Sara Waterson's Staging Area

I ran the full and my husband ran the half. This was my 6th marathon.

The expo was very, very small. I’m glad I made sure I had all of my nutrition before heading to Napa because there was 1 booth offering only Gu. Very few vendors/merchandise. This is probably the smallest expo I’ve ever been to. I was disappointed that the half and full marathons share the same shirt. I generally expect races of these distances would warrant their own shirts. I was happy that Kaiser was handing out free gloves because it had been cold and wet. My normal cotton running gloves were definitely a no go after the Saturday morning shake-out in the rain.

We were staying right next to the one of the shuttle stops in downtown Napa. My husband got to the stop for the half early and told me they were just standing around waiting and waiting for buses. I got to the stop when the race told us to be there for the full and ended up waiting almost 40min for a shuttle. We (3-4 school buses full of people) got to the start around 30min before the start of the race, which was barely enough time to drop my bag at gear check and wait in line for the porta potties. Race volunteers were yelling at the porta potties that the race was starting in 8 min and we should make our way to the corrals. Kind of frustrating given that the buses were so late. I didn’t get to warm up at all. Thankfully this is a pretty small race, so I was able to squeeze my way up to the front after I got through the porta potty line.

The course was beautiful. More rolling hills than I expected, but I live/train in a hilly place so it wasn’t too bad. The road banks a lot. I was surprised that people stayed glued to the right side of the road rather than running tangents, maybe not climbing as much of the hill. The road was closed to traffic, so tangents were easy. I appreciated that most people threw any trash they had at the base of the mile markers rather than all along the road. I made a game of finding wineries I knew along the way. Course never felt crowded.

Finished at the high school. I think they had high schoolers “escorting” people through the finish line. I had to ask the girl to stop pushing me forward (her hand was on my back) because I couldn’t walk that fast. My husband had gotten a marathon/half marathon finisher beanie from Kaiser when he finished the half, but they were gone and the tent was packing up when I went by. I ran a 3:51, so it wasn’t like I was one of the last ones coming in. I think they just handed out all of their swag to the half marathoners and there wasn’t anything left for the marathoners. I did feel like the finish line had more than the expo (like Athletic Brewing, sparkling water, etc). I appreciated the gear check in the gym because it was chilly and wet outside. Gave me a chance to change and stretch in a comfortable area.

Overall, I enjoyed the long weekend with my husband in Napa, but I think there are better races out there. This race would be nice if you live in or near CA and wanted a smaller race.