Last year was my first year participating in The Bourbon Chase. I had heard of the race and it seemed like fun, but I had no idea just how much fun it was! We had a great team last year and I couldn't wait to do it again. The only potential issue was that due it's high demand and the limited number of teams permitted, it's not easy to get in.
So back in January I threw down my deposit...hoping to "win" a spot. Lady luck was on my side and I was given a slot in the race. So I immediately contacted everyone from last year's team to see if they wanted to join me again. Most of the team is back together, and the 2013 edition of The Bourbon Chase is guaranteed to be a blast!
The Bourbon Chase
is an overnight relay road race that covers 200 miles of the historic
Bourbon Trail. The race starts tomorrow (Friday) at Jim Beam and sends runners past Heaven
Hill, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, Four Roses and Woodford Reserve
Distilleries while traveling along the beautiful back roads of central
Kentucky before ending in Lexington on Saturday night.
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| Here's the map showing the course route. |
Each
team consists of 12 members. The teams are divided into two groups of
6, with each group having their own van. My group will start and will
run legs 1-6. Then the other van on our team takes over for legs 7-12.
Then we are up again for legs 13-18. The process repeats until we have
completed all 36 legs of the race...which will take us around 28 or 29
hours. Yes, you read that right...at any given time from 12:00pm on
Friday until around 5:00pm on Saturday, we will have someone running.
Our team name is "Chafing A Dream" and
we are in the Mixed Open Division. Meaning that we have a co-ed team of
people that just want to have a good time!
So if it's still not clear - check out this video...
I am runner #6 this year, so I have legs 6, 18 & 30.
Leg 6 is lonely country roads - which I love to run! It's a 6.2 mile stretch that is mostly uphill and finishes at Maker's Mark Distillery (my second favorite bourbon) in Leroetto. This leg is ranked as the 14th most difficult out of the 36 legs. I will be running this one in the late afternoon tomorrow (Friday), so the weather should be perfect!
My second leg is # 18. This one starts in a small town called Junction City and ends in Danville. Danville is kind the heart of The Bourbon Chase. The city really embraces the race and has lots of spectators and things for runners to do as the pass through the town twice. I will be running this 5.3 mile leg sometime in the middle of the night, probably around 2:00am. It's a rolling route with a pretty big climb at the end, ranked 25th, so it should be easy...let's hope I'm awake enough to push through it!
My final leg of the race is # 30. This 6.4 mile trek will take me through some beautiful horse farms before ending at Woodford Reserve Distillery (my favorite bourbon). I'll be very excited to have my portion of the race finished and enjoy a little bit of the local spirits. I should be running this leg around 11:00am, so I'm looking forward to a crisp fall morning! This leg ranks 18th.
So I will run a total of 17.9 miles over the course of 24 hours. Why does this seem like a lot!
I'll be checking in on Facebook and Twitter during the race, so follow me if you want some updates along the way!
Be sure and visit all of my
sponsor's websites. I sought out these companies because they provide
great products and services.
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