Napa 2 Sonoma Half Marathon, Napa Valley CA, July 17, 2011

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...

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.

Finally done!

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.

Post-race photo, with glasses ready to start washing away my sorrows, uh I mean to start tasting!

Entrance to Opus One

At Opus One

Joseph Phelps Winery

Swanson Vineyards

"Pre-wine"

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!

Dutchman Downs 5K, Cary NC, July 2, 2011

Dutchman Downs 5K Course

There used to be a really nice race on July 4th weekend in downtown Raleigh.  It was a 4 mile race that went through some really nice old neighborhoods.  But due to a decline in participation, they decided not to have the race this year.  Bummer.  So when I found out that because we belonged to the swimming pool in the Dutchman Downs neighborhood, we were welcome to join the July 4th festivities, even though we don't live in the neighborhood, I was kind of excited to run their neighborhood 5K run.  I knew they had a race since I had seen the mile markers painted for it.  I often run through the Dutchman Downs neighborhood, since it's a nice older neighborhood with tree lined streets that reminds me of New Jersey neighborhoods.  Don't get me wrong, I like our new neighborhood with it's updated coordinated landscaping and all, but sometimes I miss the old NJ neighborhoods I used to run in.  When I mentioned I might go over there that morning to do the race, I was really surprised when Owen asked if he could do it with me.  I explained that this was 3 miles and the farthest he'd ever run before in a race was 1 mile.  In the 1 mile fun runs he has participated in he typically would run out of steam about half way through and then would complain for the rest of the race.  But I could tell this time he was determined to do it, so I said ok and we headed over to the pool parking lot to check it out. 

Owen with his cool race number (yeah, it was a small neighborhood race, can you tell?)

I had no idea how many people would run in this race or what type of runners there would be.  Turns out it was mostly high school kids (lifeguards and their friends, track team kids, etc) and a few older folks who were walkers.  Owen was certainly the youngest runner.  He was pretty excited about that.  The hand written race numbers were a nice touch and Owen liked his number, "1010".  At the start, we took off pretty fast and I encouraged him to pace himself but I was mostly unsuccessful in convincing him.  Owen has two speeds, fast sprint and slow walk, which he alternated between for most of the first mile.  He would speed up to pass people, and of course would brag about it, sometimes too loudly!  And then he'd walk and they'd pass him again.  By mile 2 he looked pretty tired, but I just kept encouraging him to keep going and that he was doing great.  We were, by the start of mile 3, dead last but he was still moving at least.  Even the walkers had passed us by this point, but we kept going, walking when he needed to.

Owen and his friend Jack

We passed Owen's friend Jack's house in the 3rd mile.  Jack was getting ready for the July 4th parade that was to follow the 5K.  Jack had his roller skates on and balloons tied to his bike helmet.  This distracted Owen enough to get him excited about finishing, so we could get back in time for the start of the parade.  We rounded the last corner with less than the 0.l mile to go and I saw that the race organizers had a roll of toilet paper held across the road as finish line tape for Owen to cross.  He sprinted to the finish, breaking the "tape".  It was really cool!  I came in after him so technically I was last.

Owen after finishing the race

Owen and Jack in the parade

The parade was a lot of fun.  I had to walk/run it to keep up since Owen and Jack got a ride on a neighbor's golf cart.  After the parade, we went swimming and had some post race snacks at the pool.  It was a great way to start the July 4th weekend and I was very proud of Owen for finishing his very first 5K!