NAPA VALLEY MARATHON 2003
Yet again, I decided to run a marathon as a training run for the Boston Marathon. Back in December, I decided to run the Napa Valley Marathon on March 2, 2003, seven weeks before Boston. So, on my Christmas wish list to the family, I put “Registration for Napa Marathon,” and received entry to Napa as a Christmas present from my sister, Cindy.
If the Napa Marathon was a Christmas present, then race-day was like Christmas morning, and the weeks of training leading up to it were like Advent—a season on the church calendar that marks the 4 weeks of anticipation before Christmas Day. Of course the Church doesn’t taper, and neither did I in the advent of the Napa marathon.
Advent
I cant say that Ive been all that excited about my training so far this year. I haven’t even kept a running log since I started training around Thanksgiving, three months ago--the last entry I have in my training journal is for last year’s Boston Marathon, over ten months ago! If you ask me how I trained this past November through January, I couldn’t tell you! But, on a piece of scratch paper, I’ve managed to scribble down workouts for the past five weeks (mostly February)—i.e. my “Advent training.”
Week –5: 47 mi + xtraining/weights (including 13 MSD, 22 LSD)
Week –4: 53 mi + xtraining/weights (including 15 MSD, 26 LSD)
Week –3: 54 mi + xtraining/weights (including 19 MSD, 23 LSD)
Week –2: 53 mi + xtraining/weights (including 15 MSD, 26 LSD)
Week –1: 53 mi + xtraining/weights (including 19 MSD, 22 LSD)
Week –0: 43.2 mi + xtraining/weights (including Napa Marathon)
This is pretty much the same training-level I was at when I ran 2:54 at last year’s DC Marathon, which was also meant as a training run for Boston. So I reasoned that at Napa this year, I should at least be able to run a 2:54 again, and feel just as excellent as I did last year after finishing DC. Au contraire—I would not be a happy camper running though the Napa vineyards come race day.
If anything can get injured, it will. The Monday before the marathon, the ever-present callus on the ball of my right foot, which goes back for years and has never bothered me in the past, was causing extreme pain now—a blister had developed and popped and it was red and black underneath—yech. I wasn’t able to run, let alone WALK, without any pain. I took this as a sign that I might want to rest up a little before Napa, and not do the 10 miler that I had planned for Wednesday. I ended up paying a visit to Dr Scholl’s and bought some callus cushions that worked wonders, and allowed me to run again almost pain free.
Oh, but wait, I couldnt let one pain go away without welcoming in a new one, right? I was sitting in traffic on Wednesday, massaging my right quad and…..OWW!….discovered a tender spot in my hip abductor. The more I massaged it, the more sensitive it got. This continued right up until race day and would ultimately wreak great havoc during the marathon.
In the final week before Napa, I ran on three occasions (6, 4, and 2 miles), and did light cycling the other days. This was pretty much my one-week taper for Napa—shoot, and people do this for three weeks???!!!! How do they hold themselves back? It’s maddening, I tell ya. Even when I ran my PR of 2:51 back in 1993, I had run a 4 hour LSD the week before it. Taper simply is not in my vocabulary—either that, or Ive got a faulty definition of “taper” in my dictionary.
Dim Sum spans a cornucopia of Chinese treats—for the uninitiated it’s similar to Spanish tapas. My family has gone to have dim sum brunch every Saturday or Sunday for as long as I can remember, and it is my one culinary weaknesses. Napa or no Napa, I wasn’t gonna let a little marathon come between me and my har gows (shrimp dumplings).
Dim Sum can be quite healthy cuisine, or it can raise your health care premiums ten fold if you don’t make healthy selections and avoid greasy fare like eggrolls, chicken feet, and fried squid. Many of the dumplings are made of seafood and then steamed. I stuck with these smart options. But while they weren’t high in fat, neither were they high in carbs—lotsa protein though. I was supposed to be carboloading, so later in the afternoon, I went back home and compensated for my carbless dim sum by making myself a nonfat refried bean sandwich, on a whole wheat English muffin and topped with honey. Seriously, this is good stuff. Remember the refried beans—they will be referenced again later in this report……..
For my pre-race dinner, I had simple whole wheat couscous topped with spaghetti sauce and canellini beans. Remember the beans again—they will be referenced later in this report…..
