1K Wine Walk at Crystal City

READY, SET, GO!!!

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Here's a race that ALL of us can enter confidently, compete with gusto, and be certain that we'll cross the finish line as WINNERS!

The Washington Wine Academy is again sponsoring a 1K Wine Walk at the Crystal City Shops. A large group of us went last year and had a BLAST! The race is well-organized, and people really do walk about 1K through the underground tunnels of Crystal City. It's a friendly and enthusiastic crowd of all ages, and the weather inside is always warm and dry.

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This is a very popular event that sold out last year, so buy your ticket early to be sure you can "race" with our Second Half Rally group.

Full details and tickets are available at the Washington Wine Academy website. Choose the 2:00 pm heat if you want to do the race with us:

http://www.washingtonwineacademy.org/events/1k-wine-walk

How the Race Works

Basically, the participants walk through the underground shopping corridors of Crystal City, stopping at a series of rooms to taste a variety of wines. Each room serves about 4 or 5 different wines. Take as much time as you want, and then move on following purple footstep stickers to find the next tasting room. You get 20 tasting tickets that you can spend on the wines you want to try. The quality of the wines is generally quite good.

To pace the crowd, the 1K walk participants sign up for separate "heats" that start every 30 minutes. But it's not a race and there's no rush to finish. It's just a very different and fun way to taste a lot of different wines at a single event.

Tickets for the 1K Wine Walk are $40 plus $3.50 service charge. You must go to the Washington Wine Academy website to purchase a ticket and select the heat time for your start. You don't need to be with a group, but it's more fun if you're part of one. Second Half Rally will compete in the 2:00 pm heat.

The 1K Wine Walk starting point is at the 23rd St. entrance to Crystal City Shops. We'll meet there at 1:30pm by the registration table so we can assemble and start the 2:00 pm heat together. If you start later, you can probably find us as you wander the halls during the afternoon, but there was a large crowd last year so it's not certain.

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Walking the 1K and tasting wines will probably take 2-3 hours. Please note that additional glasses or bottles of wine CANNOT be purchased.

If you want to drink more than the 20 tasting tickets provide, it's necessary to go elsewhere (which we'll do afterward to continue having fun).

Also, you should bring bottled water to keep yourself hydrated during the 1K Walk. After all, we're athletes competing at the top of our game...

Afterward at Ted's Montana Grill

Racing works up a powerful thirst and appetite! So we'll plan to move our party to the next level of competition to celebrate our victory after the race is done. Last year, we had a great time at Ted's Montana Grill which is just a block away from Crystal City Shops.

Let's do it again!

Details and the location of Ted's Montana Grill are on Yelp:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/teds-montana-grill-arlington

Call Jake at 703-798-8435 with any questions or if you need to find us at the event. I hope to see you there!

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