The Running of the Bordeaux: Wine Flight 5K

The concept of a Wine Flight isn't new to many of you. Except a decade ago "wine flighting" involved tucking a forgotten box of Franzia under your shirt and bolting from the kitchen before mom returned to check the evening's pot roast.

Of course, Mainetoday.com in no way condones such behavior. We are adamantly against pot roasts.

Saturday's Wine Flight was of the legal-age variety. The 5K (a Tri-Maine event) was modeled after France's Marathon du Medoc, "combining the fun of a 5k run/walk with the joy of food and wine." Unfortunately, the event was so legal, it adhered to Maine's strict No Drinking Wine While Running Through the Streets of Downtown Portland law. (Note: actual law phrasing may differ slightly from above).

But there was plenty of local grub to sample at the three "Aid Stations" on Maine State Pier.

The race kicked off a wee after 9:30 am, after some delays at the registration counter. Runners and walkers followed a one-mile loop around the base of Munjoy Hill, then returned to the Pier for a fill up. Then a second loop and a second table o' edibles. After the third jaunt along the East End Trail, participants came back to the Pier for a tented Wine Tasting.

You are what you drink:

[Cara Slifka photo]

The belly-warming reward to a strenuous race.

If you missed Wine Flight this year, and you're finding it hard to function with the mounting regret, feel free to recreate the race in your neighborhood. Save upfront costs by using your neighbor's houses as "Aid Stations" to pause for booze and food. It could be first of many yearly Neighborhood Wine Flights. Or the reason you spend three nights at Cumberland County Jail facing breaking and entering charges, only to come home to discover you've been impeached as Block Party Committee Chair and ghastly Mrs. Hubbard from two doors down has taken over your coaching position for the kids' T-Ball team, designating three of her 12 cats as assistant coach, first base coach and head cheerleader.

Or you could maybe just wait until next year.

Check out all of Cara Slifka's 2009 Wine Flight 5K photos

Sprint to the drinkable finish: Wine Flight training

Some folks run for the joy of it.

Some run seeking the elusive "runner's high" (which, for the record, I've sought and never discovered. Instead I defer to the "post-runner's-high" that coincides with an after-run plate of chicken).

Food and drink make for solid motivation. It's a work and reward theory of life. And if you're going to undo all the hard-earned calorie burn, it's best to do it with purpose.

The Wine Fight 5K - returning this October - is a run after my own heart. Or palate.

The race model's France's Marathon du Medoc, interjecting a sampling of food and wine into a 5k run/walk. "Aid stations" along the way offer delicacies from local purveyors. And across the finish line you'll be rewarded with a wine-tasting celebration.

But how does one prepare for such a vigorous race and taste?

The Wine Flight "training runs" - aka, Passport to Portland. That's how.

The runs lauched last week and occur every Tuesday until race time.

Runners meet up in Monument Square between 6-6:30 pm. Margo Mallar, from Maine Ambassadors, will check you in and hand over your course map and passport.

In addition to revealing the evening's running course and final destination (this time: Maine Mead Works) the map offers some history about the neighborhoods through which you'll go.

Today's lesson: Munjoy Hill. The area was the first home to many new immigrants and boasted small grocers catering to the Jewish, Armenian and Italian families there. "Fisherman [delivered food] from their trucks and horse and wagons. They would proceed up Munjoy Hill, street by street, along with the knife sharpener...All the mothers in their aprons gathered in the street, looked over the goods very carefully and called each other Mrs."

At 6:30, a group of we less-than-speedy runners took off up Congress Street. At the base of the hill, we walked. Wait - did I just say "walked"? I meant, we sprinted.

Okay, maybe we walked some, but it was only to fully appreciate the homes and storefronts there - and to drool just a bit over the smells wafting from The Front Room and Blue Spoon.

At the Eastern Prom, the map directed us to veer right and catch the bike trail down by Fore Street. But being sensible, economic, lazy people, we just motored straight down the East End hill. You say "cheating," I say "energy conservation."

After a hearty running effort, about 14 folks gathered at the Maine Mead Works tasting room. Eli and Nick poured welcome samples of the Dry, Semi-Sweet and Blueberry.

And while we would have gladly sampled the meadery dry, we had pairings to experience.

A table had been set up with fruit, cheese, bread, nuts, chocolate and fish. Our goal, sample the mead with the grub and see what works.

We each took a plate, a glass and a worksheet and tackled the tremendous task at hand. It's a tough job - mead drinking and cheese eating and whatnot. Takes a special kind of person.

I think everyone walked away with some new-found appreciation. Some were new to mead altogether. Some hadn't tried the Blueberry. And some - ahem - don't have a sturdy enough palate to handle habanero cheese.

Was the excursion a success?

Yea, I think people liked it.

"Passport to Portland" runs weekly throughout the spring and summer. Here are some upcoming jaunts:

June 9: Gritty McDuff's

June 16: El Rayo Taqueria

June 30th sounds like an event a chocolate lover shouldn't miss. The course includes a tramp up the Portland Observatory, with chocolate stops on each of the six levels. It's a "dry run" for a festival slated for October.

For more details on the training runs - or to register [$15 for an individual run, $78 for 6 pack, $144 for 12 pack or $210 for a seasons pass] check the Maine Ambassadors website