WOW – this year’s run was AWESOME! Despite a slightly rocky registration process due to our new format, things got off to a great start when we all arrived at Rosehall Run Vineyards to kick off the 10.8km journey.
Yes, folks, this is not your average run – it’s not 10km exactly. It’s not a race, however, our top 3 female and male finishers do get to come run with us in 2020 as our guests. A big congrats to our top 6 runners who sped to the finish in under 40 minutes (again – as it’s not a race so we don’t have exact times): Laura Couvrette, Natalie Slomka, Kate Barrett, Dylan Barlow, Phil Teijeira and Tom McColeman.
Run registration DOES include an outstanding post-run party with lunch handmade by Chef Albert Ponzo (The Royal Hotel) and Chef Karin Desveaux and her culinary team from Loyalist College served with libations from our run partners including iced tea from Pluck Teas, wines from all of our winery partners, custom cocktails from Kinsip, ciders from The County Cider Co and chilly beers from Parsons Brewing Co!
Our runners brought some serious ZEST to the day with costumes ranging from a moose and his hunt club, a hive of bees, Cinderella, Flash Gordon, a bevy of brides, some pretty pink pigs, a bunch of brave hearts and some wine mavens.
We are so grateful to our run supporters whose participation enabled us to donate $5000 to the ROC and the Prince Edward County Youth Centre. “We are so grateful to Terroir Run for their generous donation to the PEC Youth Centre! Funds raised by Terroir Run specifically support the provision of nutritious meals and snacks and cover the cost of cabs from ROC programming. Lack of healthy food and access to transportation cause barriers that keep youth from participating in the programs and supports they need. With the help of Terroir Run, ROC continues to provide programming at no cost to all youth in a space where they feel safe, included and are able to reach their full potential.” – Darlene Thompson, Executive Director
We wanted to share a few more insights about our 2019 Terroir Run. We had 153 runners and 31 post-run lunch guests (yes – you can buy tickets to the lunch only to join your friends and family members who run with us). 73% of our runners were women and 27% were men. The majority of our runners (74%) are in their 30’s and 40’s with 23% over 50 years of age. 82% of our runners hailed from Ontario and this year we had a whopping 18% join us from Quebec!
38% of our runners had run with us before. 47% of our runners heard about us through the grapevine (word of mouth) and the power of social media brought another 15% of our runners to us.
The majority of our runners stayed in PEC for 2 nights (72%) with the balance staying for one night (11%) or staying at home as they live close by. Most of our out of town runners stayed in hotels or B&B’s (55%) with the balance staying with friends and family.
70% of our runners took the opportunity to explore the County and visited wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries while here. 44% of our runners spent between $101-$250 on food and beverage purchases while in PEC and 47% spent $250+++ eating and drinking their way around our delicious county!
Our run is a social enterprise, a passion project and, a way for Andrew and I to give back to a community that we love. A way to support local businesses and truly showcase a taste of place. We encourage you to save the date May 30th, 2020 for our 10th-anniversary run – registration will open Oct 1st, 2019!
We’ve just returned from visiting our run wineries to pick up wine for next weekend, followed by a family trail run – it’s a great weekend to be enjoying all that the County has to offer.