Nick and I headed to Napa at about 1p.m. on Saturday to get checked in and stop by the expo to pick up my schwag, bib, and t-shirt. I didn't know this when registering, but the Napa Marathon gives GREAT schwag! I not only received a duffel bag in my favorite color (green), but I was presented with a plethora of samples and coupons.
After the excitement that was the expo, Nick and i headed to the hotel to nap, eat, and rest for the rest of the evening. I placed all my clothes, trigger point roller, food, water bottle, and breakfast out on the table in the hotel ready for the 4a.m. wake-up call. I was so excited, nervous, and worried that I woke up at 3a.m., but managed to force myself back to sleep until 4.
Then it was TIME...dun, dun, dun. I just kept saying,"start slow, start slow." We headed off and I trotted my way through the start line and tapped my garmin to start. Illiana joined me for the first two miles chit chatting as I tried to get warmed up so I wouldn't blow up. At mile 1.5/2ish I started to push and with each mile I started counting down in my head. Now the Napa marathon is a NO HEADPHONES course, which was a huge challenge for me, and I thank all the spectators that brought music to the road it really kept me moving.
It was a gorgeous morning winding through the wineries, but at first the shade made it a bit hard to get warm. We went up the first hill around mile 2 which I took pretty well. I finished my first mile at 8:42, my second at 8:12 and then my third at 8:06. I picked up the pace even more going downhill, but the one problem with the Napa Marathon is that the road is banked almost the whole way. It either leans heavily to the right or heavily to the left so it is very difficult to cut the corners real tight and avoid my knees aching. My legs felt good, but not great so I was a bit concerned, but I kept going mile 3 at 8:06, mile 4 at 8:02, mile 5 at 8:14, mile 6 at 8:16.
I popped a gu at mile 7 and even though my stomach had some problems with gu through my training I decided to stick with gu, but stick with flavors I've had good luck with in the past. I brought 3 faithful vanilla flavors and one 2x caffeine orange vanilla roctane. I pushed on 8:17, and mile 8 at 8:14. My legs started to feel real heavy and I was overjoyed when I was greeted and passed by Ms. Amy Streeter. I chased her orange shorts trying not to push too hard in fear of blowing up. Mile 9 at 8:03, mile 10 at 8:08, mile 11 at 7:59, mile 12 at 7:59.
By this time I'd been greeted and cheered on by Ms. Kim Cooke twice and her enthusiasm really pushed me on. I felt like I had an runner and a quitter on each shoulder telling me to keep going and the other to give up. At this point Ms. MaryAnn Holland was pushing herself through a boston training run in the opposite direction cheering Amy and myself on.
Mile 13 went 7:56, mile 14 at 8:10, mile 15 at 7:54, mile 16 at 8:15, mile 17 at 8:04
Mile 18 at 7:54, mile 19 at 7:47, mile 20 at 8:06, mile 21 at 8:03, mile 22 at 8:38, mile 23 at 8:31, mile 24 at 8:32
This is where I started doing the math on my finishing time and I realized I was on the verge of Boston. I didn't even think I could come close to this so I started to push, but I needed help and this is when Nick came around again coaching me through it mile 25 at 8:31, mile 26 at 8:09, and .38 miles at the end at 7:27 pace. I finished at 3:35:32 a 39 minute PR from San Diego in 2010, but just 32 seconds shy of Boston. There are many factors I could say caused my 32 second lag, I held back a little too much, the course was long, I didn't cut corners tight enough, but it doesn't matter I felt great, I did great, and I almost cried at the end that I exceeded what I thought I could do. I've never been an athlete and THIS was an athlete's marathon time (or at least in my mind). I also was so excited I didn't feel like crap. I am actually exited to work my butt off and do it all over again, well after tri season of course.
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