respectively. (They ROCKED it!)

We checked out the sea lions off Pier 39.

And then got coffee and sourdough bread at Boudin's.

Then it was off to Haight Ashbury to check out the sights.

Jay bought some slip-on Doc Marten's and I got some pink boots. Pink boots ROCK. : )

Then I got a Ghiradelli ice cream sundae. A total indulgence requiring many, many miles to run off, but worth every calorie and every mile.

Jay scored some chicken tacos at a roadside stand on the loooonnnng drive back to the Valley. Authentically Mexican, quite tasty, with a bit of a kick.

And that pretty much brought our little adventure to a close. A wonderful road trip!!