Last Monday I helped Destination Races put on a local Happy Hour Run at Elizabeth Chambers Cellars in downtown McMinnville. They provided prizes and wine and I picked a route and got some local runners to show up and do our runner thing. The event reminded me of a few great reasons to love runners.

Reasons to Love Runners

Runners know where the beauty is. A lot of us, no…all of us enjoy running in pretty places and scenic races. In fact, we seek out and will travel great distances to run in destinations of great beauty. Standing around and talking with the happy hour group, we couldn’t wait to list off some gorgeous courses we’d seen. So if you’re fresh out of ideas of places to recharge with some natural beauty, a runner will know some good spots near and far.

Runners know where the good food is at. Many of us disagree entirely on what to eat and drink, but at the end of the day…whatever our calories of choice look like, we devour with enthusiasm. If you’re a beeratarian, you will never fail to find someone willing to sprint from pub to pub with you. If flat coke and pringles are your jam, have you met an ultrarunner? Oh wait…you probably already are one. Duh.

Reasons to Love Runners: We know where to find good food, pretty sights and common ground. Click To Tweet

Not only do we know where to find the good stuff in any city we’ve ran in, many of us also have sweet culinary tricks up our compression sleeves. If you’re vegan you can find a group of runners who will be a treasure trove of creative vegan recipe tricks. Same goes for all the other -atarians and -vores and what have you’s.

Runners improve the quality of any community. We’re stimulating local economies and often contributing to charities with each race we run. We’re directly or indirectly inspiring others to move more (even if it’s to avoid us on the park path). When you get a group of us together, we network and share resources. We’ve sifted through miles (aka hours) of music if you ever need suggestions for a new playlist.

Runners come from all segments of society. The commonality of running has been the starting point for building friendships with people who have vastly different faith and political backgrounds than myself. If the importance of this escapes you, I’m so, so sorry.

So there may be just as many reasons to love to hate us with all of our 13.1 bumper stickers and flat runner photos, openly talking about bowel movements and blood blisters, or ditching you on Friday night because we have a…(said with eye-rolling matter-of-factness like it’s no big deal)…“20 miler in the morning”. But aside from all that, we know how to work hard, fight for the finish line and yes we do have enough endorphin high to go around.
Therefore you are welcome.
High five!

Happy Hour Run in McMinnville

Where was I? Oh yes, the local happy hour run that reminded me how awesome runners are. So…Elizabeth Chambers Cellars is one of the many stellar wineries involved with the Oregon Wine Country Half put on by Destination Races. I’ve ran this race twice. You can read about that here and here. And it is a beautiful course and the wine flows with abundance and the community support makes for a superb race atmosphere.

So mucho thanks to Elizabeth Chambers Cellars for hosting the event and sampling wine for the runners. Mega thanks to Destination Races for providing sweet sweet prizes. Fist bumps to Nuun Hydration and Manitoba Harvest for treats for everyone. And most importantly, a runner’s nod for all those who came out on a 90+ degree run because…hey, that’s what we do.

Need more run in your life?

Use code DRAMBTIFFANY to sign up for a Destination Races event like the Oregon Wine Half or Kelowna British Columbia. Half on September 3rd or the Healdsburg, CA Wine Country Half on October 28th. You too can have this much fun:

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