I have been skimming past race invites for a while but happened to take a look when a last minute reminder came in for this one. I like the Run the Vineyards series because you get to check out a bunch of vineyards (loosely) in the area, try some different wines and explore a different part of the state. The only one I’ve done so far was the Laurita 5K back in 2019. A lot of them end up being around 2 hours away but when I saw this one was less than an hour drive away and came just after the 2 week mark of being fully vaccinated, I decided I was in!
I got everything together the night before. For any runs or races over an hour, I’ve been pulling out the gels. This time, it was the CLIF margarita shot blocks (love them) and water with Liquid IV (I split these and just do half a pack — otherwise they’re just too sweet for me.)
The Federal Twist Vineyard is in Stockton, NJ, out a bit in the country. It’s a very simple vineyard — mostly some fields that double as parking and rows and rows of vineyards. No store or tasting room (that I saw) on site. But I can confirm the wine is good, and isn’t that what really matters?
I hadn’t been over that way, but loved when I saw that the race course for the 10K ran along the Delaware River. If you’re between the 5K and 10K option, that alone would have decided it for me, as the 5K missed out on a lot of that portion of the course.) I thought it would be a nice next step in my return to running.
The trip over was an adventure. There was an issue with the train tracks by our house so I spent 20 minutes trying to get to the interstate. And then I hit another slowdown due to an accident. I made it there though with plenty of time to spare.
I’ve never done longer than a 5K for a race. Even though I’d been training for a half marathon before breaking my foot, opting for the longer distance felt like a significant jump. There were a few unexpected factors to the race. The weather was much hotter on Saturday than it had been, so was much hotter for the race than I’ve been training in. It’s also the first time I have run on both grass and gravel since resuming running (something I should have expected to be the case but didn’t cross my mind.)
I was a bit anxious about being around a group of people but found everyone kept their distance. We were crowded a bit at the start but everyone spread out very quickly thereafter. Even though I’d reviewed the course map, I was still caught off guard by a decent hill at the start of the race. Thankfully that would be the only real one of the entire course.
I paced myself out a lot throughout the race. It was part determination to finish (like I was worried I wouldn’t, even though I really wasn’t) and also part fear of the grass and gravel. That part was real. The last thing I wanted to do was to push it too much and end up back in recovery. There were two people I kept passing and subsequently being passed by – a woman in a mint green vest (it was so hot, so I kept wondering why!) and an older gentleman with long gray hair. I wanted to get in front of them for good but I couldn’t seem to do it. Instead, we all kind of finished together.
My finish time was nothing to trumpet, but pretty much what I was expecting. I’ve been running that distance in around an hour and 15 minutes and I beat it by a few seconds – an hour, 14 minutes and 58 seconds. Totally could have called it. Looking back, it would be easy to wish I would have run more of those stretches where I walked but the truth is I wouldn’t change a thing.
So now I’m looking at upcoming races in NJ (any faves, drop ‘em in the comments) and the half marathon training schedule, because I’m ready to pick that back up in earnest this week.
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