On 10th August 2025, I ran the Prosecco Marathon at Denbies vineyard, with Phoenix Running events. This event was my 9th marathon of the year and 170th marathon (plus) in total. I love coming to Phoenix Running events for my long run training sessions. It motivates me to do my long run, and I love being able to do an official marathon. Denbies is one of my favourite locations to run, despite the difficult course profile. So, I decided to just take it nice and steady. Sometimes I go a bit faster and slow for the last couple of laps, but today I went out at around a 4:30 pace to start, with a view of coming in somewhere between 4:30 and 5 hours.
Phoenix Running events are known for their medals, but sometimes they do special themes. Like my first race of the year is the Doughnut Dash… and true to form, there was Prosecco at the Prosecco run.
It was such a beautiful day running around the vineyard, and I may have got a little sunburnt. The course profile is rough, which starts on a big climb, before another big climb, that turns into… you guessed it, another big climb. But the best bit, after about lap 3 they started to pour the Prosecco, so I had a small cup of Prosecco on most laps.
It got very hot during the run, but I’m pleased my steady pace didn’t stop. I walked the hills, ran well down, and stopped for Prosecco each lap. A pretty good combination if you ask me.
After parkrun yesterday my boy was very clear that he was not interested in running a lap with me, but I made a picnic for my family to join me at the end.
My boy decided he would try to race me at the end, but considering I had taken the run easy, he had no chance as I was still fresh.
I wore my adidas walking boots which were perfect for the terrain. I could have wore road trainers with the dry ground, but I would not want to wear carbon trainers. So the comfort and robustness of the adidas Terrex Agravic 3 were perfect.
My finish time was 4:44:19 which I’m happy with. We had a lovely picnic to finish, and bottle of Prosecco.
How was your weekend, any marathons?
pickupthepacepaul 