Napa Valley Marathon

I “ran” the Napa Valley Marathon this weekend. Despite missing my goal by over an hour, I don’t feel very disappointed. I ran without a watch, so my figures rely on those I was running around during the race. I ran the first half in 1:33. That’s pretty much a personal best at that distance and so was clearly way too fast for an entire marathon. After hearing this I throttled back to what I felt were 7:45 miles. I believe these would have been just right to get me to the finish line except at the same time I started to feel that pain in my left acl/mcl that has been plaguing my runs. I tried monitoring my stride very carefully in an attempt to stave off the problem from getting worse, but by mile 18 it was pretty clear this race wasn’t meant to be. I dropped to a slow jog (probably 12:00 miles) for the next 3 miles, and after that it was all walking. The last two miles took 45 minutes.

Advice for myself for next time:

Find a new means of hydration. 4oz of water/gatorade every 2-3 miles is nowhere near enough. I was decidedly dehydrated judging by the color of my urine afterwards.

Incorporate stretching into your workout. I suspect cycling a lot combined with no stretching was one of the major causes of my knee problems.

Run more, slower miles.

Lose weight.