I have been interested in running the wine country half marathon for years. Every year since its beginning, I have had something in conflict to prevent me from racing it. This year at the Rock n' Roll expo, Melissa and I came upon their booth and we were intrigued. Neither of us had anything planned for that date, so we decided to sign up. We registered as the Wino Women and had to convince 4 others to join our team for $10 off. Luckily we were able to convince Jen, Sherri, and Hilary to join the team. Melissa's friend was also planning on racing and happily joined our team.
We had already been running every weekend since Jenny and I were training for Disney, so we just kept running. These weekend runs are some of my favorite times of the week. It is 60-100 minutes of social time with my best friends. We catch up on everything life has thrown at us that week. It makes running fun, which I used to think wasn't possible.
I probably undertrained for this race. I needed a small break post Disney and wasn't as dedicated to training. Someday I will learn that training is really needed for a race. It makes the race so much more enjoyable.
I wasn't impressed with the pre-race activity from Destination Races. There were so many problems caused by registering at the expo. They didn't enter our information immediately and therefore our team name didn't work. They finally got us registered and then cancelled our registration. We had signed up for wine glasses and a shuttle ride. They told us the wrong price for the shuttle and didn't tell us that the shuttle left 45 minutes before the festival ended. So we ended up cancelling the shuttle (one hour of drinking for $25 isn't long enough). Destination Races responds poorly to emails but I found they responded immediately to Facebook messages. This is how they let me know they fixed our registration. They also said they would send a check for the shuttle. We needed to pay extra to pick up our packets in Arlington ($10) but I couldn't register for this since my registration did not appear on Active.com. It was problem after problem. Luckily they ended up taking care of us and giving us the Arlington pick up for free and gave us our shuttle money back at the expo. Another negative though is that the packet only had our tshirt and bib. I expected more in there (like free food samples or something).
The race morning started at 4:15am. I am definitely not a fan of these early mornings. Melissa and her pup, Diesel, had spent the night so we enjoyed a short walk with the pups before the rest of the girls showed up to head out. We arrived at the race site (Doukenie Winery) around 6:20 and sadly they pushed us into the further lot. Hilary ran off to grab her bib. It was strange to have the race start without the national anthem.
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| Love this picture of Diesel the night before the race. |
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| Pre-race group photo |
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| Surrounded by vines |
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| We loved that our bib numbers were all in order |
The race course was beautiful. Rolling hills surrounded by some small green mountains and beautiful fields. I train mostly on flat ground so the course was rough. What I didn't expect was about 4 miles of gravel roads. I found out very quickly that my knee really hates gravel. It has been several years since my last knee surgery and it has been doing well, except during this race. The slipping caused by the gravel really bothered it. Between lack of training and knee pain, the race didn't go well for me. Luckily I had friends to pull me through. Even on bad runs, my friends are always there to get me through and I can't thank them enough. I finished in 2:23.
Jen, Sherri, and Melissa went back to grab food from the car while Hilary and I went to the wine festival. I was afraid that if I went to the car, my knee wouldn't allow me to come back. So instead we went to the wine festival portion. We paid $25 for unlimited tastings. There were about 12 wineries with 1-4 wines to taste. The lines were long and the sun had come out so it was hot. Thankfully we brought food since the race didn't provide anything of substance and there were only two food trucks to purchase food from. It seemed like a bad idea to have a half marathon end at a wine festival without some food mixed in there. I was expecting bagels, bananas, or something like that. Instead we got a small goodie bag with a mini Clif bar, a Gogo applesauce, and vitamins. Definitely not food that would help me recover from the race before drinking. I hit 2-3 winery tables and then went to eat more food. We had from 9:30 until noon to enjoy as much wine as we wanted. It was fun although I spent more time eating food than drinking wine.
Overall, I had a great time with my friends. I love spending time with these girls and it was a perfect day for it. My coworker Naffer was also able to join in our food and wine festivities. I had so much fun catching up with them and enjoying a nice picnic. We had fun trying to inflate our Dumbo hammocks and thank goodness for the wind. Sherri and Jen even took it out on the lake before the winery manager yelled at them. We do have proof that the sign doesn't say you can't get in the water.
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| We were so excited to get one inflated |
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| Then more wind came so we could blow the other one up. So much fun! |
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| Naffer and I celebrating our finish |
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| It does float! |
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| We didn't break the rules. |
That said, I will not do this race again. It is an expensive race and the wine is not included in the price. 4 miles on gravel roads doesn't work for my knees and I think they need to provide more given the price. I will continue to take my friends to wineries though and enjoy picnics on nice days. I don't need a half marathon to allow me to do that.
