The Bourbon Chase October 7-8, 2011

9:00 AM on a Friday

"The Gang Goes to Jim Beam"

It was a beautiful Friday morning as Van 1 from team Fueled by >51% Corn drove from Lexington to the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont, KY to begin the journey that is the Bourbon Chase.  They arrived to shots of bourbon lining the bar.  And our full team ended on Main Street in Lexington, KY amidst booths of bourbon and (my personal favorite) Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.

Our team of 12 runners ran this beautiful 200 mile relay course that stretched from Jim Beam all the way to Lexington, KY while hitting all the major bourbon distilleries along the way.  The adventure was filled with laughs, mishaps, and killer tunes (think Careless Whisper).  My van, Van 2, met up with Van 1 at Makers Mark.  We took a quick tour of the distillery where we came across one of the funniest scenarios ever.  As we were walking back to the transition point where our 6th runner would pass the baton...errr...slap bracelet to our 7th, we passed by a warehouse full of aging bourbon and two people locked in side.  Yes, you read that correctly, two people were locked inside. As we walked, the front door was being pounded on from the inside with a guy yelling "Excuse me!  Can you open this door?  We're locked in!"  In between fits of laughter, we informed the imprisoned that the door was padlocked.  One of my teammates answered, "Can't you just go out the way you came in?  How did you get in there?"  The gentleman answered, "It said self-guided tour!  So we came in!  Then they came behind us and locked the door!"  I ran to get someone from Maker's while the rest of my van stayed behind to laugh at them some more.  Well, walked briskly to get help.  I mean, I was crying from laughing so hard so my vision was too blurry to actually run.  After a couple of minutes, Maker's managed to get the door opened and the couple came out safely and in surprisingly good humor. 

 After that, we joined the race.  My van ran its first round with no problems - with the exception of the middle earth-type heat our first four runners had to endure.  

9:00 PM on a Friday

"The Gang Sees an Apparition" 

Our first round ended in Perryville, KY where Van 1 took over again and we left to grab dinner and head to the hotel for a nice 3 hour nap.  I should mention here that my van was unfortunate enough to have Cynthia, my GPS, as our navigator.  Cynthia has never liked me.  I'm convinced she is jealous of my relationship with Micah and is doing everything she can to get me lost for good.  Getting rid of me is one thing, but she put the other runners and our hero of a driver in peril as well which is absolutely unacceptable.  In looking for the hotel, she took us down a very dark, very scary road.  We knew something was wrong so Craig, the driver, pulled into a gravel driveway to turn around and figure out what our next move should be.  We were all tired, a little frustrated, and, quite frankly, afraid for our lives so when Craig said "well, that's a little creepy" the whole van was ready to overthrow Cynthia from her oh-so-powerful spot on the dashboard.  We looked up at the barn in front of us and saw something like this...

...Okay, maybe they weren't flesh eating ghosts...maybe it was more like a cherub angel statue watching our every move from the loft a very obviously haunted barn.  Either way, total creepers. Anyway, where Cynthia cannot be trusted good 'ole Google came to our rescue.  We made it to our hotel with a quick stop at Fazoli's for dinner.

3 hours and a nap later, we were on our way to Danville where we met up with Van 1 again to start our second round of runs.  It was the middle of the night so everyone got to enjoy a nice, cool run.  My van peeps blew their times out of the water, and then it got to my run.  

5:50 AM on a Saturday

"Sweet Allie Loses a Leg" 

I felt great starting out.  I knew Leg 23 was a hilly run, but I was ready for it and got off to a nice steady pace.  About 2 miles in, I heard my van cheering me as they passed.  Not 10 minutes later, I heard more vans coming up behind me.  At this point, the road was narrowed to about as wide as one lane and I was a little nervous about cars passing me.  I did my best to get over as far as I could.  With it being 2AM and about as dark as I've ever experienced, I couldn't see where the pavement ended.  I ended up getting over too far to let the vans pass and turned my ankle.  I got up immediately thinking that I could just run off the pain but after a few minutes running became nearly impossible because my foot was swelling so bad my shoe was cutting off the circulation.  As I ran, my arch got so swollen that my foot was actually convex and I was rocking from my heel to my toe.  Uncomfortable, to say the least.  About 3 miles later, I made it to the exchange point and begged for some ice.  Yeah, I said it, 3 miles.  Hardcore.  Not like I had much of a choice, but I was given the Beast Award for that one.  Here is a scientific portrayal of exactly what happened:

Clearly, with all the snapping, popping and ka-powing going on I was unable to run my third leg.  Luckily, our driver (a very handsome, giving man) ran the final leg for me.  

7:00 PM on a Saturday

"The Gang Finishes"

The Bourbon Chase is beyond words.  Never mind just trying anymore, in just over a year I have triumphed 2 half marathons, 1 full marathon, and completed a 200 mile relay race. What's the difference between try and triumph you ask?  Just a little umpf.  I may not be the fastest but I'm labeling this one as a success.