After dinner, I headed over to my sis/broinlaw’s house in San Rafael, where I would spend the night. I would be driving on race morning from San Rafael to Napa, which is about a 50 minute drive. San Rafael is 20 minutes closer to Napa than San Francisco is. It’s not a whole lot of time saved, but for a marathon, 20 minutes less of driving and 20 more minutes of rest is a lot for me, psychologically-speaking.
So I got there and made my bed on their mega poofy couch—nope, nope, nope, that wasn’t gonna work—too soft. So I threw my blankets on the floor, on top of the oriental rug, and made my bed for the night. While watching a rerun of “The Bachelorette” finale (yes, I missed it when they first ran it), I engaged in what has become an unfortunate tradition of bingeing the night before my marathons. First I devoured Clifbar’s new Peanut Toffee flavor bar. Then I scarfed down their other new flavor Black Cherry Almond. Both excellent, BTW. Then I made myself a peanut butter sandwich on a whole wheat bagel. Then I had another Peanut Toffee bar, and finally another Black Cherry Almond bar as the finale. (Incidentally, I had a $20 gift certificate to an outdoors sports store and spent it all on Clifbars and gels in prep for Napa.)
In my bloated condition, sprawled out on the floor, I was reading the Clifbar nutrition labels and two things jumped out at me. 1) The peanut toffee bars have CAFFEINE in them! WHAT??!! I was about to go to sleep and I had just consumed caffeine?? I thought that the Clifbar Avalanche series were the only flavors with caffeine!, and 2) Clifbars pack an unusual amount of fiber, on par with oatmeal. With the marathon only hours away, where would all that fiber end up??
Full and sluggish, I set the alarm for 4AM, and turned out the lights at 10PM……Toss….Turn…Owwww, my back and neck. The floor wasn’t much more comfortable than the sofa. Didn’t fall asleep til after 11PM, then woke up at 2:30AM to pee. Went back to bed on the floor, tossed and turned some more, while wrestling with the sofa cushions that served as my pillows, but never managed to fall back to sleep. I remained anxious on the floor and in the dark until the alarm went off at 4AM. Ugggggghhhhh. Well, at least I got 3 hours of sleep, which has been enough to get me through successfully in recent marathons, so I didn’t dwell much on the fact that I didn’t sleep much. More importantly, I had slept 9 hours the night before.
Unlike in marathons past (namely Boston), this time around I wasn’t too concerned with what I was gonna wear for my marathon, or what was written on my tshirt—I knew there wouldn’t be many spectators on the course, so it was irrelevant because few people would be screaming what was written on my shirt.
I wore my worn-out, but reliable and trusted, 3 year old Nike shorts and a simple white tshirt that said, “Gorilla Sports” in medium sized print. Going off on a tangent, now……I cant stand this gym, situated in San Francisco’s Marina district and frequented by several MTV Real World housemates from the Seattle and Chicago editions, as well as ex-fraternity and sorority yuppie-types, sporting frat/sorority tshirts, who hang out asking each other, “So what house were you in at school?” while occupying the treadmills and not so much as putting one foot in front of the other. Cell phone chatter and constant gabbing are rampant here! On one occasion, this one chick got quite upset with the gym staff because they couldn’t change the TV channel fast enough to Oprah. But when my new gym opens up, I’ll be done with this membership! Alas I digress on my commentary about the gym…….I chose to wear the “Gorilla” shirt because it was the perfect length and weight. Very comfortable.
OK, so I got dressed quickly, drank some water and was out the door. I was making good time on 101 at over 70 MPH, but as soon as I came onto HWY 37----whoomp!! A shroud of FOG from the Bay blanketed the road and visibility was about 50 meters. I was down to 30-40 MPH on a 65 MHP road. I panicked, “Im gonna be late and miss the race shuttle to the start line!!!!” You always hear about head-on traffic accidents up in Napa and that was at the front of my mind, especially since I never drive in these foggy conditions….But eventually, I got past the Bay and the fog let up.
Arrived in Napa around 5:30AM, boarded the shuttle to the startline in Calistoga, picked a seat and noticed it was Don Hogue from the Palo Alto Run Club (PARC). He was shooting for a sub 2:40 finish. Holy Frijoles—I quickly dispelled any notion that I might draft off of him. (Fast forward to the finish--he ended up running a 2:42 and came in 8th overall.)
