This is my recap/review of the second event in the inaugural Texas Wine Series which was held at Becker Vineyards. This was a Half Marathon/5K held at the Vineyard and coordinated by Carrera Races and IAAP.
Registration: Sign up was on the race website and was supported by local race company Carrera Races. This was my first time running an event they hosted.
Packet Pickup: There were a few packet pick-up options, in person at a local running store, mail, or race morning. Mail and race morning carried fees of $20 and $10 respectively. We opted for our packets to be mailed since we live an hour and a half from the Vineyard and didn't want to deal with downtown traffic near the running store. The packet arrived on the Wednesday before the race and had to be picked up from the post office due to signature requirements.
"Swag" Bag: Packet came with a nice tech t-shirt, drawstring bag, personalized bib, and reusable chip timer (ugh). I noticed they were also giving out wine totes at the race day packet pickup, which was not in the mailed packet. I was able to get ours just by asking though.
Event Organization: The race site was laid out pretty well. They had coffee near the registration area, but I couldn't seem to find water or other snack items anywhere. My first main issue was the number of porta-potties. They only had 5 at the start area and it wasn't nearly enough, they easily need to double that in the future. There were also restrooms inside of one of the vineyard buildings, but that line was ridiculous too.
The Race: Issue #2 was the start time. The 1/2 started at 0800 and the 5K at 0815. It was already light out at 0630 and this is Texas. Once the 1/2 started the sun was already beating down and the heat was rising, no reason this couldn't have started at 0700. It was pushing 80° an hour in to the race and the humidity wasn't helping. The course itself was a double loop through the Vineyard. The terrain varied between asphalt, gravel, and dirt. It was mostly flat with a 1.5 mile stretch that was gradually uphill and back downhill after the turnaround. It was scenic and well planned out, even with half marathoners merging with the 5K’ers around mile 6. I only had to swerve a little bit when crossing through the halfway point due to the 5K’ers stopping, no big deal though. Luckily there were a few porta-potties on the course for those of us that were unable to use one before the race started. They had water/nuun stops every mile and half or so and great support from the volunteers. They were also making sure people were aware of tripping hazards on the rockier areas of the course.
Post-race: Once I crossed the finish I had to stop in my tracks to get the timing chip removed from my shoe. I will always have an issue with these chips now that the technology is there for disposable chips. Almost every race organizer in the San Antonio area uses them now. After the chip was removed I got a bottle of water and an awesome medal, complete with corkscrew. I wasn't able to find any sort of recovery drink/food. Just past the finish is where I got my finisher wine glass and wristband for the wine tasting. My wife slightly re-injured her leg on the course, but still finished with a very good time. I was waiting on her to get something to eat. Unfortunately, they were out of food already. She was also unable to get a medal because they ran out. She already received an email and they are more than making up for it, kudos to them. I feel bad for the people that finished even later because the course had a 5 hour limit and the food was advertised to last until 1:00. I suspect some people that didn't run the race were helping themselves to some free food. The wine tastings were good, which is expected from Becker. They were kind of stingy with the samples though considering the fee for this race. They have to know people are going to spend money and leave with a few bottles of wine, don’t be so cheap with the samples.
Results and Photos: The results were online within a couple of hours on the IAAP website. Free pictures were available on their Facebook page and they turned out pretty good.
Final Thoughts: They need to make a few tweaks and this will be a great race. The main things they need to fix is the porta-pottie situation, the start time, and making sure they have enough food for the fastest person down to the slowest person. There isn't much they can do about the wine pours. Aside from those things, this was a really fun race. It was a nice course and the volunteer support was outstanding. We will definitely do this again next year if the start time is earlier.
Course Details
Some pics for your viewing pleasure...
