Jenny Kadavy will return to area to participate in Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Half Marathon event

There is so much that Jenny Kadavy likes about the Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon.

She likes the course, which is a point-to-point route and is considered fast because it is flat.

She likes the area’s beautiful scenery.

She likes the organization of the event and the time of year that it’s held.

“I know that you win some wine – so that’s a good incentive as well,” Kadavy said on Sunday in a telephone interview. “I’ve come out to watch some from friends run it in the past. It’s just always been a really well conducted event.”

Kadavy, a resident of Clayton in Contra Costa County, was the women’s champion and the seventh overall finisher of the Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon in 2014.

It was Kadavy’s first win in a marathon. She achieved a personal record, finishing the race from Calistoga to Napa in a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes, 47 seconds. She also qualified for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

Kadavy will be returning to Napa, but not to run the marathon. She is an elite-level entrant and is in the field for the Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Half Marathon, a first-year race, on Sunday, March 3. The 13.1-mile race starts at 7 a.m. on the Silverado Trail in St. Helena, near Conn Creek Winery, and follows the same course that the full marathon uses to reach the finish-line area at Vintage High School on Trower Avenue.

posted Wednesday February 20th