Race #1- Napa Valley Marathon, March 4
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In marathon road races, you feel as
if you’re going somewhere. That is because you usually travel from point A to
point B which happens to be exactly 26.2 miles apart. This is quite a
different experience from ironmans where you end up where you started. That
is because the bike-to-run transition is usually near the finish line which
is where the crowd is. In marathons, the crowd is usually spread out thin
similar to the aid stations which are few and far between. Not so for
ironmans where they are most often exactly 1 mile apart – believe us, we
appreciate that! This race wasn’t supposed to be
important or what we call an “A” race. Instead, it was meant to be a
“training race” in preparation for the Big Sur Marathon, one of our favorite
running races. Unfortunately this year, the race conflicted with the AFM
schedule and we had to pass on it. Last year we carried our fitness from Ironman
New Zealand, which had been shortened due to horrendous weather
conditions never before seen in 22 years of the race. Therefore we were both
fit and fresh. This year, we have been easing into our fitness which is
targeted towards shorter races. So with only about 6 weeks to prepare, we
didn’t have any high expectations for our results – Sherwick wanted to finish
with a time equal to his Big Sur time which would seem attainable given that
Napa is a much flat course whereas Big Sur is quite hilly and Jami was hoping
to beat her Big Sur time by only a few minutes (which would also be a PR). We
hadn’t done any benchmarks in training to get a handle on our current form.
Still, we looked forward to the course, as we had heard nothing but rave
reviews! Race morning was pretty straight
forward: we got up early to catch the bus that took us to the start line over
26 miles away. Upon disembarking, we made a bee line to the port-o-potty
before the line grew, spent about 20 minutes warming up, stripped off our
extra gear and downed a gel with some water for some quick energy before the
gun went off promptly at 7am! And with that, the pounding came!
Sherwick went it alone near the head of the pack while Jami ran with Robin
(of Team Soares)
slightly farther back. Robin was training for Ironman Coeur d ‘Alene in June
so this was a “B” race for her as well. In fact, she was planning on running
only the first 20 miles and then save her legs by jogging in the last 10k
(her “A” race would be Big Sur). Since Robin was aiming for the same pace as
Jami, they decided to run together. Jami was fortunate to not only have her
company and motivation to push her, but also a new gadget - Robin’s Garmin.
This training tool combined GPS with a chronograph and was able to measure
instantaneous pace. Troy Soares (the other half of Team Soares) had
configured the watch to plot their goal pace as a “virtual” runner so they
could tell if they were ahead or behind schedule at each moment of the race.
They affectionately named their virtual target Meanwhile, Sherwick ran his pace at
the front of the pack. He was practicing his race craft by leap frogging from
group to group all the while resisting getting dropped during the tougher
sections. Sherwick locked into 7:00 minutes per mile for the first 10 miles
then had a few miles around 7:15 with a couple sub-7:00s thrown in. Mile 18
logged the fastest mile at 6:53 but the last six proved to be the slowest at
an average pace of 7:37. By the time Robin got to her
planned drop-off at mile 20 (well, it was actually mile 19 since nature
called), the time savings they had in the bank was starting to dwindle so
Jami pushed the pace trying to minimize the damage. Jami’s 3:15 time goal was
still within grasp and with this extra push 7:30s were still reasonable…until
mile 23, that is. Suddenly, the mind was mush and the legs mushier and 7:30s
grew to 7:40s to 8:00s which was enough to delay her finish by 2.5 minutes.
Jami finished in 3:17:35 for 6th place among the women in her age
group, which was good enough for 13th place overall and a personal
best! Sherwick finished in 12th
among the men in his age group with a time of 3:10:59 which incidentally was
exactly, TO THE SECOND, his time from last year’s Big Sur Marathon! Goal
achieved! Team JaS has vowed to return to
this venue as an “A” race with the proper training – the course certainly has
the makings and if we are fit, peak performances await! Next up – a grueling
trail half-marathon!
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Jami on her way to a
PR! Sherwick |
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Enjoy
the ride! –- Team
JaS
Special thanks to: |
