Napa Valley Trail Marathon

The short version, for those of you who will have your eyes glaze over at the details..

I finished in 4:35:01, coming in 6th overall for women (out of 18!) and 1st in my age group (out of four!). I had fun, and the race elevation profile looked like this:



Now, the long story for those of you with marathon endurance...

My day started at 5:40 after a pretty good night's sleep. I left home an hour later for an easy 1:20 drive. I saw my friend Stacy as I pulled in, chatting with some new acquaintances. We chatted for awhile as we waited for the race to start. The race director gathered us at 9, then talked for almost 10 minutes before the marathon runners got underway.

So, my expectation after reading the elevation chart for the race was 800 or so feet elevation climb for 2 miles, then 4 miles back down. It was NOT like that at all. The first mile was relatively easy--still uphill, but not as hard as I'd expected. I ran it in about 11 minutes.

The second mile made up for the gradualness of the first mile. It was really hard. I was able to run nearly all of it, though. However, the hills did not stop after that second mile! We kept going up, with a few downhills scattered in, for at least another mile.

There were two stream crossings--both were tricky to navigate (on the first one, a man tried to run it and slipped right off the rock. Wet feet!), but not hard if you were careful. I stayed dry.

The downhill section was nice, but a lot of it was incredibly steep, meaning that my pace wasn't all that much faster than on the uphills. And it wasn't 4 miles worth of downhill--there were quite a few uphills interspersed in that. It was still easier, though! I got passed quite a bit at this section by fast people running the half marathon (they started 10 minutes after the marathon runners).

I was able to really pick it up on the last 1.5 miles of that section, where the downhill wasn't quite so brutal. That felt good, and I hit the first aid station (at the start/finish) feeling great.

Now, I was expecting a very gradual uphill for 2 miles, about 100 ft in that 2 miles, then back at a very gradual downhill. Right. It was more like 300 feet, you reached that peak in about a half of a mile, went back down, went back up. THEN turned around, and repeated. It was also very technically challenging, with lots of rocks and roots. OK, the whole trail was quite technically challenging, but this section seemed very hard, maybe because I was expecting it to be so easy?

It was an out-and-back, though, and I was able to see that there were about 10 women in front of me. I felt good, still, and took my first Clif Shot Blocks (I liked them, which was good since I'd never had them before!) I still hadn't had much of my water bottle, so I tried to drink some more of that. And I realized on a particularly brutal downhill that I would be well-served by a bathroom break when I got back to the start/finish area.

I did a quick stop into the bathroom, grabbed a banana half, and refilled my water bottle with Gatorade (which was quite watered down, ugh). Oh, on the way past my car I dropped off my long-sleeved shirt and my gloves, as I was plenty warm.

The second time up the hill was much harder, of course. For most of the hardest section there was someone right behind me, chatting with me, which made it more fun. I was still able to run most of it (especially when I remembered not to lean into the hills and work on a better uphill posture), besides the most difficult sections. Once we had done most of the hilly part, she passed me, and ended up finishing quite a bit in front of me. The encouragement was really nice, especially when she told me that I was really doing great for a first marathon.

At the beginning of the steep downhill section, I got behind a group of four women running the half. They were going slower than I really wanted to go, but it was a really narrow section, hard to pass, and I decided to take a page from the woman who had just finished running behind me and stay behind for a bit. It was a good rest, and most of the hills were so steep it wasn't bad to walk them down. As soon as we reached a slightly flatter section, I passed them and felt pretty refreshed. Oh, I think I had the next 3 shot blocks at that point, too.

I still was able to run strong into the start/finish area, ready for the second (and last) out and back section. I had to walk a lot of those really steep uphills, but I had held my position, I think. Like I said, even those in front of me were walking those uphills. I was just barely in front of a woman who I had passed early on. It was in this section that I got my first leg cramp. I've never had leg cramps when running, but I felt like my muscle was about to tear into pieces. I'm guessing I hadn't had enough water, as I had only had 30 oz at that point. There was a family out hiking that section, taking it very slow as they had little kids. On my way back, the dad called out "runner! Get to the side!" The little boy said, "That's not a runner, that's a hiker!" Oooh, a blow to my efforts! I was actually "running" at that point, too, but it was very slowly uphill.

I made it (barely, it felt like) back into the start/finish aid station, and actually stopped to breathe, take 3 more shot blocks, refill my gatorade, and just rest. I got passed up at this point by the woman who had been just behind me, but not by anyone else. My time was good, and though I knew the uphills were going to be really really hard, even if I walked them all I knew I'd do OK.

So I started out, and that very gradual uphill was sooo much harder at that point! (the race chart said that was 20 miles) I made it, though, and was able to run until I got to the most challenging uphills. I then ended up walking most of the uphills from that point forward. My left leg cramped at that point, too, and somewhere before the downhill I drank most of the 20 oz bottle and had the last 3 shot blocks. It was also at that point where I realized I wasn't thinking about if I would run a marathon again--I was trying to decide if I would ever even run again!

I was so excited to get to the mostly-downhill part, and to get across the streams with dry feet. Right after the second stream I passed two women who had been in front of me the whole time. I'm pretty sure one of them was slightly injured, but at the time I just felt fast. I was able to keep it mostly under 9 minute miles for that last stretch, and some of it a lot faster. I turned it on for the last tenth or so of a mile and sprinted across the finish line.

Stacy was there to cheer me on, which was so great. Carl had (wisely) decided not to make the trip with the kids, so it was a huge encouragement to see Stacy. She actually skipped lunch with her family to be there when I finished.

I finished in 4:35:01. Yay! I was [I]very[/I] happy with that. I was pretty beat at that point, and being able to talk with Stacy for 45 minutes or so is the only thing that kept me from just curling up on the ground. In fact, Stacy had to tell me I looked very cold before I really clued into the fact that I was freezing and I finally put on my layers. After she left, I thought I would wait for awhile before I left, and finish rehydrating/fueling. But I was still so cold I left pretty quickly, so I could blast the heat in the car.

The trip back was slower, but not by much. I had to stop once to use the bathroom, and I wasn't entirely sure I wouldn't lose the contents of my stomach at that point. It was almost exactly 2 hours post race that I suddenly felt human again. Then I decided I probably would run again someday, at least a little.