Browsing Tag
Prince Edward County
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!
In our 8th year of hosting the Terroir Run, we are doing something special and are thrilled to be offering our runners an amazing post run lunch which is going to be prepared by two of our great friends Chef Karin Desveaux and Chef Albert Ponzo.
Beginning her culinary career in Toronto in the mid 90’s, Karin Desveaux cooked in some of the city’s finest restaurants including Ivory, Borgo Antico, Winston’s and Rosewater. From there, she transitioned into high end catering and eventually became a private chef for a prominent family.
Karin moved to Prince Edward County in 2003 with then-husband Michael Potters to open The Milford Bistro, Harvest and Pinch Gourmet. Together, Karin and Michael worked with local producers and winemakers to celebrate seasonality and terroir through their food and service.
Now in her eighth year of teaching in the Culinary Program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Karin takes great pride in her role of Program Coordinator; together with her team, she weaves creativity, excellence, sustainability and wellness into the program that they share with aspiring chefs of the future.
Albert Ponzo is the Executive Chef of The Royal Hotel in Picton. The historic Royal Hotel has been under re-construction for the past two years and will re-open in 2019.
Albert brings over two decades of food knowledge and experience in sustainable farming and nose-to-tail eating. With a passion for working closely with nature, and sourcing ingredients ethically produced in a sustainable manner, Albert strives to prepare farm-driven food with the best seasonal local ingredients at their ripest time.
Prior to joining The Royal, Albert served as Executive Chef at Toronto’s iconic Le Sélect Bistro, where he was the creative force behind the restaurant’s contemporary rendition of classic French cuisine. He is a strong supporter of SlowFood Toronto and has received numerous awards, including: 2015 Winner of Toronto’s Cochon 555 Heritage BBQ, 2014 Awarded Fellow of the Ontario Hostelry Institute and 2012 Winner of Ocean Wise Toronto Chowder Chowdown. He has also worked at celebrated Toronto restaurants Canoe and Crush Wine Bar.
In his spare time, Albert enjoys teaching nose-to-tail butchery and collaborating with other chefs internationally. He also volunteers with organizations focused on food education and sustainability. Supporting the work of the Second Harvest Food Bank, The Stop (Community Food Centres), The Child Development Institute and many others. His culinary talent won the hearts of eaters at the 2nd annual Hinterlude that took place this past February at Hinterland Winery.
Albert is an avid hobby beekeeper, enjoys gardening and finding wild foods. He draws continual inspiration from his Italian roots, music, books, life experiences, his wife, Marlise, and their three children.
We are SO EXCITED to enjoy their culinary talents on June 2nd and know our runners will love the locally sourced meal they will be serving for all of us!
With the holidays quickly approaching we’re getting a lot of inquiries about the 2018 run. We’ll be opening ticketing shortly to returning runners and then to the general public so everyone can secure their place or share a place as a unique gift for those lucky experience seekers in your life. Every year we ask our runners for their feedback and introduce tweaks to improve the run and 2018 will be no exception – actually we have a few big changes to share:
- We’re moving the date ahead a little to accommodate those who run the Ottawa half-marathon, or miss the Ottawa half-marathon. The 2018 Terroir Run will be held on Saturday, June 2nd.
- For 7 years we’ve run the bucolic backroads of Hillier wine country and arrived at Norm Hardie Winery for pizzas & pinot (and lots of other great local bites and sips) but this year we’re mixing it up, and surprising our runners with a special new County food experience. So many runners who came to 2017’s “Back To The Start” party loved eating, drinking and hanging out with Jens & Bruno so this year we’re reversing our route, and finishing at The Old Third Vineyard.
- As a result, the start will also be new and the good folks at Rose Hall Run have offered to host our gang. Although we’ll miss Bruno’s usual bird-banger start, Dan and Lynn Sullivan promise something really fun.
- We’re moving our start time from 9AM to 10AM. This small change will align lunch more with, well, lunch, and this year our runners will be able to enjoy the after-run experience (food, drink, social) into the afternoon.
- To address a frustration for families, groups and interested new runners we’ll be expanding participation a little to allow for more runners to join. Expansion is something we’ve debates every year as our first objective is to deliver a truly unique experience to all our participants and companions – this will not be compromised.
- Finally, Rebecca & I founded the Terroir Run to share the our love of fitness, food, drink, travel and discovery but many may not know that all proceeds are directed to supporting community initiatives. Over the years organizations that have received funds include Slow Food The County, The Terry Fox Foundation, Quinte Humane Society, Heart & Stroke Foundation, 99.3 County FM. This year we are simplifying the focus and launching a new Foundation to formalize giving so that our runners can better understand the good their participation does. Stay tuned for more information about our new LARJ Foundation.
These are the hig
h points but runners will also find little changes to their run kits, the run kit pickup options, some new partnerships and the on route experience. We expect the 2018 Terroir Run will be the best ever and hope you’ll join us, or join us again.
Cheers.
Andrew
New for 2017 we have added a great event to round out the programming for the weekend to ensure our runners are getting plenty to opportunities to enjoy a taste of Prince Edward County!
Photo credit The Old Third
On Saturday, May 27, 2017 we’ll be hosting a Back To The Start Barn Party in partnership with The Old Third Winery and Chef Jamie Kennedy. Kicking off at 5pm at The Old Third we’ll being serving up Chef Kennedy famous frites with County burgers, a selection of wines from our run winery partners, craft beer and cider all paired with great music to dance, dance, dance! Tickets to the party are $115 and include your meal, 2 drinks of your choice* and live music. This is an intimate event for 100pp so be sure to buy well in advance here
Photo credit Jo Dickins