St Clair Vineyard Half Marathon

Friday saw pouring rain and cold southerlies in Blenheim with a forecast of a stormy weekend.  So it was a fantastic surprise to awake to a crisp sunny morning for the St Clair Half Marathon.  I love this event because it is well organised and fun – it doesn’t matter if you’re a serious athlete or a pregnant waddler!  The course is off-road so easier on the joints and the scenery and fresh air far beats that of city marathons.   My thanks for these pics go to Heather, a fellow teacher at MGC, who took multi-tasking to another level by taking photos while running.

A patch of pumpkins on the way!

 

The course cuts through our family vineyard at about the 17 km mark so the family cheered me on and our daughter Tahlia joined me to walk from there to the finish. 

Heading from our place back to the finish line

Another bonus of it going through our property is that any members of our family are allowed complimentary entry, which ultimately also means a free bottle of Saint Clair Sav when you finish.   A bottle of wine is given to all finishers as an alternative to giving prizes to a select few place getters.  It saves everyone having to hang around for ages for a prize-giving, and makes the point that everyone has their own goals.  I just wanted to get to the end without going into labour or getting caught out by pregnancy bladder!  My sister in law Vicki wanted to run her first half marathon.  Thankfully we both succeeded!  This year they trialled a  ’virtual prizegiving’ in the form of this video for people to share and enjoy after the event – a nice touch I thought.  My claim to fame is about 1 minute in .

Thanks Rach & Callum for another great event and thanks to the Ibbos at St Clair for the vino – will add it to my growing “when I can drink again” stockpile

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