Saturday September 13th marked the 2nd annual Schomberg Mug Run, put on by Ryan Raymond, owner of Surge Activewear, winding through the streets and trails of downtown Schomberg and finishing at the town fairgrounds, with a beer, food and music festival.
Zachary and I had the fortune of getting to know Ryan earlier this summer when he and ultra trail athlete Selene Mallone (who was busy winning the Divide 200 miler in Alberta during the Mug Run!) started a weekly run club in Schomberg, which started out small but continues to grow with local runners eager to connect with like-minded neighbours. While it’s not my hometown club, I’ve still managed to become a weekly staple, as it presents a midweek, evening run option in my training block.
Course: Fast but surprisingly challenging, as this course utilizes a mix of road and designated walking trails through the edge of town. While only 48m of elevation gain, it is deceiving as a lot of it is within the trail portion, however the last 1 1/2 kms is downhill and fast while looping around the staging area on the road. The course was well marked with pilons on the road portion and ribbon and banners marking the way within the trails.
On-course Support: There was one aid station shortly past the 1km mark, which doubled as the 3.5km aid station after the trail portion. Additionally, there were marshals/volunteers at most transitions and major directional changes.
Surface: Primarily paved, mixing road as well as marked trails, with a small amount of gravel to start and finish. The trails were mostly double wide paved with some portions being hard packed dirt. Everything was dry as the light morning rain had long since dried up.
Weather: An easy 24° with the sun coming out about 20 mins before the race started. The forecast had been threatening rain and with a few light showers passing through in the morning, everything dried up thankfully before this afternoon event started.
Atmosphere: A good turn out of 126 registered runners for this second annual event (180 registered), with a kid’s race and family event following. Beyond the runners, there were a lot of additional people on site, family members, etc., as immediately following the race, the beer and food were available and the bands started up. Running through residential and the downtown area, there were lots of cheering from full patios and backyards to keep you moving and motivated.
Post-race: Water, Northern Hydration and beer koozy medals were available at the finish line with massage and physio services from PhysioMed Nobleton. Runners could then grab their included mugs and tokens for the festival and head inside.
Mr. Serious ready for business
Overall:
The event itself is a fun hybrid mixing the 5km race with a music, drinks and food festival which has a real small community feel to it. While there were competitors from all over the area that we talked to (including a good turnout of Newmarket Huskies), there was also a feeling that a good amount of the town shows up to celebrate the event, even if they hadn’t raced.
This was our second year running, as a race followed by a beer festival is definitely right up my alley! Add to that, Zachary has been talking about the unique podium medals/belts since last year and planned on pushing hard to get one (see below).
As the race started, Zachary took off hard and let the race for the first kilometer, only giving it up reluctantly to a teenaged Huskie and two 30-something men who managed to catch him before the 2nd km marker. Speaking to them afterwards, they commented on how he was pushing up on them, especially up the hills and they had to fight to keep ahead. I had a perfect view of all of this, as I was on Zachary’s heels most of the race, and finished just behind him.
Unfortunately, he just missed the podium, with a 4th place overall finish, so it was a little bittersweet for him but we both gained a position on last year and shaved 2 1/2 mins off our finishing times.
After celebrating our finish, we turned to cheer on fellow run-club members, high fived many of the volunteers we met over Friday and Saturday and made some new friends with other runners and their families. I also helped get the hydration table at the finish line started by pouring cups of the Northern Hydration and eventually made my way over to the festival.
Highlights:
1) Being recognized from a previous race, as the father & son Team Running Free runners! That was an unexpected surprise (thanks Leo Guchardi).
2) Seeing Zachary not only start strong but hold that pace and increase it on the downhill 1.5km to the finish. His recent XC training has definitely helped him get back to form.
3) Seeing Zachary generating interest from the coaches at the Newmarket Huskies. I already run with Dan Fiorini in the Schomberg run club but it was nice to have Zachary pull me over to meet Derek Hackshaw.
Following the awards ceremony, we unfortunately cut our festivities short (before they really even started as I barely had a sip from my mug), as Zachary had some stomach cramps and wanted to head home.
To be fair, I was also exhausted from the race (I’m still just introducing speed work back into my training) and two days of building fencing, tents, tables and signage for the event. We missed celebrating with the other volunteers, run club members and friends we made but family health comes first.
Zachary: 20:34 | 4/126
Patrick: 20:41 | 5/126
Such a fun and rewarding weekend, getting to know many of the other volunteers and running a challenging local race. We will be back next year!
* Amazing follow-up *
Ryan offered one of the left over awards/belts from last years event, as Zachary was such a great helper on Friday/Saturday 😁😍
Belt and beer from their sister event in McGregor on Sept 20
