Kaiser Half Marathon and Napa Marathon Report

I'll make the Kaiser Half Marathon brief since I don't (want to) remember much of the details. It was a progress report detailing how much I have accomplished over the years so I was quite satisfied with my 1:33 finish. On the other hand, the massive headwind really undermined a hard earned effort. I truly believe that given better weather, I may have run 90 seconds to 2 minutes faster. But I also believe that my fitness was not as optimum either. My breathing was labored for much of the way and I had a difficult time getting into the rhythm of racing a half marathon. The first 10 miles were even splits with most of them at or slightly under 7 minute pace; the last three with a headwind surely made attaining that time goal that much harder. I chatted with a young woman who wanted to run it at 1:17, but finished it in an unhuman effort of 1:20. Never in my lifetime would I achieve that result. But as always, I have a special place in my heart for this local race because it is a great homecoming event that goes through my training routes (normally I don't like races where I train, but this one is different). I get to see runners I don't normal see other times of the year because they have varying schedules and peak races. The Great Highway section that most people dread is the part that I love because I get to see runners/walkers on the out and back road and cheer them on as I run. Now, it's even more special because I joined the team that hosts this race. Nevertheless, after this race, I know what I have to improve on.


A month later (yesterday), I would run the 30th edition of the Napa Marathon. I went up with a bunch of DSE teammates that decided to carpool and foot the hotel bill to help alleviate the cost. Unfortunately, the hotel was 12 miles away so we had to get up extra early at 3:55am.

The day before at the expo, I had the wonderful opportunity to see Joan Benoit Samuelson speak. She not only paved the way for US women's running (in addition to Katherine Switzer's famous Boston Marathon jaunt with Jock Semple) but is also an ambassador for the sport. She announced that after running the Napa Marathon, her swan song will be at the Boston Women's Olympic Trials. Boston was where she started her career and that will be where she will end her competitive career. As she now resides in Maine, running in Napa is a great contrast this time of year. After her speech on her career, life, and love of running, she was received mostly with a bevy of retarded questions such as "What is running negative splits?" after this person acknowledged that she has run 4 marathons. Another person asked "What do you do with Vasoline?" while another asked "Will there be water on the course?" My friends, before you run a marathon, make sure you do your research about the marathon and about marathons in general way in advance; the rest of your unanswered questions will have to be experienced for yourself.
The pasta feed was a chance for the DSE team and I to discuss plans for that marathon and if anyone had any strategies for running their race smart. Uwe, who would run his first marathon, said that just enjoying the ride would be the best way to do it. He's smart and has done his training so I had no worries or concerns about how he would do his race. He lost more than 250 pounds and has this very open and optimistic spirit that makes him truly one amazing guy! Of all the speakers that were at the pasta feed, the one that reasonated me the most was probably Helen Klein. She's 86 years old and would run the Napa Marathon. She didn't start running until very late, probably 10-15 years ago. She broke the record in her latest age division at the California International Marathon in 5:48! Guess what? She broke it again with a 5:33 in Napa!! More PR's later, let's move on to race day!

The pre race ritual of getting ready for race day ALWAYS begins with trepidation and worries the night before to making that perfect race. Jerry had his four bottles of chocolate electrolyte drinks that he would leave at designated aid stations, me with another batch of pasta in a tupperware, Joel with his clothing selection, Jeremy...I'm not sure what hippies do :). But fortunately, George Carlin's HBO schtick was on to lighten the mood with universal taboos on religion, politics, and other matters.

