Our Blog

Oct 08, 2014

The Bourbon Chase, no, not a drinking game…

Tomorrow Amy and I will be departing for Lexington, KY to participate in The Bourbon Chase. It’s a 200 mile, 12 person, running relay that follows the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. We start the race at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, KY, have exchange points and run past a bunch of other distilleries (Woodford Reserve, Makers Mark, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, etc.), and end on Main Street in downtown Lexington. The race runs overnight, and the weather is looking less than stellar. It’s tiring, physically demanding, and the van starts to smell. And this will be my fourth year participating with more or less the same bunch of like-minded lunatics.

If you’re not familiar with these type of races, I’ll elaborate. Twelve people, 2 vans, six runners per van. Van 1 (the first active van) begins the race with runner 1. Van 2 is inactive at this point. Runner 1 hands off to runner 2. This goes in order until the 6th runner, who then hands off to runner 7, the first runner of Van 2 (now the active van at this point). Van 1 goes inactive. Runner 7 to Runner 8, etc. Runner 12 of Van 2 then hands off to Van 1 and runner 1 (who is now doing the 13th leg of the race). This format continues until 36 legs have been completed. Each runner performs 3 legs. Total race is around 200 miles. Our team, The Bourbon Bungholes (the hole that is tapped in a bourbon barrel during the aging process, not a Beavis and Butthead reference), starts the race at 1:00 pm EST and is projected to finish at 5:00 pm Saturday afternoon.

My Van (Van 1) is comprised mostly of people I swam with in college. I’ve spent so much time with these peole (particularly Brian and Dave, we swam together in college and have stayed close all the years since) during our college years, that I call them the family I chose. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for those two. We don’t get to see each other all that often, maybe twice a year if we’re lucky. We all live in different states, have job and family responsibility. This yearly weekend is really important to me. Life is hectic and stressful at times. Spending time with your real friends helps everyone down the road of life.

If you want to follow the race, I’ll be posting updates to my Twitter and Facebook pages. There is also a live tracking feature on www.bourbonchase.com. Amy is runner 1. I’m runner 4. The other members of our van are Patrick (runner 2 – a friend of Dave, I don’t know him), Brian (runner 3), Carolyn (runner 5 – I swam with her in college), and Dave (runner 6). Van 2 is full of a bunch of great people too. But this blog isn’t long enough to delve into those sociopaths. I’ll leave it at that.

I’ll end by saying I hope Brian and Dave read this. We don’t spend nearly enough time together. I’m looking forward to this weekend more than I can express. I love you guys. And lighthouses rule…

And with that, I wish everyone out there a safe and healthy week.