Napa Valley Marathon Winners From Bay Area, Los Angeles

NAPA VALLEY, CA — Andrew Bauer, 34, of Martinez apparently got some great advice about running in his first marathon, coming across the 40th Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon finish line as men's overall winner Sunday. Bauer, who has cross country and track and field experience, had fellow Bay Area runner Justin Hall, 31, of Palo Alto on his heels coming down the finishing chute at Vintage High School in north Napa.

More than 2,100 runners registered for this year's event. When the 26.2-mile race started at 7 a.m. Sunday in Calistoga, it was 32 degrees and foggy — described as ideal marathon weather.

It was for Bauer, who pumped his fist in celebration as he broke the tape at 2 hours, 24 minutes and 4 seconds.

“Never having run a full marathon, I ran a couple of 23-mile training runs in preparation for this race,” Bauer recounted about his preparations for his KP-NVM win. “Past mile 20 I just said ‘OK, here we go. Let’s do it.’ I tightened up a little bit and started cramping in my hamstrings and quads at mile 21 or 22. I eventually just tried to settle myself down, concentrate on my stride, loosen up and try to get to the finish.”

Both Bauer and Hall stayed in the finish area to cheer home the third-place finisher: Grayson Hough, of Davis.

Another surprise was the petite 19-year-old Casey Crosson from Los Angeles, who was strong coming across the finish line to win the women's division with a clocking of 2:50.49.

Devon Yanko was in search of her fourth Napa Valley Marathon women's title but dropped out of the race around the 14-mile mark.

“At that point I was just in shock,” said Crosson about suddenly finding herself in first place. “I didn’t expect it to last very long. My goal was just to finish without walking. I expected to get passed pretty quickly and I decided to just keep chugging along.”

Although Crosson is no stranger to winning races — she took the girls' 3,200 title for Harvard-Westlake High School in the 2016 Mission League finals — her longest race prior to Sunday was a 5K.

Sarah Hallas, 38, of Cotati, finished second in 2:51:01, 11 seconds behind Crosson. It was Hallas’ 32nd marathon.

Kristen Zaitz, 37, of Brookfield, Colorado, a three-time U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier with a marathon personal record of 2:32:38, finished third in 2:55:12.

Women's running icon Joan Benoit Samuelson, who won the first-ever women's marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, was the keynote speaker at a pre-race event Saturday. Benoit Samuelson signed autographs after sharing about her experiences leading up to and during her gold medal performance, her family and how to keep shooting for goals. Sunday, Benoit Samuelson ran in the Kiwanis 5K event along with some 500 others.

Napa Valley Marathon, a nonprofit organization, donates all race proceeds to local Napa Valley charities.

Full race results can be found at Napavalleymarathon.org.

Al Francis contributed to this report.

Photos by Al Francis/Napasonomaphotos.com