Fueling the world with Vivác

As you all know, we have these fabulous "Fueled by Vivác" sports shirts that, should you run a race in the shirt and post a photo of you in the shirt with your bib number at the race on FB, we will give you a bottle of wine! Ya, we are just cool like that.

Needless to say, the shirts seem to be more and more popular. In part due to our sponsorships of various races around New Mexico...and of course the wine. Our partnership with Chasing 3 even garnered us an off shoot of our "Fueled by Vivac" with shirts for several of their races being "Fueled by Wine". The up coming Deadman Ultra is sponsored by us as is the Taos Balloon Rally; because even hot air balloons need wine! For Deadman, we feel anyone running 54 miles, off road, in the desert, will need LOTS of wine...and a medic...and more wine.

So, as we blanket the world in "Fueled by Vivác" shirts, spreading the love of running, biking, Tris, skiing...you name it, we have grown more accustom to the conversation of the winery being brought up as we run our races. Usually the conversation is other racers jokingly asking if we have any wine on us at that moment. Being the ever constant marketer, I do consider running with wine in a camel-back so I can give samples and business cards out during the race. Why just run when I could be working too? I like to multi-task.

I digress, what I want to tell you about is the Santa Fe half marathon Jesse just ran on Sunday. He had the usual fun chats about the winery (because we only race in our red, white or black "Fueled by Vivac" shirts), but as he got into the race he found a woman actually running in a "Fueled by Vivác" shirt! Jess approached the Puerto Rico to Santa Fe transplant with "nice shirt!" her reaction was one of zeal and great excitement as she recognized Jess as one of the wine makers and asked to have a photo taken with him. We later learned that Mariela is a wine club member too! How fun is that?

As he continued, passing runners like the bad-ass he is, he found our new Los Alamos friend, Scott, also in a "Fueled by Vivác" shirt, and the team Vivác took full effect. Nothing is more fun than seeing co-racers wearing our winery shirts! Scott will join Jess at the Deadman Ultra in October. I assume in the "Fueled by Vivác" shirt.

Jess finished the race in 1hr 30mins, a PR to say the least and I am pretty sure it was the boost of Team Vivác that gave him the extra kick. Or maybe it was all the wine the night before, you never know, they do call Pinot Noir the fountain of youth wine, maybe it is good for running! Just in case it was the wine, I will pack extra Pinot for Deadman.

Treadmill Training

Treadmills should come with a warning. Not because they are dangerous in the way you are thinking, but because they seriously alter the way you run!

As I stepped onto the treadmill the other day, headphones on and plugged in, channel selected on the near by TV, I found my body settle into the familiar routine of running. The gentle glide under my feet and cushion in my knees, a fan blowing in my face cooling the drops of sweat...ahhh, running.

Disrespectfully the damn thing jerked me into a vicious incline and due to it being a treadmill it decided I would keep my pace as I raced up the "hill" and also due to it being a treadmill, I was tethered uncomfortably close to the operation panel by my headphone cord!

I hate interval settings.

After that ridiculous experience, a long summer of indoor running, and a glass (alright a bottle!) of wine, I realized that I could hit the actual pavement in the cool Fall air. I wouldn't be tethered to anything, but rather feel free to glide on the road, changing my pace any time I wanted. Free to stop for a sip of water rather than the gymnastics jump I execute on a treadmill to escape being jerked off the relentless spinning track. However, the sip of water will now need to be a handheld bottle...that I will have to run with. I wonder if Jess will run with me? I need him to hold my water.

The next day, I hit the road. As I ran, the hard surface wore at my knee joints. My iPod bored me with music that just wasn't quite right. I missed my "shows", the crappy TV I allow myself to watch while on the treadmill; it makes an hour fly by. My water bottle was really heavy too, Jess had not come with me. I also had to sprint from a very aggressive mini dog. I was miserable. That is when I realized it had only been 20mins.

I needed to meditate if i was going to get through this. Deep breaths. Settle in. My body relaxed into the familiar rhythm and like Pavlov's dog, my head gently veered to the left. I didn't realize it for a while, but as my right side narrowly escaped a close encounter with a car, I realized this was not normal. While most road runners stare down the road ahead of them, treadmill runners run with their head off to one side...as trained by the placement of the TV they watch! This does not apply to those of you that go to fancy gyms with the treadmills that have personal TVs. We live in Northern NM where you are lucky to find a gym that has a TV in it at all!

After a Forest Gump type of run, I decided the treadmill sounded appealing again. Like being called home. Running outside had proven to be highly over rated! So I again saddled up, water in my treadmill holster, cell phone in place, headphones plugged in and that glorious crap TV show blaring in my ears. My feet hit the soft whirring track and I was off...comfortable 45 degree turn to the left in my neck.

Suddenly with a loud smack and various groaning, I was pulled from my reverie. Like a fine tuned gymnast, I grabbed the side rails of the treadmill, pushed myself up and sprung my feet to a perfect 10 landing on either side of my spinning track, a slight slack in my headphone tether. I asked the tangled lump of person and headphone cord on the treadmill next to me if they were OK. "ya, ya...just not use to running with my head turned to the side!"
Newbie.

Crushing the Marathon

The Marathon of wine making is Crush. This is the time when we have grapes coming in from vineyards in the southern part of the state, our own private Estate vineyards need to be pruned, netted, harvested and then each varietal needs to be crushed, fermented, maintained, lab tested and aged. In order to make room for the new wines coming in, we need to bottle older wines! We do everything by hand so the bottling, corking and labeling is a lot of work. Mix in our regular duties of running a business and the day to day of distribution, sales, wine clubs and employees, we find ourselves in a scramble...of course we need to do it all with various events, festivals, trade shows and parties thrown in to boot! Now add to that...we have young children.

So you ask, how is the running coming along? What race do you have next? My answer is, I am in it! We literally have a constant freight train of work coming through for 3 months, after that it is more like a scenic touring train...manageable and pleasant. Jesse manages to run during this chaos, but has to do it at 4am! The rest of us try to wring out every last drop of sleep, it is rare and should be cherished.

Today we host our Annual Picking Party for the "Fire Vineyard". This event has gotten better and better each year. This will be the second year that we welcome Chef Ky Quintanilla of Lambert's Taos. Chef Ky is hands down the most incredible, inventive chef we know and his 4 course lunches on our patio are astonishing.

Bright and early, everyone starts picking grapes in the vineyard with the wine makers, which gives you the feeling of truly being a part of the magic you enjoy in the bottle. Think of it as the start of a race where you run as a sea of people, individual yet flowing through the street. Each cluster of grapes picked by your hand will be transformed into art in a bottle.

It is at lunch that you receive the lavish indulgence of that art. Wine generously pours, paired with each decadent course Chef Ky has created. Seated under the apple tress, you are welcomed into our home and our families. It is similar to how 1st time Marathoners find they are part of an inner circle of people that few get to see. We thank each new friend at the end of lunch and send them off with a bottle of last year's vintage of "Fire Vineyard" wine, a reminder of what they have helped make.

So you can see, the Marathon is under way, and while you may ask why we do it, it is no different than the reason why we run. Because we have to.

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.vivacwinery.com