Usually before a marathon, I’ll scarf down something like 2 Clifbars, a gel, and a bottle of Gatorade or something. Given the prior night’s binge, I had no appetite and couldn’t handle any solid food, so I stuck with a bottle of Gatorade and consumed 3 gels. Yech—all that sugar left a nasty feeling in my mouth. For good measure, I popped a no-doz worth 200 mgs of caffeine.
With about 30 minutes to go, I stood in line at the portapotties. Now, recall that I had eaten a lot of couscous, beans, and Clifbars in the past 24 hours—all high FIBER foods. In addition, I eat a lot of oatmeal everyday too. When my turn at the portapotty arrived, all that fiber took it’s toll on me, and after I was done taking care of business, the lightness that I felt is what I can only imagine women experience at the end of their cycles. I felt light as a feather and was ready to go! It wasn’t too cold at the start. Felt comfortably cool—high 30s. No need for plastic garbage bags or longsleeves, so I just sported shorts, tshirt, and a new pair of running gloves I bought. I also duct-taped two packs of PowerGel to the sides of each hip, because the race organizers decided to not provide GU this year due to complaints about litter in previous years.
Now, I never wear a watch during training and dont like the constant monitoring of my splits. I prefer to just have someone tell me my mile splits during a marathon, or having clocks on the course to glance at. However, since the Napa marathon didnt provide clocks or split announcers, I went ahead and wore a watch, which made for an unpleasant experience b/c I kept taking a sneaky peak at my time throughout the marathon. Given the primitiveness of my watch (ie. it doesnt have a memory for multiple splits), the only splits I can recall are the ones for major mile splits along the way.
With only 2200 runners, the start area wasnt too crowded and I was able to lineup a few meters from the startline, alongside Eppa from PARC, and Bill from the Presidio RX run club--this was his first marathon and he was starting out fresh off of two 16 ounce cups of coffee. Napa doesnt use, or need, the ChampionChip--I only lost 4 seconds and there was no bottlenecking after the race started.
I went into the marathon with the goal of running at least a 3:10 to qualify for Boston 2004--but a 3 hour marathon would be nice, and I also assumed I could run the 2:54 I ran last year at DC. This was supposed to be a training run, and nothing else, I told myself. I settled on trying to average a 7 min/mile pace, which could come out to a little over 3 hours. 7 was a nice round number and I could easily calculate times at each mile--trying to target 6:55 min/miles woulda been too thought-intensive.
The Sour Grapes of Marathon Wrath
Mile 1: 6:40. Um no, no no. Too fast--7. You want to be running 7. Seven , seven, seven. Let’s try it again for mile 2…..
Mile 2: 13:something. Again, NO, NO, NO!
Try again for mile 3.
Mile 3: 20:00 flat. What the…..I wasn’t feeling uncomfortable, but I wasn’t feeling like I was running easy either. There were a series of hills from the start to mile 6, so I was trying to hold myself back early on. But then on the downhills, I surged a little, and on the uphills kept a steady pace.
Immediately into the early parts of the race, I noticed how UNCOMFORTABLY cambered the roads were. Given the sensitivity of my knees, I can feel the slightest incline or camber in terrain. Given the many twists and turns throughout the course, and the rolling hills, the Napa Marathon is not runner-friendly to those with sensitive biomechanical issues! Gimps beware!!
Somewhere around mile 5, one of the gels that I had duct-taped to my hip fell off—ARRGHHH!! I looked back as I heard it rip off my shorts and chose not to go back to pick it up. And then there was one……one gel left, that is. For the next 10 miles, I would deliberate with myself over when I should consume it—at mile 10? 11? 12? 13? When?
Mile 10, or so: My right hip flexor began tightening. This aint all that unusual as it’s happened many time before and it usually loosens up over a few miles, but what was a surprise was that the entire side of my right quad became EXTREMELY sore and felt the shock everytime my foot landed. This never let up for the remaining 16 miles. ITB issue? I dunno, but I readily admit that I never stretch despite the amount that I run and workout everyday.
As my pain started to consume more of my thoughts, I paid less attention to the environs and failed to take in much of the scenery along the way. The sun was shining high—not a cloud in the sky—and there was little shade to be had. Despite the comfortably cool temperatures, the glare of the sun started becoming an issue for me.
Mile 13.1: Reached it at around 1:25, which would make this the fastest Ive reached the halfway point in a marathon. This was laughable b/c there was no way I was in 2:50 shape. I resigned myself to the fact that I would be in for a big positive split, but by how much???? Right Quad SOOOORE!