On race day, we got up early as noted before and drove from Fairfield to the finish at Napa. We would then get transported via school bus to the start in Calistoga. Unfortunately, we got split up when there weren't enough seats on the bus for my DSE teammates. I sat in the very back where thugs hang out. The driver told me and the folks at the back of the bus how to evacuate in the rare case of an emergency. Then he went to the front and drove the marathoners as he jacked up the heat, nearly killing us in the back. I talked to a guy who sat next to me who would run his first marathon. His goal was to run a 3:15, and with his best half marathon time set at 1:29, I tried to convince him that he is more than capable of running a 3:10. He agreed but he wants to stick to plan so that his goal of running Boston with his brother and dad don't get fucked up. This does, however, give him a 5 minute buffer should he achieve this since he turns a year older and the qualification for him is actually 3:20. Regardless, a 3:15 for him should be sweet especially for a first marathon. Then playing on the radio, there was a morning talk show required for all music stations on Sunday morning as a service to the community (not a service to us); it was a talk on how to prevent suicides. Not a healthy topic before the start of a marathon...especially if it's your first.
As we headed for the startline after the bus dropped us off, I needed a place to pee. What a change a year makes! The start used to be road with empty fields with some trees lining the area. Now it is occupied by a private resort that was cordonned off by security guards who might suspect runners peeing or warming up on their property; this caused a change of peeing plans for me. The bag check and organization was flawless as the last two times I have done this event. Under my hesitant cold breath at the start, I vowed that I would make my own swan song for my annual trip to the Napa Marathon this year; I would soon do my third one and felt that it was time to do something new. With 15 minutes to start time, I would get into position wearing my new Timex OVA watch. They tell you don't do anything new on race day, but this wouldn't hurt me. It had an awesome chronometer option and the face of the watch is on the narrow side of the wrist so you don't have to twist your arm to look at a standard sportswatch face while pressing the lap button. I wore my Pamakids jersey respresenting the team with adistar shorts and adidas Supernova Light 6 (why adidas is making this such a hard shoe to find boggles my mind as this is the ONLY adidas road racing shoe that I love!).
I also briefly talked to two women who were concerned because of all the marathons they have done, this would be the first one that did not have chip timing. I told them that they shouldn't worry and that the Napa Marathon is ALWAYS organized and is a favorite for many to PR. This resounded well since their primary objective was to PR below 3:40; they would do Boston in a month anyway so qualifying wasn't so much an issue. But when they asked me what my goal was for this race, I replied that Napa is just a training run for the Eugene Marathon in May. Immediately, an old woman flashes her around to hear what a stupid comment I just made and did a double take to make sure she heard correctly.
I was expecting the national anthem to be sung by John Keston, the only man to break 3 hours in a marathon at age 71, like the previous years I've done Napa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keston

But there was no anthem...this was on the website, however...one blip of the Napa Marathon:

6:55am John Keston leads runners in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at start line.



But then the race STARTS!!! No countdown, nothing! Just the shout of GO!

