Newberg Oregon, home to the The Camellia Run is one of my all time favorite places to run. It is a very quick jont from Portland and has so many great wineries, restaurants, parks and festivals, including the Camellia Festival. When looking at races for 2021, I knew I wanted to run in the Camellia Run.
The Camellia Run takes place at the Chehalem Cultural Center. What’s great about the Camellia Run, is the Camellia Festival takes place at the same time. Once crossing the finish line, participants can take part of the festival. I knew I wanted to have my family join in this race as well.
With my running crew, we made our way to the start line. The 10K started first, with the 5K following. The race director did a great job spacing participants out and everyone was perfectly spaced out. All runners wore masks/ buffs at the start of the race. It was so nice to be running in races again.
The course was really fun and challenging. It weaved through neighborhoods, main roads, sidewalks, fields and even by the local university George Fox. There were a few hills on the course, which made for a great change of pace from some of the lead runners. Hills are where I usually make up a lot of time. Of course it started raining and hailing, but stopped halfway through the 10K. There were plenty of volunteers and police blocking off roads to ensure safety throughout the course. This is the perfect race for families.
Once crossing the finish line, I was greeted by the rest of my family. Since they had run the 5K, they finished before. I checked my time and was so excited to see that I had PR-ed and ran a 45 min 10K. We then got to pick out Camellias, which were included in our race swag, as well as a really neat t-shirt. There were several to choose from. We ended up coming home with a lovely red and pink Camellia. After, we then made our way to the Camellia Festival and were blown away by all the beautiful plants and Camellias. They also had a whole section of plants to purchase.
A few weeks after the race, I received the best mail! A hand carved wooden medal. I got 2nd place! 2nd place aside, I highly recommend running in the Camellia Run. It was such a great experience and I look forward to running again next year