Throughout most of the first half of the race, I was running alongside some guy from Kansas who was running his first marathon in 10 years. He was hoping to run sub-3, so I thought he would be good to pace off of. Eventually, he dropped off pace, and I was left talking and breathing to myself.
Mile 14: 1:31. Somewhere around mile 14 or 15, there was a particularly lengthy hill. When I reached the top with another runner, we looked at each other shaking our heads in exhausted relief. Then I blurted out, “I memorized the elevation map, and I don’t remember seeing that hill there!” Right Quad SOOOORE!
This turned out to be quite the slow marathon. For the next 10 miles, up to mile 24, no one would pass me, though I gradually picked off runners along the way.
Mile 15: I break down and consume my precious Gel and take in some Gatorade at the next aid station. I got quite a pickup from that, but began crashing again. “Running Mommy” from the RWOL forums indicated that she might be at mile 18 handing out GU to desperate runners—I was hoping for it, but not banking on it….. Right Quad getting more SOOOORE!
Mile 16: Talking to myself: “10 more miles! It’s all single digits left after this! Get to mile 20 and it’s all downhill, but hold yourself back for the major hill before mile 20!” Oh the agony of my SORE QUAD!!!!!
Mile 18: I anxiously squint down the road at the pack of spectators and search out any indication of a “Running Mommy” with GU. I target a big yellow sign that says “RWOL” and I raised both my arms and hollered, “Rain Man here!” Then I spotted an excited woman screaming “Orange or Berry, do you want water??!!” Gladly accepted the GU sustenance and was on my berry way……………GU aside, my QUADS still hurt and were getting worse!!!
Mile 19: There’s a hill coming up. Relax til you get to 20. After that, it’s only 4 more miles to 24 and you can start to wrap things up there.
Mile 20: Where’s the mega hill the elevation map and everyone made a big deal about? There was indeed a hill, a little lengthy, but it wasn’t even steep. I reached the top and expected a major drop in elevation, as the elevation map would lead you to expect. But it never came. The final 6 miles of this course didn’t feel downhill at all! Felt flat! Which I suppose was a blessing for me b/c anymore downhills would’ve taken out my quads for sure. However, it was at this point that I started getting spasms in both of my calves—I could feel the veins pulsing and my QUADS were killing me!
Miles 21-23 seemed to drag on forever. The running gloves which I had purchased for $16 a few days prior were getting uncomfortable and warm. I wanted to keep them—they were great—made by hind, black, lightweight, yet warm. I had no energy to carry them and the sun was beating down hard so I didn’t want to wear them. Reluctantly, I threw them off to the side of the road and waved bye bye to $16. Guess I wont be running any cold marathons again.
By about mile 22, I calculated that if I averaged 12 minutes miles until the finish, I could still finish in 3:10 and qualify for Boston next year. A cake walk! If only my quads would continue to hold up—they were deteriorating quickly and screaming in pain!
I was seriously thinking of walking at this point. Even Gallowalking seemed like a good option, and I was thinking, “How long should my walk breaks be if I do decide to start walking?” Fortunately, I never came up with an answer, so I never stopped to try. I was grimacing in pain and whimpering to myself when I heard a “click” to the side of the road. I saw this guy with a camera pointed at me and hollered, “NO!!!!!” To which he responded, “WHAT??!!” “Bad picture!!!!” I cried. Then I realized, my condition cant be all that bad if Im worried about how Im gonna look in my race photos now—so suck it up and wrap this thing up!!!
Mile 24: Getting to mile 24 was the boost I needed. At that point we made the first turn off the Silverado Trail, on which we’d been running the entire time. Some dude passed me here—first to do so in over 10 miles. My quads were killing me—words cant describe. But as I passed other runners and offered some encouragement, it also helped to pull myself along too. It’s almost over, quads don’t fail me now!!!!!!
Mile 25: I had mileage and time in the bank!!!!! I could walk the rest of the way, save my quads, and STILL finish under 3:10! Nope, nope, nope, way too embarrassing.
I picked up my pace and managed to pass a good five people in the last 1.2 miles, and when I realized I was on the edge of sub-2:55, I threw in an added sprint and came in at 2:54:54. Turns out I had about a 4 minute positive split for the second half of the course--1:25/1:29. My quads were still in one piece—my first words to the volunteers was, “This is SO OVER.” And to myself I muttered, “That sucked—a terrible run!” and vowed I would never run this marathon again. Take me back to the city!!!!!!!!!!!
