Nannette Samuelson's Staging Area

The expo was smallish, a few booths and a small section of apparel. Race morning logistics were horrible. I picked up the bus at the Hampton Inn. Got there at 5 for a “5:40 shape” load up.
We loaded, the. Sat and waited until 6:00 am to leave for the 35 min drive to Calistoga. The driver didn’t follow the race directions and ended up at the intersection of the Silverado trail. (Which was closed for the race!) it’s now 7:05! CA Hwy Patrol Officer, was visibly irritated that this bus now has to turn around on a narrow T intersection. He said to follow the directions the Race gave you. The driver said “I just followed my GPS” what?? The half started at 7:00 so runners were already on the course.
We make a difficult turn and continue on. Finally arrive at a long line of cars dropping off runners on Lincoln. No other busses in sight. It is 7:15. Still on the bus! Finally, jump off the bus about 7:23 run to port a potty, line too long, someone says gear drop is closing. Run to drop off bag, quickly decide what to pull out to take, it’s now drizzling. Drop off bag, run over to where runners are staged, just in time to hear 10 seconds runners, 5,4,3,2 HORN!!
No time to stretch, check my laces, missed the National Anthem! It was not good! Very stressful.
The race itself has a lot of ups and downs rolling hills. While it is a net downhill, be sure to train hills a lot! The scenery is the best part, rolling hills of vinyards on both sides for 90% of the race. The road is closed so that’s good and bad. Good, no traffic and we had the entire road to spread out. Bad, not much spectator or race support. This is a peaceful race with no music and very few fans yelling along the course. Very difficult for your fam and friends to find a spot to cheer you on. The aid stations were stocked and good and at the designated intervals.
After the drizzle stopped it was cool and a bit breezy, wind in our face. Not a strong wind, just got tiring after 3-4 hours of wind in your face. It’s basically a one direction race very few turns and the wind was out of the south.
The sun came out for a short time. I was never really too cold or too hot, so overall temp was fine.
The finish area was DISAPPOINTING! I’ve been to 5K races with more booths, vendors, celebration atmosphere. This was sad. I was a little past middle of the pack 4:23, and what looked to be a band was finishing packing up. There was no other music blasting to pump you up. Just a very few scattered tents with nothing much there. I asked “Isn’t there a BQ bell?” I’m 65 (BQ age). They said “oh ya over there”. Wow! Just a small little bell with no backdrop for a good photo op. How disappointing!!
I’m glad I did the race and enjoyed the wine country and BQ’ed. But won’t be back. NVM really needs to up their game! For what this race costs, the atmosphere was not on par. Like I said, I’ve done small town 5k’s with better race support and finish area. 🥲. I had family (who don’t run) there and I was embarrassed at the minimal non-party atmosphere of the finish areas. I hope NVM improves for future runners to feel the celebration and accomplishment of finishing a marathon!