Survivor: Napa Valley State Park

After completing our 10K yesterday (and Charlie his Half Marathon) we were convinced that we had accidentally signed up for a reality show focused on the survival of the fittest.

Let's just say it was a pretty "rugged" course! We finished, it was fun, we did well, no regrets, but WOW!!!! We had no idea what we were getting into!

And I have to say "You guys are amazing!!!" to Charlie and Angie who chose this as their FIRST race! If you can do this one you can do ANYTHING!!!

So, the "back story", if you will....

Enviro-sports hosted this marathon, so of course it would be in the midst of the ENVIRONMENT where you're all "Grrr, me mountain climber, can do anything!" It was at Bothe Park in Napa Valley in the hills/mountains near Calistoga. Absolutely breath-taking, the vineyards on the drive up were gorgeous and I wish I took more pictures!! But most of the entire course was on HIKING TRAILS!!! Very minimum amounts of flat terrain. Mostly a narrow dirt path, lots of creeks to jump across, lots of fallen trees to climb over or shimmy under, there were tons of tree roots that required the utmost concentration with every step to ensure you didn't roll your ankle and then subsequently roll down a 40 foot ravine. And the MUD! Thank God it didn't actually rain yesterday, but it had rained recently and there were several muddy spots on the trail that you just had to get through or you would, well, just be spending the night out there I guess! Very dense thick woods - Sherwood Forest-like!

And remote.

That was the part that freaked me out a little. People were very spread out on the trail because they stagger-started the marathon-ers first, then the half-ers, then us 10K-ers. There were times when I could hear or see NO ONE in front of me, and no one behind me, and the trail wasn't really marked that well - a few orage ribbons now and then to mark which way to go, but sometimes you couldn't even tell if you were on a trail at ALL!! And did I mention that 1/4 mile in we were already climbing UP!? The first 1/2 to 2/3 of the run was mostly inclines, and then of course the rest of the way was steep down hill!

So needless to say, I'm feeling a little achy this morning! We can't wait till Novemeber 14th - REDEMPTION!!!! Hooray for the Mermaid 10K in San Fran, we love you, you flat, fast course!!! We will shave hunks of minutes off our time and feel strong and accomplished instead of tempted to "vote ourselves off".....