LEELANAU PENINSULA (9/16/06) - Want to make a friend jealous over a running experience she hasn't had yet?

Describe the Harvest Stompede.

Say to her, Put yourself in the scene, friend. You wove through a milling, mulling crowd of more than 1,000 athletes and spectators at late late registration at Ciccone Vineyards, the highest ground for miles around.

A morning sun shone on the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay a mile to the east and a few hundred feet below along Hilltop Road. A faint haze of a late-summer day softened the Leelanau surroundings, lush green and rolling, spread out in every direction like a tapestry.

You couldn't help it, no matter how you steeled yourself for a hilly race to come, if you paused at whiles in warming up to drink in a view.

But lest you live too much in the moment, friend, go back to a day earlier before you put yourself in the race and in the rest of a festive day on the peninsula.

You checked in on Friday evening for late registration at Bayshore Resort in Traverse City. A flotilla of small boats dotted the West Arm like a flock of birds. Later you fell asleep to a sound of waves lapping a shore, getting the good night's rest you craved before a gruelling race.

Next morning, some 10 miles from Bayshore Resort, on Ciccone's hilltop, race director Nate Rouse and vintners association spokesman Rick Coates welcomed 900 runners and walkers to the sixth year of the Stompede, to the seven-mile and 5K events, then sent them down a slope through a vineyard to the start/finish line. Walkers accounted for more than half the field.

As the race began, participants filed between rows of grapevines and fruit trees. Some of the vines still had bunches purple fruit. Climbing up and pounding down a course as tossed as storm waves on the West Arm, runners picked their way over grass, dirt, gravel, sand, wood chips, ruts and weed stubble.

Rouse said he designed the course for difficulty five years earlier, for the first running in 2001, after one of the Ciccone family brought home from Italy an idea for a race through a vineyard.

"I created it with the diehards in mind," he said. "I knew it would never be a big, easy 5K."

He said the race passed through 11 properties. "There are 14 landowners that make it possible. Of those, three are wineries."

In the second of seven miles a Traverse City runner gestured across an open field at a low point in the course. "We used to run over there."

How many times had he run the race?

"All six. It's uphill from here on in."

The steepest, longest climbs were at the markers for miles three, four and six. Midway through, the course skirted a vineyard - where electronic distress cries of a hawk and other birds warned off thieves on the wing - then plunged among vines covered in netting, three times making a transit down side-by-side rows from end to end.

Jim Prevost, of Columbus, Ohio, likened the white netting to shrouds. "This is surreal."

Runners around Prevost likened themselves rats in a maze. One almost veered back inside at the vineyard's exit. If he'd gotten lost in the maze, he would've missed, at 4.7 miles, a "look" sign pointing toward a grand view of the bay and Mission Peninsula. He would've missed a finish to be proud of at seven minutes slower than his PR for seven miles.

Take a look, friend, at the age and speed profiles of the 398 finishers at the two distances, starting with the overall winners, and you might conclude the Stompede is not for the young or faint of heart.

In the seven-miler, Rod Budnik, 38, of Traverse City, was first among men at 43:42 and Melissa Bergeron, 42, of Muskegon, was first among women at 51:12. In the 5K, Ken Flannery, 46, was first among men at 19:46 and Laure Coulston, 24, was first among women at 25:58.

Dennis Grantz, 57, of Alto, earned double applause. Grantz the runner won the masters and placed second overall in the seven-miler at 45:43. Grantz the artist, a photography instructor at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, created a logo, a running shoe stomping on a bunch of grapes, for the long-sleeved shirt commemorating the 2006 Harvest Stompede.

You knew all along, friend, the race's finish wouldn't put a capper on your Leelanau excursion.

You could take your choice of a wine-tasting tour of 13 vintners, from Cedar in the south to Omena in the north, and of art and epicurean festivals in Traverse City.

You could wait beside a road to cheer on the Tour de Leelanau bike race, sanctioned by USA Cycling, 100 miles from point to point for men, 66 for women.

You could stop off in Leland at a Fishtown festival for a look at a classic boat show, a classic car show and an art exhibit of Leelanau landforms.

A festive day across the peninsula was reason enough to give your heart to the orchards.

It could make you think of a poem by James Wright about sampling grapes in the south of Italy. "I have just eaten one. I have eaten the first fruit of the season, and I am in love." MR