Best Week Ever, pt. 1: The Virginia Wine Country Half-Marathon

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of birthdays, particularly my own. As far as birthdays are concerned, my philosophy is "You're going to get older anyway, so you might as well celebrate." (Feel free to adopt this for yourselves.) I also believe in planning one's own birthday celebration rather than waiting for others to do it. This avoids the unpleasant relationship strain that occurs when one's family, friends and/or significant others fail to provide a satisfactory celebration. Does anyone really need another special occasion on which to be mad at people? Don't we have Valentine's Day for that?

This year, I started my birthday planning super-early. December, in fact. I was thumbing through that month's Runner's World when I spotted an ad for the first-ever Virginia Wine Country Half-Marathon. I love going to vineyards, but I had never been to any in Virginia. I also love half-marathons, and the race just happened to be the day before my birthday. I was sold. I signed up right away, deciding that it was a sign of maturity that I would make a birthday plan without knowing if anyone else would go along with me. I told myself that, if I could not recruit anyone else to run the race, I would go alone and still have a great time. Secretly, I was hoping desperately that someone would go along. Thus, I was happy and relieved when Katie C. decided to join me.

All weekend long, Katie and I kept up a running ranking of this inaugural race, giving "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" to the various components. So, here are our rankings, in chronological order:

1. Cost of the race: Thumbs down. The race cost $95, which would be reasonable for a full marathon, but is a lot for a half. In addition, most of the events which participants could add to their race weekends involved additional fees. So, you didn't feel like you were getting much for your nearly $100.

2. Official hotel selection: Thumbs up. The race organizers made deals with what seemed to be every hotel within a 30-mile radius of the race course. People with money to burn could stay at resorts or B&Bs close to the course. Cheap people (like Katie and I) could get more modest and inexpensive rooms near Dulles airport. We paid only $75 for a suite at one of the Marriot-brand hotels, and it was lovely.

3. Race expo: Thumbs down. For such an expensive race tied to such a luxurious idea (wine country), I expected a pretty good race expo. Instead the expo was a disorganized mess, held at what seemed to be the poolhouse of a large resort. Also, we got no race goodie bags and the shirts were just okay. There was a free wine tasting at the expo, but Katie and I were too tired and hot to enjoy it.

4. Pre-race dinner: Thumbs way up! When we signed up for the race, Katie and I both paid $55 for an official pre-race dinner at a local vineyard. After the expo, we got worried that we might have wasted our money. Thankfully, our fears were unfounded. The dinner was hosted at Bluemont Vineyard, a very elegant, somewhat off-the-beaten-path winery. The scenery was spectacular (see below), the food and wine were excellent, and the event was small enough that we were able to have great conversations with several fellow racers. Katie had never really been to a vineyard before, and she declared Bluemont her new favorite place about 5 minutes after we arrived.

Sunset over the grapes.





Happy pre-racers!

5. The race start: Thumbs way down! The race start was, by far, the least successful part of the whole weekend. This was a point-to-point race, meaning that it started at one place (a vineyard) and ended at another (another vineyard). Thus, depending on where they parked, racers would need transportation either from finish to start before the race, or from finish back to start after the race. The race organizers put together an elaborate shuttle scheme, involving multiple pick-ups spots and departure times, starting at 5am and scheduled to end at 6:10am (the race was supposed to start at 7).

Katie and I decided to park at the finish because we needed to make a quick exit after the race. We left our hotel before 5am, which should have given us plenty of time to park and catch a shuttle before 6:10. Unfortunately, we got lost finding the finish vineyard and did not arrive until about 6:15. When we got there, we saw a line of more than 100 people waiting for shuttles, and a steady stream of cars still arriving. Over the next hour (which we spent standing in line outside with no port-a-potties), we learned that the shuttles were getting caught in the police barricades already guarding the course. As a result, people were stranded at pretty much every pickup location, and the race start had to be pushed back, first to 7:15 and then to 7:30. So, the organizers wound up with grumpy people waiting at the pickup locations wondering if we would ever get to the start, and grumpy people waiting at the start line wondering if they were ever going to run. Not good.

6. The race: Thumbs up. Once the race got going, the drama of the start was basically forgotten. Virginia wine country is a beautiful place, and that makes for a very scenic race. Also, a large portion of the course (especially in the beginning) was flat or downhill, making for a fast and relatively easy course. Three highlights from the race itself:

At mile 10, a local vineyard set up a station distributing 1.5oz samples of their apple wine. Katie and I both said "what the heck" and drank. Terrible idea. I felt the alcohol hit my stomach about two seconds after I drank and was nauseous for the next mile and a half. Katie had the same experience. So, take my advice: no drinking on the race course!

During mile 11, we reached a stretch of about .2 miles where the organizers could not arrange for a necessary road closure. The solution: we ran through a cemetery! That's right- we ran along a paved path that took us on a little tour of the local cemetery. This was amusing for about two seconds, until we saw that the cemetery was full of hills. It turned out to be one of the toughest points in the race. Still, this did not keep Katie and I from making jokes like "This crowd is dead!" and "Look alive, people!" and laughing so hard we almost threw up our apple wine.

Just before mile 12, I looked at my watch and saw that we were at 2:06. My half-marathon PR is 2:18 and Katie's was 2:22. Thus, I knew that we could beat Katie's PR easily and we might even beat mine. We gave each other high-fives and kicked it up a notch. Naturally, mile 12 turned out to be a relentless series of hills. We realized pretty quickly that we were too beat to really push it on the hills, but we still came in somewhere in the 2:18 range (still waiting on official results). So, a PR for Katie and a possible PR for me! Not bad for a race neither of us really trained for.

7. Post-race activities: Thumbs way up! Katie and I did not participate in the official post-race activities, many of which involved additional fees (thumbs down).  Instead, we raced back to our hotel, did a quick change, and then met my friends Julia and Elizabeth for an afternoon of wine-tasting and dinner. We visited three vineyards: Doukenie, Hillsbourough, and Notaviva. We had three totally different tasting experiences, but it was all lovely. Its hard to go wrong spending a beautiful day in beautiful places with great friends!

With Julia at Doukenie.

At Hillsborough. Julia brought me some cupcakes, but they had a little accident!

The tasting room at Notaviva.

We ended our day at Grandale Farm Restaurant, a farm-to-table restaurant right in the middle of the vineyards. I found this place online a few weeks ago, and have been salivating over their ever-changing seasonal menus ever since. Everything was as good as I had expected: amazing food, a beautiful setting, and great friends!

The outdoor dining room.

Pork belly and shrimp with gnocchi, corn, and tomatoes. Yum!

(Very) full and happy!

 After the restaurant, Katie (God bless her!) drove us home. I was both completely happy and completely exhausted. I was also a little apprehensive as I anticipated the next day and the second half of my birthday weekend: completing a practice triathlon and hosting a party! More on that to come in "Best Week Ever, pt. 2." Stay tuned!