Another fabulous and unique festival which will take place in the Hunter Valley is the Lawler Partners Winery running festival in which visitors get a unique opportunity to cover beautiful places and prominent valley landmarks by running through them literally.

This unique running festival gives visitors a chance to run through beautiful gardens, vineyards, wineries, golf resorts and famous wineries of the hunter region. The entire experience of running through these beautiful locations is awesome and relieving.

At the festival, visitors can participate in any racing format in which they are comfortable in. The festival have racing formats like the friendly race crew, full marathon, half marathon, 5 and 10 kilometer race for the adults and a short 2 kilometer race for the kids.

The running festival is managed and organized by Paul and Hanne Humphreys of the H Events who have been overlooking the arrangements of this festival for several years. The concept of the festival was derived from a similar event which takes place in France every year.

It is because of the strong determination of the Humphreys, that the race has able to achieve so much in a short span of time. Both of them have in the past organized numerous races for charitable and commercial reasons. They both have now devoted themselves in organizing different kinds of races in the valley region.

The festival will be held on 22nd July 2012 and the organizers are hoping that the show will attract a lot more participants as compared to the previous years. There would be around seven running formats all of which would be organized in the valley region only. Besides running, tourists can also enjoy local delicacies and relax in the calm and soothing environment of the valley.

The race would start in the morning at 7: 00 AM local time. All the formats of the race would start at different time and visitors can seek race timings of a particular format from the support staff or from their official website of the festival. The race would start from Hunter Valley Gardens Broke Road, Pokolbin.

Besides the race, lots of other events will also be organized at the festival. The Pasta Party is one such event which will be organized on 21st July for charitable reasons. The pasta party is a great place for people to meet and interact with fellow runners. The party would be held at the Mercure Resort which is quite near to the racing venue. Interested participants must book their tickets as there are limited seats only.

Participants can collect their racing kits one day before the race that is one 21st July from 12 – 5 PM. The kits are available at the Oval which is next to the Hunter Valley gardens. Kits can also be collected on 22nd; race participants must collect their racing kits at least 40 minutes before the race starting time.

RACE TIMES:

• Lawler Partners Winery Marathon 7.00am Start
• Winery Half Marathon and 2 person Marathon Teams – 7.30am Start
• Winery 10km Run and 4 person Marathon Teams – 9.30am Start
• Pacific Smiles Dental Kids Marathon final 2.195km leg – 10.40am Start
• Pacific Smiles Dental Storybook 2K – open to all runners – 10.40am Start
• 6.25km Winery Wander – 11.00am Start

The organizers have tried their best to use latest technology in order to keep the race clean. The organizers have employed the world famous IPICO computer chip timing system which would be provided by Blitz Sports. Participants are required to attach the computer chip on their shoe lace in order to record their race timings.

The number of participants who can take part in this race is 3500 and apart from the participants there would also be lot of spectators who would visit in order to enjoy the valley and the race. It is therefore recommended that tourists book their Hunter valley accommodation well in advance in order to enjoy the race with a free mind.

Besides the race, Pokolbin has plenty of things which are wonderful and worth visiting. Other nearby towns of Singleton and Wollombi are also worth visiting.