Race Report: 2023 Napa Valley Marathon
02 Apr 2023 fitness
Summary
- What: 2023 Napa Valley Marathon
- When: Sunday, March 5, 2023
- Where: Napa Valley, CA
- Distance: Run 26.2M
- Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8666710067
- Finish time: 3:28:54
Discussion
A few weeks ago, I ran the 2023 Napa Valley Marathon. I was quite looking forward to the race, for a few reasons:
- I had run this race back in 2020 and was excited to see how much I had improved since then.
- I felt great going into the race. My training runs had gone better than expected.
- My good friend David was also running the race – hooray for camaraderie!
It rained on race day, which was a bummer, but that was really the only thing that went wrong all day. I felt great through the first few miles and decided to shoot for sub-3:30, my goal for all of 2023. I figured, “Hey, I’m feeling good, why not?” Running with wet socks sucked, but the pacers did a fantastic job and carried me through the last few miles. I surely would’ve fallen off pace without them. In the end, I finished in just under 3:30 – a huge personal accomplishment!
The course itself was almost exactly as I remembered it, except for one thing: the roads were a lot less “level” than I realized during 2020. My current running shoes have a lot more height than the ones I used back then, so I was much more aware of the tilting, banking roads this time around. Other than that, it felt the same. The last long stretch in particular was almost identical to how I remembered it; it felt like it went on forever.
Anyway, it was a good race, and I’m stoked I achieved my goal so early in the year. I beat my PR by more than 15 minutes, and I beat my time from 2020 by nearly an hour. The progress is real! I probably won’t do this race again, but I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to run hills with pretty views of wineries.
