Paso Robles Marathon Race Recap

by SkinnyRunner on October 29, 2012

First, congrats to reader Joelle who just ran her first marathon, Marine Corps yesterday!

I love hearing first-time race stories; they’re always exciting and inspiring.

Yesterday…

I didn’t bring my camera during the race so I don’t have any pictures of the vineyards, but check out last year’s race recap for some. It ended up being great weather and a beautiful day.

We started right at 7:30am at Le Vigne Winery and since it’s a smaller race (about 300 people) I started near the front. I ran a 7:30 first mile and tried to get into a good pace without starting too fast.

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The first 6-7 miles were all around 7:30-7:50 min/miles, but they felt a lot harder. I think because I wasn’t warmed up and it was chilly out that maybe it took awhile longer for me to get into it?! I don’t know, running confuses me.

But by mile 7ish I started feeling good and just sorta zoned out.

This is a scenic course through the wine roads and vineyards of Paso Robles and with all the fall colors, it really was beautiful. I didn’t bring music (my ipod kicked the bucket for good and went in the trash) and enjoyed the surroundings. It was quiet and cool out, just a great morning to run.

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I hit the halfway point at 1:41:21 and kept trucking. Things felt easy until about mile 15 – that’s when I first felt like this whole marathon running thing was harder than I had previously thought in my vineyards-viewing bliss.

The course is all rolling hills since it’s through wine country and all… There’s 2 tougher hills but they weren’t that bad. I think the elevation chart makes them look worse than they are:

I sorta got into the groove and started pushing it around mile 20. I can’t remember any splits and am too lazy to find my Garmin, but I ran the second half in 1:35:44.

At mile 24.5 I ended up taking the lead and finished in 3:17:05.

{I tried to go with Halloween colors for the race}

Afterwards my friend and I hung out in food tent area; it was great to be out of the sun, have seating and good food!

There was donuts, fruit, bagels and cream cheese, and breakfast burritos that were delish, all donated by local companies.

A HUGE thanks to my friend for driving me to the start, picking me up and being my cheerleader and all around good great friend!

For winning I received a magnum of wine and some gift cards (my man will LOVE them) and another medal.

I won’t do a full race review since I did one last year (here), but this is another great, small town race put on friendly volunteers with all proceeds going to the local Rotary Club which among other things, provides scholarships and grants to local students.

Everyone I met, from the aid station volunteers to Biker Bob to the volunteers serving food to the race director, was so nice and friendly that it was great to be a part of that small-town atmosphere.

Tagged as: race review

Skinny Runner

{ 79 comments… read them below or add one }

michelle kim October 29, 2012 at 3:44 pm

Wow! Congrats on taking the lead and on the super fast finish!!!
It is nice to do a smaller race once in a while. The locals (though they might be far and few) are always great supporters!

Paso Robles Marathon Race Recap

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