Napa Marathon
March 3, 2024
4:54:17 1141/1699 Overall 7/15 in 70-74
Jodi-Half 2:41:03 1769/2579 Overall 54/94 in 50-54
Jodi and I headed to the Napa Valley
with dual purposes: run our races and bury Mom. Both were accomplished successfully.
Driving there was a bit scary as Friday was rainy. We had a fun dinner in Rio
Vista at Lucy’s Café, but then the rain really came down hard the rest of way
and resulted in limited visibility.
But we made it safely, and Saturday
morning picked up our bibs, and then headed to Calistoga for the burial at
Pioneer Cemetery. The rain let up during the ceremony and then started up just
as we were all leaving; great timing! (See pics below)
Jodi and I then
went downtown to have lunch at the Café Sarafornia (derived from founder Sam
Brannan’s misspoken “Calistoga of Sarafornia instead of Saratoga of California.)
We happened to meet the owner who had Boston roots so had fun talking about the
Boston Marathon and all things Boston with her.
We drove around Calistoga and noted
a few things: the church is being remodeled into a community center; the golf
course is closed and is just a grass field; the high school track is still a
dirt track (not all-weather); and someone new was moving into our old
Centennial Circle house. We also, sadly, noted all the fire damage from the
Glass Fire two years ago as we drove back to Napa on the Trail.
It was not supposed to rain early
Sunday morning, but it did so we drove to the bus pickup spots in the rain. Thankfully
for me the rain stopped before the marathon, but Jodi’s half-marathon started
earlier and in a different spot so she got pretty soaked. But overall, it was
ideal running weather in the high 30s and mid 40s with overcast skies most of
the way. On the bus ride from Napa to the start in Calistoga I talked with a
young lady from Austin, TX who works with a winery. It was interesting to chat
about some of the marathons we’ve both run such as Austin, Houston, Chicago,
and Eugene.
Due to the great weather and some
good training, I was able to run my best time since Nov 2021. It was also my
first time under 5 hours since Sep 2022 largely because all 5 races between then
and now were too hot (70s) for good times. I was able to stick to my run 4
minutes/walk :30 most of the race except on the longer, steeper hills, I’d go
to 2/:30. The Silverado Trail on which most of the race is run has a lot of
rolling hills so that was fun as well as challenging. The vineyards all along
the route are, of course, beautiful and full of mustard plants this time of
year. My splits were very consistent all the way staying very close to 11:12
range with 14 of the splits being around or under 11 and the slowest being 11:35.
Next marathons: Newport, RI 4/13/24, CO 5/19/24
Marathon photos: https://link.shutterfly.com/DiNDM4qWKHb
Video of Mom’s burial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx1N5RiFqfA
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