Within the first mile, I see a man running barefoot. I remark "hey, did you forget your shoes?" Then things get serious as paying attention to your pace becomes essential now as this will dictate how you'll progress through the later stages and into the finish. With my prior intent late last year to do this race to help pace someone, it has now become a goal of mine to do this as an honest training run since that person decided not to run Napa; no PR goals, just a wonderful experience. I did not, however, want to get passed by Dean Karnazes, who planned to run this race in 3:40; in all fairness, he AGAIN ran from home in San Francisco to the start of the Napa Marathon and then planned on running back home. With the f-ing walkers slowing things down for the fast people at the start, we quickly went by them to seed fairly well on the closed wide roads. The best thing about this race is that the field is so small that it's almost a nonissue with people hindering your efforts. Right away, I began to talk to some memorable people along the course. As we went up our first "hill" around mile 2, I saw some guy who had a Houston shirt and remarked that it's great that you guys (there were two) are from Texas. One guy said he was actually from Fresno and the one with the shirt is from Texas. Then we began talking about how wonderful this course was. I mentioned something about even Fresno has a marathon now and how it's growing; we spent a good amount of time talking about that to pass the miles in addition to mile splits and his goal of 3:15 to qualify for Boston. I'm not sure if he achived it, but I'm convinced he did since he ran his own race during the late miles and at that time we were ahead of 3:15 pace.
For the first 15 miles I was really convinced that I could run a 3:10 Marathon. Most of my splits were 7:15 pace or better at that time. But I had to be realistic. I had only done 2 noteworthy 20+ milers before this race. I didn't peak for this nor was that my intention and my weekly mileage rarely went over 30 miles. Pathetic...and I was trying to qualify for Boston today? It was laughable, but I honestly believed that I could achieve it. Even though I was not pushing the pace and was letting gravity help me set my race, I was in race mode. The motif for the first 8 miles was to run gently down a hill, to run even effort up the gentle hill, to round the corner of the crowned road, then to run down again, and repeat thereafter. During this time, I tried to stick to my "training run" and help pace this guy who was running his first marathon. His goal was to finish in 3:30. But at this point we were still doing 3:10 pace...well ahead of schedule. He said he was not pushing it hard, but I still told him to err on the side of caution since anything you do your first time will be a learning experience. He agreed and just let it play it out today. I couldn't argue too. We had a massive tailwind! Even when I wanted to slow down, the wind would pick up and push me forward, letting me go fast again. I don't remember the last time the wind was EVER this generous in a race situation. We plog on till about mile 16 or 17 when I begin to lose contact from me. He just ran his own race and backed off without saying parting words before doing so and probably because he was hurting. I was really hoping for him to do a ~3:15 for his first one. I would've been glad to be a part of that effort. But I'm also glad that he was running his race smart.
By mile 17, I was running alone and feeling the isolation hit me hard with my low points affecting me. That point of euphoria is gone for now. The roads become straight and you see the next hill or corner a mile away, far off in the distance. The sun was in my face and now the "should haves" are shoring up on my mind. These include but are not limited to mindfucks such as "I should've worn my running cap", "I should've taken that ibuprofen before the race", and "I should've just paced Jeremy at whatever pace he wanted to achieve". People started to pass me; if this race really mattered, I would have demanded comforting encouragement from them. Then this woman comes up and starts talking to me. I remember it was mile 18, but I don't remember how she came up from behind. Donna and I started talking about how we were in agony and how bronchitis was hindering her effort. I mentioned that coming into this race I lacked confidence in meeting my marathon goal in May because I couldn't maintain hard efforts during training. But the Saturday morning before, I hacked up a small but very lumpy mucus after doing a couple of hard 100 meter strides and all was well. Then she mentioned that her marathon PR was 3:09, but I had to let her go as we both suffered and suffered doing our own races. She being up the road, and me slogging behind. I knew this would happen. Around mile 19, I started my run/walk routine. I wasn't suffering so it was ok; my own retarded Galloway method. This would go own for a while, but the tailwind really helped me to push harder. Then others would encourage me to run faster. Toward the end, I decided to share this favor with other stragglers around mile 25. I would yell at others to pick it up and stay on pace. Remarkably, they listened to me. Then I knew the routine for the finish. We made a right onto another road...the last significant stretch of road! At this point, I not only ran, I made it into a track race after mile 26 as I knew that there would be 400 meters left in the left turn, left turn, right turn before the final 75 meters to the finish! As tired runners were being passed by me, their dried voices mustered "great job"! I felt guilty and sad for them; who wants to be passed at the end? But I had to salvage my race. I came in at 3:22:38, a 20 second course PR! It could've been faster, then I realized man, I walked a lot too and still did better than last year! I am faster!

Epilogue: Nothing new here. The volunteers were awesome and supportive. I stayed at the finish to congratulate the runners I have either passed or run a few miles. I shook hands with the guy who cramped up badly but we helped support each other at the end, the man who said I ran great when I passed him, and the man who ran his first marathon...the man who wanted to run in 3:30...he came in at 3:25!

I quickly went into the gym to get my free massage because I know that waiting any longer for the others to finish would mean not getting that massage in a timely fashion. But I got it after a ten minute wait; it pays to finish fast! Then I saw Norm Klein, and he shook my arm; he's not an asshole like others make him out to be, he's a very genuine, honest nice man. His wife, Norm Klein, would set another record today, and that would make the Kleins so proud. Also of note, the guy I sat with on the bus, ran a 3:14 and is going to Boston! Donna runs a 3:12 with bronchitis and wins her age/sex division hands down, and we continue to chat after the race. Uwe runs in 4:06 for his first marathon, something he didn't envision when he was 250 lbs heavier. Jerry runs a 2:59 marathon!

All in all, the Napa Marathon was a fun event with a very happy reunion that culminated afterward. You know what? I'll reconsidering on doing Napa again next year too! CIM and Napa are favorite marathons for a good reason. You get a lot of bang for your buck!