Hannah Euser has a lot going on in her life.

She works full time for Napa County Health and Human Services.

She’s a full-time grad student at Sonoma State University, where she is pursuing a masters in public administration.

She works part-time for the Napa Running Company, which is located downtown.

With a schedule like that, is there time for anything else?

You bet. For Euser, it’s getting out and running.

“I wouldn’t say I’m one of those wire-y people. I would just say that running is just something I need in my life,” said Euser, 25. “It actually helps to balance everything else out and it gives me a lot more energy to get all the other busy things in my life done. It’s something I look forward to — physically and mentally — every day.

“I find any time in my day that is free and I try and train during that time. A lot of times I’ll wake up at 5 a.m. and run at that time. I’ll run on my lunch breaks. I’ll run sometimes after I get home from school at 10 o’clock at night. I do my long runs on the weekends, in between writing papers. Of all the sports I do, running is really my favorite.”

Euser has been putting in 50-mile weeks — with training runs at Skyline Park and Alston Park — as she gets ready for Sunday’s Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon, a 26.2-mile race from Rosedale Road and Silverado Trail in Calistoga at 7 a.m. to the finish line at Vintage High School in Napa. The 2007 edition of the NVM has again been selected by the Road Runners Club of America as its National Marathon Championship — a designation it has received since 1998.

Top runners are expected to reach the finish between 9:15 and 9:30 a.m. Runners will receive official times up until 12:30 p.m,. when the course closes.

This marks Euser’s ninth overall marathon and her third NVM. She remembers her body hurting all over after completing her first marathon, the Rock N’ Roll Marathon in June 2002 in San Diego, with a time of 4 hours, 40 minutes.

“After my first marathon, I said I will never run a marathon, as it was the hardest thing I’d ever done,” she said last week. “It was absolutely the worst that I have ever felt. Literally, I remember I could barely get out of bed after that first marathon.”

Euser, a 1999 Napa High graduate, hasn’t shied away from the challenges and demands that a marathon can have on a runner’s mental and physical makeup. She used a time of 3:32 — her personal record — at the California International Marathon in December of 2004 to qualify for the 2005 Boston Marathon.

After running a 3:38 and finishing second among Napa Valley female runners and ninth in her age group at the 2005 NVM, she went to Boston, but encountered stomach problems and finished in about 4:30. In December 2005, she clocked a 3:47 at the CIM, without specifically training for it.

The experience of running a marathon is important, but you never really know what’s going to happen on marathon day, Euser warned.

“You can do all the training in the world and it can be really bad weather or you can have some type of an illness or stomach problem or something going on and it will just mess up your whole day,” she said. “I think I have a good routine down.

“Probably the benefit of being an experienced runner is just a simple routine of knowing how to run the marathon, knowing what to expect, knowing when it’s going to hurt and when it’s going to hurt even more, and then just knowing how to push through that, especially mentally. The mental preparedness is really important.”

The 29th annual NVM, which is sanctioned and certified by USA Track & Field, is expected to attract over 2,000 runners. The race is conducted on a scenic point-to-point course, giving the marathon a reputation as the “Biggest Little Marathon in the West.”

Euser would like to run a sub-3:30, which will require an 8-minutes-per-mile pace to set a new PR. Euser, who runs with the Vinerunners, a local running group in town, is well aware of the rolling hills early on, then the gradual climb from mile 18.5 to mile 20 in Yountville.

“I feel like I’ve done the training to prepare me for it. But it will all just come down to how I feel on marathon day,” said Euser, who graduated from UC Davis in 2003 with a degree in human development. “When I run a marathon I just want to try and improve my own time. It’s just satisfying knowing that you’ve worked really hard for something and that you’re able to finish, and hopefully finish well.”

“It really is a long, hard distance to cover,” she said. “They always say a marathon is a 20-mile run for a 10K race. The last six miles are so mental. I am a really steady pace runner. I’m good about knowing how to set a steady tempo. I’m usually pretty consistent, so I’m just going to try to keep a consistent 8-minute mile pace. If at Mile 20 I’m feeling great I’m going to try and pick it up, because it’s all downhill from there.”

She says the Napa race — selected by Runner’s World magazine as one of the top 20 marathons in America and as the best rural marathon in the nation by Competitor magazine  — is her favorite marathon.

“I know every twist and turn and every hill on the course,” she pointed out. “It does put me at ease. I know where the water stations are going to be and probably where my family’s going to be waiting for me.

“I just think the Napa Valley Marathon is such a well-organized, very friendly race to run. It’s really small and intimate. It’s totally different than running Boston.”

Earlier this month, she finished first in her age group (25-29) with a time of 42:30 in the Davis Stampede 10K road race.

Euser’s schedule for the first half of the year is packed, as she plans to run the American River 50, an ultramarathon in April; the Bay to Breakers, a 12K in San Francisco in May; the Wine Country Half Marathon, which goes from Napa to Sonoma in July; and the Vineman, a triathlon in Sonoma County that consists of swimming, cycling and running covering a combined 70.3 miles. She’s done several triathlons already.

“I really just enjoy pushing myself,” she said. “I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy just being competitive with myself and trying to do my best. I’m going to run my best that I can at the marathon.”

She is part of an athletic family. Her younger brother, Lucas Euser, 23, competed in the Amgen Tour of California cycling race for Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle last week and finished 63rd out of 144.

“He’s just such an excellent, superior athlete,” she said. “He’s a huge inspiration in my life.”

Hannah’s uncle, Andy Euser, played football at Cal State Sacramento, and her aunt, Theresa Euser, played volleyball at UC Davis. Both went to Justin-Siena.

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Entry is limited to the first 2,300 registrants. Runners can register for the marathon online by downloading an entry form at www.napavalleymarathon.org, e-mail the race at nvm@napanet.net, or call 255-2609. The registration fee for the race is $100. There is no race-day registration.

The NVM weekend includes a Sports and Fitness Expo Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Napa Valley Marriott. Also on the slate is the marathon’s popular Marathon College, an innovative speaker/seminar program that includes a “faculty” composed of respected running authorities and celebrity runners.