This past weekend I ran the Napa Valley Marathon with my friend Karoline. The weather was very nice until the night before the marathon. We woke up extremely early morning Sunday, March 6, to pouring down rain. The good news? -- well, it was in the upper 40's, so not too cold. We caught the bus from the finish area to the starting area at 5:00AM! Our bus got lost right away and missed the turn onto CA29, apparently due to the windows being all fogged up.
Race started promptly at 7:00AM. About six miles into the race, Karoline and I were already commenting that it was a good thing we drove the course the day before because it was a lot more hilly than we had expected (and by the way, according to most of the reviews on-line where we read things like PR course -- flat -- overall downhill.) If we hadn't driven it the day before -- it would have felt even harder! We were trying to do the marathon in four hours, which meant we had to keep a 9:09 minute/mile pace. At the half-marathon point, we were on target but then things started to happen as they often do when one runs a marathon. The pavement felt extremely pounding on our legs, the camber in the road was significant on every turn whether flat or hilly, and the rain continued on now with a twist of wind....okay enough on the excuses. Anyway, we finished!!! 4:07:22 -- I can still run what I was running before H&M came along 20 years ago!!! YEAH!!!!
I am not sure if this link will work -- but it's a link I can access and purchase marathon photo's of me along the way. I don't know which ones I want yet -- so if you can see the link, you will have to wait.
On Monday, I flew to Minneapolis to catch up with the Michael's and Megan at the 2011 Junior National Olympics. I arrived too late to see Michael and Megan race but thanks to Bert Boyer we have these photos below.......
Team Alaska coming down the escalator to the opening ceremonies Sunday.
Michael during his qualifier............
Megan on her qualifying race.
Megan had an excellent qualifying race -- she came in 14th and apparently looked really strong (I heard this from her coaches and from many of the Alaska parents.) She made it to the quarterfinals but not on to semi's -- overall for the day, she came in 26th. Congratulations Megan!
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