Napa Wine Country Marathon, Half Marathon & 10K (Fall)
Calistoga, CA
- Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
Babbling streams will be your soundtrack as you challenge yourself on the lush singletrack within Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. The course is a bit challenging with the hills, streams and rocks – which makes it all the more exciting and rewarding. This state park is a local treasure that is … MORE
Find Nearby Lodging (hotel, rental, etc.):
Hard pass . Distance is very incorrect
Unfortunately this race has many issues. My biggest issue is that it is NOT a full marathon . The course looped and only equaled 20.5 miles. My watch along with … MORE
Unfortunately this race has many issues. My biggest issue is that it is NOT a full marathon . The course looped and only equaled 20.5 miles. My watch along with other athletes that ran, all finished with the same distance on our devices … yet the race officials blamed our devices and said the course was in fact 26.2 miles . That they are “not accurate on trails” For the pace I was going there was absolutely NO WAY for it to have been a full marathon . Not to mention my garmin is extremely accurate during normal trail races and runs . Nearly 5 miles is a HUGE gap.
Besides that, the elevation is pretty challenging. Max elevation grade of 27 percent and over 4500ft of climbing . Quite a few people I raced with were not able to finish .
The course was also very poorly marked . At one point many of us piled up (both marathon and half marathon runners) very very confused on where to go . One guy in particular didn’t wait to figure it out and I guarantee he got lost because he went the wrong way .
I was 1st overall female for majority of the race and ended 2nd overall female right at the tale end and a big contributor was me stopping for an insane amount of time twice to figure out the poorly marked trail .
Was told awards would be sent in mail for top finishers and they never were sent out (which isn’t a huge deal for me it’s a small race… but it just shows how poorly the race is put on) .
If the trail was better marked and the distance was beyond off then it would have changed the race a lot .