By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
In another sure sign that life, despite the still-present pandemic, is returning to a version of ‘normal’, the Half Corked Marathon 2021 event (held over from last year due to COVID-19 restrictions) ran like clockwork over the weekend in perfect weather, much to the sheer delight of all involved.
Over 1,000 participants ran, walked and meandered over a 19 km route peppered with 31 wine stations representing the participating wineries on the Golden Mile and Black Sage Benches around Oliver. The return of this unique and immensely popular event brought obvious joy to the participants from far and wide, most of which were dressed up in costume as tradition dictates.
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“I think it was a huge success,” says Jennifer Busmann who, as executive director of the Oliver Osoyoos Winery Association (OOWA) measures success from a number of perspectives including event participants, volunteers, local businesses and communities.
“I think it was really great just to see all the participants come from all around B.C. and we had people from the N.W. United States and all across Canada,” she says. Pre-COVID this would have also included a not-insignificant international contingent from New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
“And just once again being able to work with our volunteers [over 130] in the same kind of capacity we’ve always done in the past and bring the community together and share that with all the people visiting our region was really quite amazing, and on top of that we had perfect weather!”
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Busmann highlights that five different B.C. businesses were tapped to create the picnic packs for all participants, all kinds of local suppliers were pulled in for the primavera dinner party, and numerous other local suppliers were involved in the event as well.
“We were really working at helping as many small independently-owned businesses in our region and then in our province, as we could,” she said.
“All of our small businesses have had their challenges so any way we can help kick start the season we’re happy to try and help.” She notes that while everyone knew there were going to be challenges coming out of the pandemic, it was less clear exactly what they would look like.
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Over the last year, many small businesses have been short-staffed, forced to reduce hours and limit what kind of services they could offer so “to the best of our ability we worked with those suppliers long in advance so that they could still benefit from the event as well as be able to provide a product that they were happy with to share with our participants,” Busmann says.
The event may seem like the ultimate in frivolous pursuits. After all, while the ‘half marathon’ covers the appropriate distance it does involve moving from one wine-tasting station to another – hardly the stuff of an Ironman event.
But make no mistake, this popular event is typically over-subscribed up to seven or eight times the available spots with balloting in place to ensure fair ticket distribution. Some ballot up to half-a-dozen times or more before they are successful. And if you still doubt the significance of it, consider that over one weekend of the event, an estimated $1.3 million is pumped into the Oliver and Osoyoos economies.
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This event this past weekend is actually the Half Corked Marathon 2021, postponed from last September due to COVID-19 restrictions imposed at literally the last moment. This coming September will see the Half Corked Marathon 2022 take place and Busmann is understandably reticent to talk about whether the 2023 edition will return to its traditional ‘last Saturday of May’ slot.
“Our focus really is on delivering great experiences in 2022 and just working through the pandemic and a post-pandemic recovery and once that is done – it’s still a long way to next spring – and is wrapped up we will announce the date for the 2023 marathon,” she said.
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The effort involved putting this event together is immense and leans heavily on volunteers. It takes a good three full weeks of “prepping and organizing and putting all the pieces together and finalizing the events and all the wonderful things it’s known for,” Busmann explains. This of course is aside from months of planning that take place prior to the final preparations.
Don Urquhart photo
