Race Day - Napa Valley Marathon March 7th, 2010

I had my alarm set for 4:30am, so that I could arise, and prepare my coffee and oatmeal in time to eat by 5:00am, exactly 2 hours before the start of the race. I woke up early and often. I saw 1:25am, 3:00am, and then at 4:10am I decided it wasn't worth laying in bed any more and got up. I started the coffee maker - no grounds, I needed the not water for my instant oatmeal and I had some of that new instant Starbucks coffee. I had the coffee first, then at about 4:55am I made the oatmeal.

I did some light stretching then decided I had plenty of time for a shower. It would both relax me and finish waking me up. It did both nicely. At 6:00am I started to dress. On with the shorts, shirt, socks and shoes. I had put the timing chip on my shoe Saturday night, so I didn't have to deal with it race morning. I used to not put my shoes on until right before the start of a race because my feet sweat a lot, but I also have issues with my laces. I have very high arches and the laces have to be quite loose or I end up with numbness or pain across the top of my foot. I wanted to have them on for a while to make sure there were no issues.
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Preparation: Napa Valley Marathon - March 7th, 2010

As the marathon approached, I got caught up in work and other things and did not posted my progress. I intended to go back and cover my real long run of 24 miles and my last Fast Finish Long run, but now they are both a distance memory. But today's post belongs to the story of the marathon - thank goodness I drafted this back in March.

We arrived in Napa, California on Friday the 5th. We stopped by the marathon expo so I could pick up my bib and get my goodie bag. Napa did a very nice duffle this year. Rumor had it there was also a backpack, but there were none to found on Friday - apparently they had not yet arrived. Diane, Hannah (daughter - 12), Sarah (daughter - 10) and I walked through the expo and talked about how to dress for the cold weather. The projection was for 40 degF at the start with temps in the low 50's around my projected finish time. 50 and above is good. In fact, it's great. But 40 is a bit on cool side.
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