I have plans for a half marathon in DC on Sunday so I was looking for other races to do on my trip and saw this was an evening race … MORE
I have plans for a half marathon in DC on Sunday so I was looking for other races to do on my trip and saw this was an evening race on Saturday in Maryland which meant I could do another 3 race weekend! This race is located at Crow’s Vineyard in Maryland and part of the Run the Vineyard series by the race company Good Day for a Run. There was adequate pre race communication. Packet pick up was the day of. I was very excited that when turning into the Vineyard you are greeted by some adorable cows. I ignored the sign that read “grass fed Angus beef” next to them and am going to pretend no one would hurt those beautiful creatures. Packet pick up included bib, shirt and any add ons. If you wanted a medal you had to purchase it. I obviously did this. The medal was big and very nice but just said “Run the Vineyards” and not specifically Crow Vineyard but did have the year. My only complaint about the race is a pretty minor one about the race shirts. The shirts are very nice quality tech shirts with the specific Crow Vineyard name and the year on the shirt. My complaint is that like usual I ordered a men’s medium since I prefer men’s cut shirts but the “women’s” shirts were a really pretty purple and the “men’s” shirts were a very boring gray. Ugh so gender-normative! Everyone should get pretty purple or maybe a choice of cut and color. Anyways my boring, gray shirt does fit exactly how I like so I will wear it but I’d prefer purple. While waiting for the race to start I explored the Vineyards and by explore I mean looked for farm animals. There was a cute barn cat along with some miniature horses along with the lovely cows. The race had a mass start but was chipped time with the same timing mat for the start and finish. There was a short pre race announcement and we went. The course was described very well as a flat, “cross-country” style course that was well maintained. We ran between the vines in the Vineyard and also through fields of corn. It was quite scenic though not as scenic as the Vineyard race I did in the Fingerlakes but this course had many farm animal sightings so I gave them both 5 sneakers for scenery. This was also much more scenic that that terrible Virginia Wine Country Race. Unlike the race in the Fingerlakes, this was impeccably well marked. There were signs, cones, tape, volunteers and pretty much everything possible to ensure no one got lost. It was kind of a confusing course so this was great. It was kind of a figure 8 and there was a water stop with cups of water you passed twice. Terrain was well maintained. A few parts were a little lumpy, bumpy but nothing very technical. There was also a small section on the road. Also the course was about exactly 3.1 miles! This is the first alcohol themed race I’ve done that was actually measured properly. I was impressed I finished in under 36 minutes since it was my second race of the day and I was running pretty carefully to avoid twisting my ankle and stopped several times to take animal pics. At the end you got a nice wine glass. Participants got a free pour of wine in their glass to try. I didn’t try any since I don’t drink alcohol. They also had either a beef sandwich or cheese platter you could purchase. The beef sandwiches made me very sad. The cheese platter also contained meat but they were very nice and made me a special meat-free, vegetarian cheese platter. Overall this was a great race. This may have been my favorite 5K I’ve done and I’ve done a lot of them. This race company does a bunch of these Run the Vineyard races in the Mid-Atlantic region and I definitely plan to do more. If you are looking for a wine themed race near DC definitely choose this one or another of this series over the absolutely terrible Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon I did in May.
Please login to reply to this review.
Nothing to "Wine" About Here
I have plans for a half marathon in DC on Sunday so I was looking for other races to do on my trip and saw this was an evening race … MORE
I have plans for a half marathon in DC on Sunday so I was looking for other races to do on my trip and saw this was an evening race on Saturday in Maryland which meant I could do another 3 race weekend! This race is located at Crow’s Vineyard in Maryland and part of the Run the Vineyard series by the race company Good Day for a Run. There was adequate pre race communication. Packet pick up was the day of. I was very excited that when turning into the Vineyard you are greeted by some adorable cows. I ignored the sign that read “grass fed Angus beef” next to them and am going to pretend no one would hurt those beautiful creatures. Packet pick up included bib, shirt and any add ons. If you wanted a medal you had to purchase it. I obviously did this. The medal was big and very nice but just said “Run the Vineyards” and not specifically Crow Vineyard but did have the year. My only complaint about the race is a pretty minor one about the race shirts. The shirts are very nice quality tech shirts with the specific Crow Vineyard name and the year on the shirt. My complaint is that like usual I ordered a men’s medium since I prefer men’s cut shirts but the “women’s” shirts were a really pretty purple and the “men’s” shirts were a very boring gray. Ugh so gender-normative! Everyone should get pretty purple or maybe a choice of cut and color. Anyways my boring, gray shirt does fit exactly how I like so I will wear it but I’d prefer purple. While waiting for the race to start I explored the Vineyards and by explore I mean looked for farm animals. There was a cute barn cat along with some miniature horses along with the lovely cows. The race had a mass start but was chipped time with the same timing mat for the start and finish. There was a short pre race announcement and we went. The course was described very well as a flat, “cross-country” style course that was well maintained. We ran between the vines in the Vineyard and also through fields of corn. It was quite scenic though not as scenic as the Vineyard race I did in the Fingerlakes but this course had many farm animal sightings so I gave them both 5 sneakers for scenery. This was also much more scenic that that terrible Virginia Wine Country Race. Unlike the race in the Fingerlakes, this was impeccably well marked. There were signs, cones, tape, volunteers and pretty much everything possible to ensure no one got lost. It was kind of a confusing course so this was great. It was kind of a figure 8 and there was a water stop with cups of water you passed twice. Terrain was well maintained. A few parts were a little lumpy, bumpy but nothing very technical. There was also a small section on the road. Also the course was about exactly 3.1 miles! This is the first alcohol themed race I’ve done that was actually measured properly. I was impressed I finished in under 36 minutes since it was my second race of the day and I was running pretty carefully to avoid twisting my ankle and stopped several times to take animal pics. At the end you got a nice wine glass. Participants got a free pour of wine in their glass to try. I didn’t try any since I don’t drink alcohol. They also had either a beef sandwich or cheese platter you could purchase. The beef sandwiches made me very sad. The cheese platter also contained meat but they were very nice and made me a special meat-free, vegetarian cheese platter. Overall this was a great race. This may have been my favorite 5K I’ve done and I’ve done a lot of them. This race company does a bunch of these Run the Vineyard races in the Mid-Atlantic region and I definitely plan to do more. If you are looking for a wine themed race near DC definitely choose this one or another of this series over the absolutely terrible Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon I did in May.