In keeping with food themed races for the weekend, I ran the 1st annual Champagne Runch 10k on Sunday. This race boasted a 5 course champagne brunch at the finish line in addition to the traditional race swag of a shirt and medal. Naturally, I was in.Now, what I'm about to say may be a bit controversial, but please understand that I was born and raised in beautiful Southern California, where our seasons are green, slightly less green, a little brown, and green again. Yes. Be jealous. ;)
Anyhoo, it was forecast to rain all weekend. And Long Beach got a whopping 0.16 inches of rain! Trust me, it felt like more. Since the rain was supposed to finish around 7am Sunday morning, the race decided to postpone the first wave to 8am (originally 7:30am). And then a few minutes before 8 they announced it would start at 8:30am instead. We were signed up for the 8am wave, so not a huge deal in our minds.
The race began with a hill over the LA River and into the Long Beach Harbor. I've run this particular stretch for a few Long Beach races but this was the first time I went through Shoreline Village. Its just a little pier with your stereotypical pier fare, but it was so adorable and I never knew it existed!
At mile 1.5 they had the official race Carb Station. This was actually the first of our five courses and consisted of donuts from California Donuts. I'm not a huge fan of the donut, but i had that pink one with the strawberries in the middle of the picture and man, it was delicious! Since it was an out and back course, you had to pass the Carb Station again at mile 4.5, so you know, all around a great first course!
The rest of the race was nice. Long Beach is a really nice place to run in, even for an out and back (which are usually my least favorite races) because there's a lot to see. My friend and I stayed together, which was also nice since it helped me push myself a bit and keep a steady pace.
The race was definitely a little shy of the 10k mark (by about a half mile) but there was no chip timing, and they had no mile markers (aside from the Carb Station saying "Mile 1.5" on the sign). They ran out of medals (boo) but we got in line for our champagne so we could have something to sip on while we waited in the even longer food line!
The next three dishes were from The Attic, The Halal Guys, and Restauration. The Attic served up hot cheeto topped mac n cheese (which I got minus the cheetos, cuz yuck!), the Halal Guys had chicken and rice bowls with pita slices (so. much. yum.) and Restauration had a short rib grilled cheese sandwich. If you know me personally then you know I'm kind of a picky eater. I try to eat like an adult, but sometimes I just can't. So I'm always a little wary of new food places or "foodie" type places because I just like my traditional, 2 year old meals. Regular Kraft mac n cheese. Grilled cheese on white bread. Grilled chicken with regular rice. I'm weird, I know! (Don't even get me started on not liking my food to touch and eating off a kid's plate that comes partitioned!!)
Anyhoo, asking for plain mac n cheese was the weirdest I got that day and ate everything else as it was served. And let me just say....SO GOOD! The chicken bowl had orange rice that was weird for my 2 year old tummy's brain, but was super delicious. The grilled cheese was a little cold by the time we sat down, but still super yummy, and the mac n cheese was SUPER cold (because it was the first thing we waited in line for) but still tasty. Dessert was ice cream from The Drizzle. My friend got the vanilla maple bacon and I got the salted caramel. Both yummy.
And as if that wasn't enough food, we still had to get our second glass of champagne (because we like to drink and each ordered a second glass when we registered), PLUS a cup of juice, and a cup of coffee. The juice was from Juicemi Gourmet and coffee was Contra Coffee & Tea. I forget which juice I got but it was better than a lot of green juices I've tried. And the coffee was a dirty horchata and so good I took it to enjoy at home to drink later.
The race began with a hill over the LA River and into the Long Beach Harbor. I've run this particular stretch for a few Long Beach races but this was the first time I went through Shoreline Village. Its just a little pier with your stereotypical pier fare, but it was so adorable and I never knew it existed!At mile 1.5 they had the official race Carb Station. This was actually the first of our five courses and consisted of donuts from California Donuts. I'm not a huge fan of the donut, but i had that pink one with the strawberries in the middle of the picture and man, it was delicious! Since it was an out and back course, you had to pass the Carb Station again at mile 4.5, so you know, all around a great first course!