Immediately after finishing, I grabbed some Gatorade and headed to the massage area to beat the rush. Now, there were two classes of volunteers there--some were from a massage clinic and the others were novices. I hopped on a massage table, where one of the latter told me to lie face down and proceeded to give me a shoulder massage. I was a bit puzzled, thinking to myself, "Didnt I just run 26 miles? Should my shoulders be hurting right now?" And then, outta nowhere, a huge ripple up my calf had me screaming in excruciating pain--I rolled myself off the table and was sprawled on the floor, rolling back and forth, grabbing onto my left calf for dear life. And at the same time, I could feel mini spasms going through my hamstrings and in the other calf. As much as I appreciate the time the volunteers give to races, I dont think these guys had any clue what they were doing. One guy came along and helped me out with the left calf, but after that, he kinda left me there, unaware of the issues with my sore right quad untouched. He was inexperienced and didnt bother asking me where else I was having problems, so I wasnt too motivated to stick around or to request a different volunteer. Disappointed, I left the massage area hobbling and extremely tight. Though this isnt to say I dont appreciate the volunteers' efforts for everyone--just didnt work for me this time.
After the "massage," I headed over to grab several cups of hot vegetable soup--despite it being sunny and almost 70 degrees, the soup hit the spot nicely.....but then, a ripple across my bladder sent me to the restroom....Recall the refried bean sandwich I ate on Saturday afternoon, as well as all the other fiber treats that are heavy in my diet. Well, it seems everything Ive consumed through my entire life was making a reappearance to congratulate me on my Napa marathon finish. Having gone through this ordeal for the second time in a day (the first time before the race), I felt light as air. Obviously dehydrated at this point, I was sure to down multiple bottles of water and forced some more soup and bread down.
All in all, Im pleased with my time, though not pleased with how I got there. Probably went out too fast and paid for it--need to learn to better control myself. But at least I've got the Boston 2004 qualifying albatross off my neck now, and can go run Boston easy this year--this is giving me impetus to just slack off on training for the next seven weeks before Boston. Napa really took a toll on my quad and any intense training that might exacerbate the condition is simply not appealing, even if it means running faster than last year's 2:52 at Boston.
We’re not in LA anymore, Toto
Recall the story about the country mouse visiting the city mouse. Well, at Napa, I felt like the city marathoner running the country marathon and went into a bit of culture shock. Napa and LA are run on the same day every year. For the past two years I ran LA because I was going to school down there—having moved back to SF, I thought the Napa Marathon would be a nice change. But I really didn’t appreciate the LA Marathon until I ran Napa and started missing many of the amenities and distractions that LA offers.
Throughout the Napa course, I was longing for the LA’s marathon’s gospel choirs, my USC classmates manning a water station, Mexican spectators chanting “Go Meh-hee-co” in support of the runners from South of the Border, the Korean cultural groups beating the drums, and the little kids high-fiving all the runners! And where were all the palm trees??!! Where was all the pushing & shoving? Where were the armies of volunteers at every mile? Where were the GU stations? Where were all the unnecessary amenities and the annoying distractions??!!
Nope, Napa, in contrast, was a refresher course on the loneliness of the long distance runner. For most of the marathon, I was running alone or with a couple of other people around me. The deafening silence of the Valley was a bit creepy at times--and oftentimes unbearable to the point I'd try to start chatting with other runners who seemed to be enjoying the solitude more than me. I became intimately familiar with the breathing patterns & sounds of the few runners around me. Water stations occurred about every 2-3 miles, and spectators were clustered sparsely along the course, but were very welcome when we passed them. The route was all rural, along the Silverado Trail—quite beautiful and greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen. However, Im the kind of guy who would reach the summit of a mountain, stand in place, turn around to take in a 360 degree view, and then whine, “OK that’s nice, now let’s go back and eat, I’m tired and hungry and need to check my messages.”
Napa left me longing for the creature comforts and distractions of a big city marathon! Like fine wine, the Napa Marathon may be an acquired taste for many urban rats and may even represent the grapes of marathoning wrath. However, for the country mouse with perfect biomechanics, the Napa Marathon is a fine, upper-crust alternative to the $1.99 bottle of wine that is the LA Marathon--but keep in mind my people like the $1.99 wine deals.
2003 Napa Marathon Stats