A little while ago, a friend mentioned doing the Campbell Valley Wine Run as a celebration of the end of marathon training, and at 15k it was a perfect distance for tapering. The cost of the race was $90, which at first glance may seem steep for a local race but it all went to charity, so I couldn't resist.
So with tapering in mind, this past Sunday (a very rainy morning), I picked up my mother-in-law and father-in-law (the babysitter) and we headed over to Surrey.
Nikki had mentioned she would be in costume, but I still wasn't sure if I'd be able to spot her amongst the crowd when we arrived. As it turns out, she was hard to miss:
There were quite a few costumes at the race, I was definitely impressed.
To start off the run we headed outside for a pre-race toast! Who doesn't like to start a race with a glass of bubbly from Backyard Vineyards?
And then it was time to head off towards the other wineries! I felt good to start off, my tummy was a little wobbly after the champagne but we were doing a nice easy pace. Most of the first 5k was on trails and instead of doing our regular 10/1 intervals, we decided to continue on as long as we felt good, knowing that we would be stopping at 3 different wineries along the way. After we exited the trails and were on the road, I felt better, despite looking up at the big hill ahead. As much as enjoy the scenery of the trails, I'm not exactly used to jumping over logs etc. When we hit the hill, we decided to walk up, knowing that this point in training was not a time to push ourselves.
When we reached the summit of what seemed like a rather steep hill for a "taper" run we could tell the winery was up ahead because there were people turning around. I was definitely excited to see what was waiting for us upon arrival.
With a glass of chardonnay from Township 7 in hand, we took the opportunity to get some pictures with the grapes!
Though it wasn't the driest day, the rain was holding off for the moment. After our pictures it was time to head back down the hill towards the next winery. I'd say it was only a few kilometres between the wineries. By the time we reached Domaine de Chaberton, it was full on pouring rain, but 2 different tasters of wine certainly helped numb the chill.
At this point, I felt hungry. I was hoping there'd be a light snack to soak up the wine along the way. Our prayers were answered when we reached the 3rd winery, ecstatic to see that there were mini scones and 4 different types of delectable jams to go with! This winery also served my favorite wine of the day, "Murphy's Law". Thanks Vista D'oro!
As we departed the last winery and headed for the finish, it was coming down like cats and dogs. Nikki's purple balloons were squeaking and we were all pretty drenched. I began to think about what it could be like this coming Sunday at the marathon if it is pouring rain, I quickly realized this isn't a topic I should be dwelling on for any length of time.
We headed into the trails, completely turned around (and perhaps a little woozy from the wine...), I had no idea where we were or how much further it was to the finish line. Thankfully, within minutes we were back on the road headed to the High Point Equestrian Center, which is where we began the race. I was looking forward to getting warm and dry so I picked up my pace in the last stretch with Nikki and Cindy very close behind.
This was an untimed race but including the stops, I think it took us around 2 hours to do the 15k, definitely not a record breaker, but it certainly wasn't meant to be. I was so glad we decided to do this as our taper run. Training for this marathon has been a long road and I am tired, so it was nice to just have a silly fun run.
