Wineglass is hosted in Corning, NY, a lovely, quaint town in beautiful western New York. The point to point marathon begins in Bath, New York, and winds via country roads through small communities and farm land. The leaves are in the early stages of changing color along the countryside. Total runners (marathon, half marathon, 5K) are ~2,500, so it is a smaller marathon, with a laid-back feel in a peaceful setting.

For those not interested in running a marathon, they do offer a half marathon (Sunday), and a 5K on Saturday. They also have race challenges, the Pinot Half Marathon Challenge (5K and HM), and the Wineglass Riesling Marathon Challenge (5K and marathon).

HOTELS – there are a number of options on the race website, and we chose to stay at the official race hotel, Radisson Hotel Corning. The Radisson is also is the location of the pasta dinner on Saturday night, and provides late check-out, plus some pre-race goodies (water/bananas/bagels/coffee) on race day. The hotel is also walking distance to several good restaurants and shops in downtown Corning. Note that the expo is a longer walk, approximately .9 miles. The other benefit of the Radisson is it is approximately three blocks from the finish, and the morning bus pick-up is essentially right outside the hotel!

EXPO! The Expo is located at the Corning Museum of Glass. It is small, but efficient, and has everything you’d possibly need at an expo. There is also a good selection of Wineglass Race Series merchandise for purchase. It is open on Friday and Saturday, and getting your bib on race day is NOT an option.

Both Meb Kelezighi and Bart Yasso were at expo from 5-7 pm on Friday signing bibs. Unfortunately, I found out after the fact! I did happen to snap a picture of them both outside the expo on Friday.

RACE SWAG: is nice! Swag this year included: a ¾ zip long sleeved tech shirt (male and female versions), runner ankle socks, a small engraved stemless wine glass, a smallish bottle of champagne, and a mini chocolate turtle. That’s a bit better than just the typical tech race shirt! And, I must mention the medal. The medal is glass (shocking) and resembles the bottom of a wine bottle. The medallion is hand crafted and designed by a local glass craftsman each year (note the glass medal applies to half marathon and marathon). And, the race website states if you break it, they’ll replace it!

PRE-RACE PASTA DINNER: I did not attend, unfortunately, as it sells out quick! Meb Keflezighi was the key note speaker, and Bart Yasso was also in attendance. Purchase your tickets early if you want to attend. Dinner begins at 5:30 on Saturday night, and is over by ~7:30. Tickets are $40 for the Radisson “official” pasta dinner, but the race series did offer another pasta dinner option in Bath for $10.

COURSE: This is a point to point race. You MUST take a bus to the start line, and are able to board a bus in either Corning or Bath for both the marathon/half-marathon. Note that half-marathon runners have an earlier window to board than marathon runners. The Corning marathon bus window is 5:30-7:00 a.m. (marathon starts at 8:15!), and we boarded a bus at 6:15 with little wait time. If you are driving to Corning to board a bus, there is parking around the Radisson/downtown area, but it fills up pretty quick.

ELEVATION CHANGE: The course has approximately a NET 200’ elevation loss. BUT, this does not mean there are not some hills! My Nike Running app clocked 550’ elevation gain (meaning elevation loss of 750’). There is an elevation map on the race website, and it appears like the majority elevation gain was in the earlier half of course, up to approximately mile 15.

SPECTATOR SUPPORT: There are a few towns where you’ll have spectator support: Bath, Campbell, Painted Post, and Corning. There’s a smattering of folks in locations between these towns, but overall, the spectator support is more sparse due to the rural nature of the course.

START LINE AREA: An aspect of the race I really like is the start area. There are no corrals (but you get a sense of where to be based on pace groups), and the start line is very close to the covered tent area. There are a bunch of porta-potties, and you can drop off your gear bag within just a few minutes before the race start. Also, the race start was quite low key, which I really appreciated.

FINISH LINE AREA: Lots of crowd support lining Market Street for the last several blocks of the race. This year, Bart Yasso was at finish line calling out people’s names, and their home town, a very nice and personal touch. We took a shower and went to the finish area, and saw the last finisher come across the finish line. It was amazing and emotional!

They provide hot soup at the finish line (two kinds!), bananas, water, chocolate milk (my fave), cookies, and a number of other things. Definitely sufficient “plus” for immediate post-race recovery. There’s also a PR bell for those that PR at the race, and while that was my goal for Wineglass, it didn’t happen!

RACE DAY TEMPS: Temps can vary – race day started in low 50’s, and ended in low 60’s. The average is a low of 43˚ and high of 64˚, so our temps were higher, unfortunately! We also had a headwind/crosswind for a good chunk of the race, although a tailwind was in the forecast.

Bottomline, this is a great, smaller, rural marathon. You can easily make a long weekend out of this and spend some time visiting the wine vineyards in the area as well. Highly recommend!