The rest of the race was nice. Long Beach is a really nice place to run in, even for an out and back (which are usually my least favorite races) because there's a lot to see. My friend and I stayed together, which was also nice since it helped me push myself a bit and keep a steady pace.
The race was definitely a little shy of the 10k mark (by about a half mile) but there was no chip timing, and they had no mile markers (aside from the Carb Station saying "Mile 1.5" on the sign). They ran out of medals (boo) but we got in line for our champagne so we could have something to sip on while we waited in the even longer food line!The next three dishes were from The Attic, The Halal Guys, and Restauration. The Attic served up hot cheeto topped mac n cheese (which I got minus the cheetos, cuz yuck!), the Halal Guys had chicken and rice bowls with pita slices (so. much. yum.) and Restauration had a short rib grilled cheese sandwich. If you know me personally then you know I'm kind of a picky eater. I try to eat like an adult, but sometimes I just can't. So I'm always a little wary of new food places or "foodie" type places because I just like my traditional, 2 year old meals. Regular Kraft mac n cheese. Grilled cheese on white bread. Grilled chicken with regular rice. I'm weird, I know! (Don't even get me started on not liking my food to touch and eating off a kid's plate that comes partitioned!!)
And as if that wasn't enough food, we still had to get our second glass of champagne (because we like to drink and each ordered a second glass when we registered), PLUS a cup of juice, and a cup of coffee. The juice was from Juicemi Gourmet and coffee was Contra Coffee & Tea. I forget which juice I got but it was better than a lot of green juices I've tried. And the coffee was a dirty horchata and so good I took it to enjoy at home to drink later.
We were so stuffed. WAY too much food in the best way possible. Also, I mentioned earlier that they had run out of medals. While we were almost at the end of the last food line, they announced that they had some medals on their way and to head over to the check-in booth after 10 minutes. Of course a line formed immediately, so we sat down to enjoy our food and figured we'd give them our contact info on the way out. Well, imagine my surprise when they still had some medals left as we walked out, so we both got our medals! Yay! Now, as an inaugural race, there are always some kinks to work out, and I went into it knowing that. So here's what I loved and didn't care for so much from the race.
Pros
- Lovely course for both 5k and 10k distances
- Free race photos
- TONS of great food
- High quality medal
- Plenty of port-o-potties (don't laugh, you learn to appreciate them when they're not there!!)
- Great course support/spectators
- Photos ops (backdrop on the course and photo booth in the finish line area)
- Did I mention the food?
- an AMAZING DJ. Like, seriously. Perfect music to chill by the water and drink to.
- They ran out of the shirt size I registered for
- They ran out of medals (Yes, they found some more, but if they had more, why weren't they at the finish line with the rest?)
- Distance was shorter than 10k
- They had one of those port-o-potty sinks but it ran out of water before the race even started
I know, I know. Those "cons" are total #firstworldproblems. And I agree, they're pretty stupid. But I will say that this race wasn't cheap. It was $95 plus a $7 processing fee. I have an Active Advantage membership, so the processing fee was waived, and we used a $10 promo code I found online. That being said, minus the $5 extra glass of champagne, I paid $85. I justified it as a race with brunch included, which is what I normally do after a race anyway. So I was just paying it up front. And we really did get a lot for out money. But when races run out of medals and shirts, it always irritates me. You know how many people signed up, and if they signed up 6 weeks in advance, certain things should be guaranteed, like the shirt size they ordered. Ok, rant over. Overall this was a really great race and I would totally do it again. In fact, the one thing I wish we had done differently was to wear brunch inspired t-shirts. There were some really cute ones out there! And a HUGE thanks to my friend Stephanie for running both races with me this weekend! I'm so used to running races alone, so it was a great treat to have buddies and great food all weekend long!
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