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Athletes participating in the 30th edition of the Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon on Sunday, March 2, will be tackling the course after getting advice from 1984 Olympic Marathon gold medalist, Joan Samuelson, who will give the race's keynote address the previous afternoon.
Amongst that group, organizers say, will be six to ten women who hope to qualify for the USA Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon on Sunday, April 20, in Boston. The minimum time to make the Trials is two hours and 47 minutes. According to USA Track & Field, 175 women had officially qualified through January 16, while RRW has noted two more qualifiers since then: Melanie Peters, 2:46:45, Tampa, Feb. 10, and Becki Michael, 2:43:43, Austin, Feb. 17.
The Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon is not a mega-race; organizers only allow 2,300 entrants. However, what it lacks in size it makes up in rural beauty and consistent execution. The event has used the same course throughout its history.
"For beauty and performance, Napa is simply my overall favorite course," said Tony Rossmann, a San Francisco attorney and law professor at UC-Berkeley who has run more than 300 marathons and ultramarathons "For year-in and year-out consistency, the presentation of the race is always first rate. The consistency is the one thing that really makes Napa stand out."
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