My wife and I were in the mountains of NC on a trip, and since we had the in-laws to help watch the kids looked around for a 5k and stumbled across this race.

The race occurs on the weekend of the SAVOR Blowing Rock festival, which brings in people for tastings and foodie seminars over a weekend in April. You have two options for the run: wine, or no wine. The wine run costs $5 more and gets you samples of NC wines at four stations on the course. I did the wine run, but I don't know that it added anything (especially the heavy reds). They do give overall and age group awards for both sets of runs, though, and since the race is small it ups your chances of winning a category.

The name of the race has a double meaning. Of course, the corkscrew has a tie-in to the wine. It also describes the course itself, which is entirely inside the Chetola resort. You wind back and forth and up and down hills that are very, very steep. At one point we scrambled up a grass embankment to cut up to a parking lot. The course volunteers were confused on turns at one intersection and sent a few of us in the wrong direction (it worked out, though). The course is pretty in parts, but for the most part you are running by condos. It is not a course for a PR. I came in second overall with a time around 23 minutes, if that gives you an idea.

This is a community race. The winner for the past two years is a former runner for Appalachian State University in Boone, and a lot of the runners talked about other area races they ran and went nuts for the season lift tickets given away by some of the area ski resorts. App State students were there to cheer on runners and volunteer on the course. It was a friendly group, and the emcee did a good job keeping us entertained while waiting for results (which took awhile since it was hand scored). The bloody mary/mimosa bar also made for a nice environment while waiting for awards.

The race swag was a simple design on a cotton t-shirt. We registered late, but I was not disappointed to miss out on this and I think my wife's is buried somewhere in her t-shirt drawer. Some of the lottery prizes they gave out were great if you can get to the area often.

I don't think this is an event to travel to, but if you are already in the area or visiting the SAVOR festival it is a nice way to start your Saturday.