Not being a wine drinker, I signed up for this race to run with my wife. The goal of this race is really just to go out, have fun, dress up and drink wine at the end. Since I wasn't sure what to expect, I got geared up and ready to destroy the course :)
This one was set at Gainey Winery in Santa Ynez, CA... a beautiful winery where we ran through the vineyards. No one talked about parking until a few days before. An email was sent that it was a high dollar parking fee or walk a long way to get to the race. Kind of a bummer.
As I raced to the start, I noticed there weren't really any waves, just a jumble of people piled together between grapes. I made it up pretty close to the front when the horn sounded... and I took off. I'm not used to fun runs, so I was racing. I made it up to 4th place and hung there through the hilly and windy roads of the vineyard. That was challenging in itself because this fun run started at 4:30 pm and the sun was still overhead and beating down on us.
The best part was I got passed and moved into 5th... but caught back up and passed back into 4th! I took 4th overall and was really excited (even though most participants were just out there having fun... at least 5 of us were RACING).
They handed me my wine glass at the end and I saved it for my wife who was cruising through the hills as well. They had lots of gourmet food trucks there, so the eats were happening! No photos taken during and one aid station with two people manning it.
Overall, definitely cool to run through a vineyard, but no medal, no pictures, not much else except wine, if you like that sort of thing :)
Still great to run, race, and finish close to the from of the pack!