RUN IN THE MIDDLE OF BEAUTY! With timeless qualities and a touch of small town charm, Windsor captures the imagination of those wishing to tour a community famous for its family-friendly environment in a region known for wine-making, culinary arts and breathtaking vistas. The beautiful half marathon course starts and …
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RUN IN THE MIDDLE OF BEAUTY! With timeless qualities and a touch of small town charm, Windsor captures the imagination of those wishing to tour a community famous for its family-friendly environment in a region known for wine-making, culinary arts and breathtaking vistas. The beautiful half marathon course starts and ends on the Windsor Town Green, while winding by stunning vineyards dressed in fall colors. The 10K and 5K course are flat and fast, giving ample opportunities for personal records.
Located in the Russian River Valley, this region is home to hundreds of wineries and tasting rooms where you can sample and pair local vintages with mild or zesty cheeses, gourmet chocolates, artisan breads, farm-grown produce and other regional delicacies.
Alongside wineries, Windsor is home to the headquarters of the world-famous Russian River Brewery. Surrounding Windsor, Sonoma County boasts a booming craft brewery scene and local bustling taprooms. Many of these wineries and breweries will be pouring at our post-race beer & wine festival on the Green.
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Great race with a party like atmosphere.
The course was pretty flat and fast on mostly county roads. I enjoyed this race and it would be a great race to go after a personal record. It was … MORE
The course was pretty flat and fast on mostly county roads. I enjoyed this race and it would be a great race to go after a personal record. It was very family friendly with the start-finish in the Windsor Green. It has great shopping for non running family members.
Speedy PR Suburb Loop
To start off, it is a fast course. If you are looking for a PR in half marathon. This is it. I got my PR on this course without my … MORE
To start off, it is a fast course. If you are looking for a PR in half marathon. This is it. I got my PR on this course without my Garmin watch o help me track my time. A special thanks to a fellow competitor who I paced with most of the way through.
Scenery: The course setting is in a suburb town, Windsor, within Sonoma County, a wine county. Okay, I admit there’s a slight bias on my rating. I have worked in this area. I am familiar with the scenery. That’s why I don’t think it is anything special. It’s another peaceful country setback that I see daily. so it’s probably considered really pretty for most who are from the city. (That’s why I consider myself one of the harshest rater on this category.)
But onward with the course…
Difficulty: It’s not a hard course at all. It has some rolling hills midway through. But if you have training for a half marathon, they are easy. In fact, I personally prefer rolling hills over flat course as I may have mentioned in my other reviews. The benefit is the recovery time you get after the uphill, meaning cruising down the slope a gallop. What it means is that it is a self-sustain system. In addition, thank God it’s a loop course! I ran in so many courses with turnaround, which makes me sick in the stomach. So this means you can go all out without slowing down. Yay!
Production: The course is well-marked and supported by the locals. You can’t get lost at all. There’s a cyclist leading the front pack and everything is well-organized.
Swag: The T-shirt is special cotton made, in between a regular tee and a tech tee. But it’s white, which means it can get dirty fast. That’s where I took 1 pt off for the rating. Medal is nice. And top 3 age group winners get to take home some wine. Um… nice, but I am trying to have a low alcohol diet for being true to the call of running. I want a pair of running shoes instead 😛
Last but not least, Go Run, Get Wine, Less Whine.
Welcome to Sonoma County!
Pancakes, cute firemen and cool medal!
What's not to like when you can make your girlfriend runners who-didn't-make-it-to-this-race jealous with your bottle-opener/coaster medal, pancake breakfast, and pic with handsome firemen? Oh, I know: The very reasonable … MORE
What’s not to like when you can make your girlfriend runners who-didn’t-make-it-to-this-race jealous with your bottle-opener/coaster medal, pancake breakfast, and pic with handsome firemen? Oh, I know: The very reasonable entry fee for this race!
I’d do this race again — maybe even the longer distances — but it’s easy for me because I live close by. For others who need details to make a decision, since you’d have to travel:
(1) Location, venue, course: You can make this a race-based weekend getaway to Sonoma Wine Country easy. The Windsor Town Green itself is cute, relaxing for your family/friends waiting for you, and the race starts early enough so you have time afterwards to go around to explore the area’s wineries, etc. The longer courses are scenic (the 5K not so much, but you finish early and get to hang out at Town Green), so it’s like touring. And it’s pretty flat.
(2) Swag, post-race goodies: Love the medal, pancakes, pancake servers. There’s beer available too but I think at extra fee maybe? (I don’t know — I went for food…) Oh, and there was a drawstring bag and tee of course. The tee was poly-blend, but had a cottony feel which I MUCH prefer over tech tee feel, but I might be in the minority. It is by far my favorite race tee. And great design. But the tees ran super-small — you need to really check the sizing, which I did at pre-race, and it was easy for me to size up.
All-in-all, a very nice event that I enjoyed thoroughly!
Good running on the Green
Race morning was super simple to navigate, and the set-up on the green was easy to do race morning packet pick up. Two awesome features of this race: - a … MORE
Race morning was super simple to navigate, and the set-up on the green was easy to do race morning packet pick up. Two awesome features of this race: – a bike check, along with the gear check: eco friendly! -a delicious pancake breakfast prepared by the local firefighters for each runner. Two features that need improvement -no wine tasting options post race? There were bloody marys, mimosas, and wine for purchase, but I was hoping for more of a wine tasting to keep with the theme, and -aid stations spaced too far apart, about every three miles in the beginning. Overall, a great race with pretty views running through Sonoma wine regions. There are rolling hills, so be ready!
Great small local race (but warm).
The race is part of a series of fairly small wine country races ("Run Wine Country" -- Windsor Green, Water to Wine Half in August, & Healdsburg Half in October), … MORE
The race is part of a series of fairly small wine country races (“Run Wine Country” — Windsor Green, Water to Wine Half in August, & Healdsburg Half in October), and they do a great job putting them on. Yes, there are a lot of hills on the course, but they’re (mostly) sort of large and rolling rather than super steep (though I do remember one quite steep one). The age group awards are bottles of wine and if you run all three races in the series, you get a bottle for that as well. Also, nice medals and some of my favorite race shirts.
The only down side to this race the year I ran it (2012) was that it was HOT. I mean it was probably only low 70s at that point, but we also had 70% humidity, full sun with no cloud cover, and no shade for long stretches, plus all the heat radiating back off the roads. Given that it’s late May in wine country without a particularly early start, I could see this being a general concern from year to year.