medal for Napa Valley Marathon, March 7 2004, 26th Annual Running, best run in California

Napa Valley Marathon

It was a good run on a beautiful day, although I failed once again to beat G.W. Bush’s P.R. of 3:44:52. Just over 5 minutes off. Getting closer…

In summary:
First half: 1:42:30. All I had to do was run the second half in 2:01:xx and I would have beat it! But…
Second half: 2:07:30.

So my total time was 3:50:00. I sprinted in to try to come in under 3:50, but as you can see, I didn’t succeed in that either.

Overall though I am happy with how I did. Still a P.R. by about 10 minutes, and I managed to run the entire way (never mind that I was only running about an 11-minute/mile pace for the last 2 miles and couldn’t walk like a human being until Wednesday). And realistically I can’t complain when my two longest runs since Ironman Coeur d’Alene last year just was the Home Depot Half (13.1 miles) and the Jed Smith Ultra (31 miles).

It also probably didn’t help that I was at a party in S.F. until 1:00 a.m. the morning before. From there I drove to Napa, getting there at 2:00 a.m., and slept in my car for three hours. But no regrets.

medal for Napa Valley Marathon, March 7 2004, 26th Annual Running, best run in California
The medal for the 2004 Napa Valley Marathon