The Hardest Cider Run Race Recap

This past weekend I ran the Hardest Cider Run at the Hauser Estate Winery in Biglerville, Pennsylvania just outside of Gettysburg.  Coming from Central Maryland, it was a long day but definitely a gorgeous drive in through rural areas including Gettysburg.  (I had never been there before, so it was kind of exciting to at least see part of the battlegrounds!)

The Hard Cider Run is a race tour that is mostly concentrated between Michigan and the Northeast. The race dates are from the spring until late summer.  All of the races give runners race shirts, finisher medals and offer a free post-race hard cider from the race venue.  They also offer a "hungry apple" challenge where you have to eat an apple cider donut at each mile of the 5k.  After the Hard Cider Runs conclude, the racing company has another race tour called the Great Pumpkin Run.  

I mostly chose to do this race because if you volunteer to help with the race, you can get a free race entry to either that race or next year's event or donate your race fees to charity.  (I chose for a refund of my race fees so I would only be out $5 for the processing fee, a few hours of my time and gas money.)

The winery itself was gorgeous.  Lots of open space but still a lot of land was being used for orchards, corn, and grapes.

There wasn't really much to do pre-race since it was kind of a small race with everything you need pretty close together.  I opted to pickup my packet that morning and had plenty of time to do that and go back to my car to drop off my shirt, put on sunscreen, use the portajohns and look around a little bit.  It was definitely VERY bright out that morning and hard to take good pictures so I apologize in advance for the photos to be a little blown out at times.

 The race itself was considered to be a cross country race around the winery.  This was my first cross country race and all grass paths so it was hard at times to gauge how far your foot was going to fall.  A lot of times I'm pretty sure I looked like a muppet because my arms were flailing around so much trying to keep my balance from my many mini falls.  (I was almost positive I was going to roll an ankle too, fortunately I was pretty lucky and avoided it!)  The race was also very hilly.  About three quarters of a mile in you turn a corner and come face to face with a super steep hill that's a 27% grade.

Afterwards you got a lovely medal (with a bottle opener!), a stemless wine glass and then redeem a slip on the bottom of your bib for a free can of hard cider.  (You had the choice between sweet or dry, and I chose sweet.  It was pretty good!)

Obligatory post-race selfie in front of the grapevines!

After drinking most of my hard cider I changed my clothes and started my volunteer shift.  I got to hand out medals at the finish line!  (So if you saw a crazy lady in a pink baseball cap taunting you with medals at the finish line, that was me!!!)  The race also had the option of doing the "Hungry Apple" challenge where you eat an apple cider donut at each mile of the 5k and get an extra medal for your efforts.  I got to try one of the donuts during a quiet moment later on in the day.  It's a heavier cakey donut, so I would say do the challenge "at your own risk."  Lots of people who did the challenge ended up walking to the finish line and were finishing their donut as they were crossing the finish line.  After trying a donut for myself, I totally understood why!

Later in the race while I was waiting for people to cross the finish line, I had time to admire the pretty grapevines along one side of the finish area.

After everyone had crossed the finish line, I helped the event staff load everything onto their trucks.  I've helped with quite a few races, but they had a LOT of stuff!  It took a couple of hours to pack everything up and put it onto the trailer with about a dozen of us including somebody driving a ranch atv to bring things from the starting area to us at the finisher's area.  It was really hot, so I was super glad to be done and had to take a post-volunteering selfie!

I thought this sign that they had coming in and leaving the winery was really cute.

I ended up taking a different way home and stopped in Frederick to pickup some beer at Flying Dog Brewery and lunch down the street at AKA Friscos.  (They make HUGE sandwiches and amazing potato salad, and at that point I was ravenous but still only ate half the sandwich.)

Goals

I didn't really have high expectations for my performance in this race to be honest.  I had heard it was hilly but I wasn't expecting for the path to be somewhat dangerous to run.  (Hey, they don't call this one race tour stop the HardEST Cider Race for nothing!)

Goal 1:  Finish around 30:00  (Nope.)

Goal 2:  Finish with enough time to change and drink my hard cider DONE!

Goal 3:  Finish.  DONE!

Swag

One perk to volunteering besides the race fee refund was the fun volunteer shirt!

The race itself also had a great shirt.  Along with the shirt and bib at packet pickup, you get a finisher's medal and a souvenir stemless wine glass.

Overall (or TL;DR)

I'm not sure if I would do the race again.  (I would say there's probably a 50/50 chance.)  I found the course pretty difficult since I wasn't really expecting a grass covered cross country course and I was paranoid about rolling an ankle during the entire run.  I ended up walking more than I would like to admit, even though I had a better pace than my River Valley Ranch 10k the previous weekend.  Perhaps this race would be better suited to those who are used to cross country type races.  (I'm mostly used to road and trail races.)

It took me about an hour and twenty minutes to get to the race venue, and about the same amount of time to get back home despite going a different way.  The drive was easy since it was pretty scenic (just pay attention to speed limit signs.)

I was mostly willing to take a chance because it was essentially a $5 race after volunteering.  It was a good experience volunteering for the race and running it to some extent, but I would mostly recommend it if you're in the area already.  The race was run very well since essentially all Sour Fish Events does is tour the country putting on races.  However like I mentioned before, the venues may leave a little something to be desired.