Run the Vineyards Cork High & Bottle Deep Half Marathon
Williamstown, NJ
- Half Marathon
- Road (Paved), Trail (Unpaved)
- Official race website
Run the Vineyards Half Marathon is returning to the beautiful Blue Cork Winery! Features a scenic and flat course that starts and finishes at this beautifully landscaped vineyard with expansive outdoor seating area. The most fun and relaxing Half Marathon located close to Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore! THE RACE: … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Nov 15):
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| H (°F) | 58 | 58 | 56 | 47 | 49 |
| L (°F) | 36 | 43 | 31 | 31 | 37 |
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Fantastic small race!
This was such a great event! Kudos to the race organizers and the wonderful volunteers. I am a back of the packer, so before registering for this race with a … MORE
This was such a great event! Kudos to the race organizers and the wonderful volunteers. I am a back of the packer, so before registering for this race with a 3:30 time limit, I emailed the race director with my concerns about not making the cutoff. He was very gracious and welcomed me to register, and I’m so glad I did.
Beautiful scenery, FLAT course, the majority of which is on a wonderful paved trail, and the volunteers were so supportive.
I was the very last of the 334 participants to cross the finish line at 3:40:44. One of the sweet volunteers came out to jog it in with me and them made sure my sister and I received our complimentary wine glass with our choice wine.
Nice 3/4 zip pullover and cute medal. The winery where the race started and finished is beautiful, and they had a band playing for all finishers and guests. They did provide soft pretzels and dip at the finish line, but there weren’t any left by the time I finished. I am OK with that.
I highly recommend this race even if you are slow like me.
A fun little race
I ran this one as the second half marathon in a double header race weekend (ran a trail half the day before), so I wasn't going for speed on this … MORE
I ran this one as the second half marathon in a double header race weekend (ran a trail half the day before), so I wasn’t going for speed on this one. They had a pre-race warmup with Brandi which was great since it was a cold morning, it really helped loosen everyone up. The course was not super exciting but it was flat and showed the last of the fall colors, and the after-party was a lot of fun. Good wine, music, and super friendly people.
The swag was decent and it was well organized.
Nice course, hardly any port-a potties
Course begins and ends at the winery! There was someone leading a warmup before the start. Course goes to a long stretch of a paved bike path. There was a … MORE
Course begins and ends at the winery! There was someone leading a warmup before the start. Course goes to a long stretch of a paved bike path. There was a high school band playing, crowds at water stations, and the trees were changing. It was a beautiful fall day! Only downside was there was one port-a potty at mile 2/10. I rarely go during races but if you’re someone that uses it keep that in mind! After the race they had food truck and a band playing while you had your free glass of wine!
Not much to "wine" about
This is part of the Run the Vineyards race series produced by a running company called "A Good Day for a Run." They produce a lot of races in the … MORE
This is part of the Run the Vineyards race series produced by a running company called “A Good Day for a Run.” They produce a lot of races in the mid-Atlantic region. I did one of their 5K a couple years ago which I really enjoyed so I was wanted to check out this half marathon. This year a bunch of my runner friends from some of my running clubs were also planning to do it and it was the day after the Rocky Run so I was in. This race is located in NJ about 30-40 minutes from Philadelphia so it’s an easy race to get to. There was good pre race communication and option for race day packet pickup. I spent the day with my mom in Philadelphia so I did race day packet pickup. Parking and packet pickup were easy. It’s a nice sized race with a few hundred runners which makes things easier than a huge race like the Rocky Run. Packet included bib and a half zip shirt which was fairly nice for swag for a smaller more local race. There was a good amount of porta potties and the start was easy to find. There were no corrals but there were pacers. The slowest pacer was 3 hours. The race has a 3:30 time limit but one of the 3 hour pacers thought it’d be cute to have a sign that said sweeper which nearly gave me a heart attack as I did not think I could finish this in under 3 hours since along with doing the Rocky Run I also walked around the Philadelphia Zoo and the King of Prussia mall yesterday and my feet were very sore. She assured me she was not and thought it was cute because she was the last pacer. The last pacer is NOT the sweeper if the last pacer is not the course time limit. Please if any one reading this is pacing a race do not label yourself a sweeper unless you are the sweeper. Other than that the start was well organized. I did stick with the 3 hour pacers in the beginning to see if I could keep up. They seemed to be pacing pretty well but as I expected I could not keep up with how sore I was. The first part of the course is about 1/3 mile through the vineyard. This is grass/trail but non technical. The rest is on streets and a paved rail trail. After the vineyard it is about 1-2 miles on local streets. The streets were coned off and had police present so while not fully closed were very safe and the course was very well marked. The rest of the race is on a rail trail. It is very flat but I thought the scenery was kind of boring. It looked exactly the same as the rail trail by where I live. It was pleasant and flat though and the out and back is fun when doing a race with running friends since you can cheer them on. There were mile markers and generally everything was organized with aid stations every 1 to 2 miles with water and gatorade. Again no nutrition on course. One critique that I feel bad making and may be a bit out of the race’s control were the volunteers were not good. They were some of the least enthusiastic volunteers I have seen and many weren’t paying attention. I know you shouldn’t complain too much about people volunteering their time but if you volunteer for something you need to put in the effort. The worst was one volunteer who was a course marshal at an intersection didn’t see me coming and literally told cars to go when I was about to cross and I had to scream “I am here please stop the traffic” for him to notice me. This could be very dangerous if I wasn’t paying attention. Other issues weren’t nearly as big and a few volunteers were great but a lot where on their phones or chatting while they just placed water out. It was a cold morning and maybe everyone was just off due to the time change last weekend but the volunteers were kind of disappointing and I really didn’t like having to stop and wait for traffic since a volunteer didn’t see me. I’m not sure what the race organizers can do about this but maybe prep the volunteers better. The race as I said was an out and back. I managed to finish under the time limit of 3:30. It wasn’t a fast time for me but I was fine with it given how sore my feet were. I got my medal which is a fine medal for a smaller, local race and was cheered at the finish lines. No issues with being back of the pack but finishing under 3:30. They did keep the finish line open longer and some participants were over 4 hours and got finishing times. However I heard the experience after 3:30 wasn’t as good as they just left the finish line open and had medals on a table. This is all fair since there is a stated 3:30 time limit but I’d only strongly recommend this race if you can finish under 3:30. The finish area was great and there were food trucks. There were some basic snacks as well. My mom was a spectator and got pizza and donuts from the food trucks for lunch which were delicious. There is also wine which I didn’t drink. Overall I thought this was a fine race and well produced for a smaller, local race. I had fun seeing my running friends though I don’t know that this was an exciting enough race for me to travel to do it again over closer races. However I would definitely recommend it for locals and it’s a solid NJ for 50 staters.
Incredible small town race
Let me just say, the production, swag, communication, and support of this race rivals that of the huge race organizations. I am so thoroughly impressed! Cute shirt, unique medal, sweet … MORE
Let me just say, the production, swag, communication, and support of this race rivals that of the huge race organizations. I am so thoroughly impressed! Cute shirt, unique medal, sweet wine glass and the special medals and bottles of wine for the top finishers? 👏🏼 👏🏼
I loved every second of this race.
Wine 🍷 wine 🍷
At the start of the race you are in this small vineyard. Cute place they grow grapes and make the wine on site. You leave and then run through the … MORE
At the start of the race you are in this small vineyard. Cute place they grow grapes and make the wine on site. You leave and then run through the local neighborhood before looping around and returning to the vineyard. Easy out and back race. When you get back to the finish you get water, soft drinks, wine and the BEST soft pretzel roll I have ever had