I did the 10K and would do it again, even though it was probably the toughest 10K I have done. I think I would train a lot harder on hills though.
And also practice sucking back mouth-sized samples of wine
since I didn't do any sampling. I was too afraid of the reaction I would have to the heat, the running and the wine. But I did enjoy a couple of samples after finishing the race.
The hills did seem to go on forever and I can't really remember how many there were on just the 10K. I know that on the first one, when I thought I had reached the top and expected to start going down, there was a slight dip and then it started going back up again. It wasn't like the one at ATB which was over pretty quickly or the ones at the Toad. It seemed like most of the hill parts were out in the full sun which made it more brutal too.
The actual event and the race finishing area was fun. I didn't even mind being forced to take a school bus to the start and back again from the finish (I usually boycott school bus races). The food was good - strawberries, homemade granola bar samples, bagels, muffins. They need to have more food though as they ran out of most of it before the majority of runners came in and they only got bagels.
It would also be better if they started the race two or three hours earlier. But I guess they are not allowed to start serving wine before 11 a.m.
My photos are here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=265717&id=784825176&l=c029369f44Oh, just remembered too - the race expo was actually only a wine expo, no running stuff at it. We got some DELICIOUS boxes of chocolates though! YUMMY!! Much better than gel samples.
The wine glasses for the registration gift were a different touch. And everyone got a medal, although I do feel a little guilty about getting the same medal as the runners that ran more than twice as far as I did!
