Our Sunday morning sure was an early one! Although the rewards of being awake early were well worth the effort, we even caught the full moon still lingering in the sky.
Early in the week I saw a few tweets about the Fueled By Fine Wine Half Marathon put on by Energy Events. I did some online investigation and realized it was taking place right in our backyard. So I shot off an email, and the next thing you know both The Renaissance Man and I were volunteering at Water Station #5.
We arrived at the water station just after 6am, early enough to catch some of the hot air balloons taking flight. Love this photo, the balloons on the left through the fog speaks to a sleepy Sunday morning.
And then the sun broke through, and the vineyards were shining. We learned from the other volunteers that this race course is notorious for the killer hills. However, the views sure are amazing!
At Mile 10, we didn’t expect our first runner until 8am, which gave us plenty of time to get our station organized. We handed out water, Nuun (electrolytes), and Gu Energy Gel (vanilla bean, and salted caramel).
I’m super glad that we double stacked our water and electrolytes! I was absolutely overwhelmed when the middle of the pack started to arrive at our station. We were filling cups just as fast as they were disappearing.
Water Station #5 ready to go!
Our station was just past Mile 10 where the road transitioned from gavel to pavement.
You can just barely see the first runner of the day in this picture.
He was hauling up this slight incline. He was so fast that I wasn’t able to get a very good picture of him.
Run! Run! Run!
As I mentioned above, the middle wave of runners was huge. I was busy filling up water cups, and don’t have any pictures of the crowds that passed our station. It was a blur of “Water here! Water here!” “I’ve got electrolytes!” “Gu’s on the table!”
Around 9ish, the weather took a crazy turn. We went from warm sunshine to a massive lighting storm, with big fat rain drops, and thunder that rocked your body. I was totally impressed with all the happy faces that just kept running. Their commitment to running kept me pouring water even though I just wanted to go find a place to hide.
The finish line was at Dundee Billick Park, and by the time we finished our shift some runners were just finishing up. These folks really do deserve a medal! We had one runner stop at the water station and tell us that this was her first race ever, and that she picked it out because she knew that she could only PR (personal record) after running a course with so many hills! How about that for some competitive drive.
The park was swarming with runners drinking wine, eating food, and enjoying live music.
As volunteers, we received wine glasses and were happily surprised by all of the local wineries pouring tastings. I think there were about twenty different wineries!
As wine glasses were passed out to all of the participants, we enjoyed live music supplied by Jason Miller and the Bridge City Crooners. These guys had it going on, so much talent!
After our early morning start, we hung out in the park for a while and soaked up the experience and then headed home for a nap. We look forward to helping out again next year and who knows, maybe we’ll decide to run it!?
