Race Report: Wineglass Marathon Corning NY 10-5-25
My first time for this one but have heard only good things so it seemed like the one to try for a Boston time - spoiler, today was not my day.
I’ll start with registration, it was like most, very easy online, I don’t remember the cost but not bad, especially now that I’ve seen the organization. I do wish there were more runner specific emails sent out, I had to search for the bib pickup location online last week as that wasn’t communicated, but it was very easy to find the info on the race website. The expo and bib pickup was Friday afternoon (there was a 5K on Saturday) and all day Saturday in the Corning Glass Museum. Parking was available however not plentiful. It took a bit of circling to find a spot but what can you expect when a couple thousand people show up to the same place at the same time. I won’t complain, it was about a five minute walk to the expo and I thought it was very well organized. Signage was everywhere telling runners where to go, when I got in line there were about 30 ahead of me and I only waited about 5 minutes for a volunteer to check my ID and hand me a new cinch bag with my bib, a commemorative wine glass, a mini bottle of champagne, and a pretty nice 1/4 zip tech shirt. Then it was look around at some gear, not nearly as many vendors as say Disney, but a decent selection if you were to need or want something either for the race or to remember the weekend.
They host a pasta dinner with a guest speaker for runners, but I can’t say anything good or bad on that as I opted out, for the $$ DW and I went to a little Italian hole in the wall we found searching the area and had myself their special, chicken parm with marinara served over penne alfredo, garlic knots, and beer. Perfect
The next morning was up and ready by 6, coffee, PBJ, out the door to the buses. They ran from 5:30-7 for the full and were about a 15 minute drive away from our hotel. The plan was for my wife drop me off and head back for a bit as the race started at 8:15. There was an area for drop offs, and many volunteers directing runners to busses for either the half or full and I was seated and on my way to the start within 10 minutes. There was an area large tent set up for runners to help with warmth, as it was 51 degrees with 88% humidity, that was a nice surprise. There was also a gear bag check well organized with local UPS workers helping get runners’ gear to the finish line for anyone that wanted.
The start was right on time, I do wish it was earlier, as the heat proved to be a problem for me later in the race. The course itself was nothing special as far as scenery, just your average run through some towns and down the road. The crowd support through a few small towns was fantastic, I always appreciate that. The course is a point to point mostly on half closed roads, similar to Disney, runners get ample room and take precedent over traffic. I saw no issues anywhere. I’m not sure that I believe the course map as far as elevation, it’s definitely a net downhill but throw in a couple small bumps up with more flat than I expected and it didn’t feel as fast as I was hoping for, that could be a function of me slowing in the heat though. Did I mention the heat? It warmed up much faster than expected but the volunteers were right on top of it, there were water stations scheduled about every two miles when I had looked at the course info but after mile 20 I noticed they had people out with Gatorade and water every mile. There were several stops with gels, bananas, oranges, etc as well.
The finish line set up was fantastic, come over the bridge into town, wall to wall people as you take a right, then a left, and see the finish about .2 ahead, that level of crowd support gets me every time, no matter how exhausted I am I smile and speed up. The street and surrounding area is closed to traffic and is basically a couple blocks of small shops and restaurants set up for a party. Cross the line and get a water, your medal gets hung around your neck, and you walk through the food tent. I’m sure I missed something but a quick list I saw was Coke, water, Gatorade, bananas, apples, bagels, cookies, soup, and pizza. Grabbed some cookies and pizza and headed out to meet DW. There were screens set up to stop off and get a get a photo with your results and then it was wander about, talk, stretch, and head to the car. We didn’t stay for long so I can’t say how long others did but it seems like you could hang around and enjoy.
I would recommend this one if anyone is on the fence about it, if I decide to keep trying for a fast time (if, yeah right) I will probably at it again next year. I’ll continue my long winded performance in another post.
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