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| Napa 2 Sonoma Half Marathon Course |
Well I haven't been "blogging" in a long time but the good news is it's because I've been busy running and having fun with the family over the summer and early fall. But I thought it was time to try to catch all my "fans" (yes all 9 of you) up on where I've been with racing, as if you didn't already know from Facebook. So here it goes...
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| Cool race logo |
Ah, the Napa 2 Sonoma Half Marathon, which I like to refer to as "my hard-learned lesson in training for a race actually does matter". We had an AWESOME time in Napa and Sonoma. Great food, wine, weather, shopping. The race however...well, not so great. It was a beautiful course, a bit hilly but not terribly so. Great weather. Amazing scenery. I'd highly recommend it as a destination race. Really perfect...if I was actually prepared for it. I only have myself to blame (well that and work I guess which was pretty crazy leading up to the race) that I was not better trained. I somehow convinced myself that a half marathon wasn't so bad so I could just "bang one out" if I needed to, without too much trouble. Ummm, wrong! It was my worst half marathon time in recent history. Still a respectable time of course, but not compared to my recent races.
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| Finally done! |
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| Race Results |
As if that wasn't bad enough, this was the first time EVER that I stop at a port a potty during the race. The race started late and I didn't have enough time to get on line again (the lines were terrible!). So I missed third place age group, by
just about the amount of time of a port a potty stop! Lesson learned...find a spot to squat before the race at all costs to avoid this mishap again. The prize was a bottle of wine. I know, I know, I am in wine country so can taste and buy all the wine I want, right? Still, nothing beats wine
earned by winning a race, or so I'd imagine anyway. Ok, so wine tasting that afternoon and a good dinner helped me to get over it, but I still wish I had done better in this race since I know I could have, if I had trained just a bit harder. Oh well, no use crying over spilt wine.
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| Post-race photo, with glasses ready to start washing away my sorrows, uh I mean to start tasting! |
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| Entrance to Opus One |
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| At Opus One |
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| Joseph Phelps Winery |
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| Swanson Vineyards |
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| "Pre-wine" |
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| Cakebread Cellars |
On our trip, we got to re-visit several of the wineries and restaurants we went to on our honeymoon nearly 11 years prior. We visited several new places as well. So all in all, a great trip, but more so for the social aspect rather than running one. This race did teach me a few important lessons though. I decided to not put any longer races on my calendar this year unless I could train for them. Instead I just focused the rest of the summer on running for fun and getting in better shape for our upcoming beach trip in September. We had a great rest of the summer with the kids, much of which we spent at Dutchman Downs pool. Still there is likely no swimming in my future despite that. But at least Owen is a great swimmer now and they allow wine at the pool, which made for a more relaxing summer!
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