The Santa Rosa Marathon

INTRODUCTION: I am a race-walker with a median marathon completion time of 5:21:20. The Santa Rosa Marathon was my fifty-first 26.2-miler accomplished. COURSE: It was a great day for a marathon: weather at the downtown Santa Rosa start line was 52 degrees, 100 percent relative humidity, calm, and overcast. After meandering downtown for a little over a mile, we embarked westward on the 5.7 mile long Prince Memorial + Santa Rosa Creek Trails. Accommodating three runners across, the heavily shaded trail left Santa Rosa at Fulton Road and entered into vineyard properties. Five and a half miles into the course, we left the paved trail and traversed out-and-back alongside Peterson Creek on gravel trails totaling 1.1 miles. At the end of the Santa Rosa Creek Trail at Willowside Road, we began our 12 mile clockwise loop around West Sonoma County, including the highlight of the course, a tour of the DeLoach Vineyard property at mile 10, including going inside their barrel room. Most of this course wound its way through wine country and farmland. We engaged the only significant exception to the largely flat course at mile 12, where we encountered a pair of back-to-back short interval down-and-ups on Oakwild Road before turning on Woolsey Road. Just past mile 20, we retraced our steps on the entire length of the Santa Rosa Creek + Prince Memorial Trails back into downtown, where a half mile later, we crossed the finish line just past where we started at Courthouse Square. Finish line temperature was 58 degrees, 87 percent relative humidity with overcast skies and wind from the south at 5 mph. ORGANIZATION: Well executed event; responsive race staff. Small expo located in the local sporting goods store south of downtown. Excellent swag: for the tenth anniversary, each marathon runner received a hooded windbreaker jacket, and as in previous races, a bottle of DeLoach Runners Red Cabernet Sauvignon distributed only to the marathon participants. Excellent course support, especially the chardonnay shots received upon exiting the DeLoach barrel room. Traffic control started to deteriorate around mile 15. Although we were allotted one lane in the West Sonoma County portion of the course, a few of the residents decided to take both lanes, apparently with the blessing of the local authorities. SPECTATORS: Apart from downtown Santa Rosa, none to speak of. Excellent drum corps upon leaving and re-entering the Santa Rosa Creek trail at mile 8 and 20. One can hear them a mile away. CONCLUSION: Impressive race management, and with the generous support of DeLoach Vineyards, a unique, scenic course. The event is not quite as polished as its marathon neighbor to the east, but definitely more enjoyable. Well done, Sonoma County.

Course: I was concerned after reading the comments on the 2016 marathon that this event might suffer from poor organization, but this was certainly not the case. The beautiful route was very well marked. Mainly flat, this is a good course to shoot for a BQ. I only wish I ran as fast as my car did on the windy road cutting through the forest as I approached from the northeast. Stunning beauty. Pace Setters: I really wanted to break 3h 40m, and found the 3h 38m pace setter to be just the ticket. Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the fact that the pacesetter was as fast as my car. Now that I look at my Garmin results, I find that the pacesetters handily beat the 8m 18s goal for 11 of the first 13 miles and left me in the dust for the second half. This will be the last time I put my trust in pace setters. And besides, staring at the bobbling pace sign for 90 minutes misses the point of enjoying the rest of the view. Returning to the Scene of the Crime: If I were not on this quest of 50 states, I would consider running this again. But given that I am 54 and only at 11 states, it is time to head east. I am told that marathonning after age 90 may prove treacherous. In Conclusion: But overall, I raise my glass of Runners Red to the event organizers and volunteers. Cheers!

Santa Rosa was my first full marathon experience, and overall, it was a really solid event that I would run again. I have run several half marathons and this one is on par with other good experiences. The best things about this race were the scenic, mostly flat course (for an out-and-back route, it was surprisingly enjoyable); the really well-staffed aid stations (at least every 2 miles), with water and Gatorade, some with bananas/oranges, and the volunteers always ready; and the expo and finish-line events were really nice with plenty of perks. Additional fun aspects of the race were shots of Chardonnay at mile 10 (I didn't take it, but it made me smile), a complimentary Lagunitas pale ale at the finish line, and the unique fact that the race shirt is a nice lightweight running material jacket. Aspects that could really use improvement are the race website and email communication (for example, multiple emails stating there will be no on-site parking at the expo, but only in one email was it listed where you could park to catch the shuttle, which for our-of-towners like my group was more of a challenge); and clarification at the start line regarding where the starting corrals are (a start-line map would be helpful!), and getting the runners to stay on course (I heard that the first runners went straight at the first turn, which could easily have been blocked off, and it sounds like course issues is a recurring challenge for this event). Overall, this was a solid event, and the spirit of it was very fun and supportive. Temperatures were very high race day, which was an unexpected challenge, but outside of the race organizor's control. Thanks, SRM, for helping my first full marathon experience be a great one!