Napa Valley Marathon and Half Marathon
Napa Valley Marathon and Half Marathon
( 30 reviews )-
Calistoga - Napa,
California,
United States - March
- 3 miles/5K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon, Virtual Race
- Road Race
- Event Website
Dan Bitter
Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, United StatesOverall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Finish line: The last ~0.2 mile leading up to the finish line was a bunch of short distances separated by left/right turns. Every other race I've seen has had a significant straight-line section leading to the finish line. Seeing the crowd and finish line from some distance away ignites a push and the final sprint feels great. Not so much here. I was held up by another slower runner (no fault of theirs) while rounding the final corner due to this poor design.
Gear bag: why was the gear bag designed as a tote-style? The carrying strap was nice but a backpack-style would be more useful after the race, in every-day life. Not going to use this bag much, but it's really high quality/well-made.
Good course: I enjoyed the difficulty of the up/downhills and left/right banked corners
Great scenery: It's wine country in California & is great running scenery
Bathroom stations: There seemed to be a significant void in the spacing of bathroom stations between miles ~6-15, which contributed to the slowness of my pace during that section.
Announcers: enthusiastically announced almost everyone and kept a fun, lively mood
Other: The volunteers were awesome. The mayor served as the MC at our start line and kept things light-hearted. Pacers were easily identifiable and friendly. GU & Nuun were great. The shuttles worked out really well. I didn't use the gear drop. Lots of runners left trash wherever they felt like it. At the finish line a volunteer congratulated me, handed a bottle of water and walked a short distance with me, I think to make sure I wouldn't keel over after finishing- a nice personal touch.
Napa Valley Marathon and Half Marathon
Thank you for your review, Dan. It's great to know where we can improve, and always great to know what runners enjoyed. Thank you for being a part of our 2019 race.