Bourbon Chase - RunUltra Marathon

Our Team ran the 200 miles in 31 hours, 35 minutes, 27 seconds. Woo Hoo!
I ran 3 legs. #2. #14, and #26.
LEG 2: 6.35
I took the wrist band from Mary at 12:21pm and began my 6.35 mile run. My goal for all 3 legs was to hold a 7 minute mile. My last 10K was at about a 6:10 minute mile, and since I had 3 legs to do in so short a time, I thought I'd just shoot for an even 7 minute to be conservative. It was still raining when I began my leg, which started on a little road with a corn field on one side and train tracks on the other. The sun had threatened to come out for a few minutes, but soon it was a steady pour. Surprisingly, the rain didn't really slow me up. I was on several back roads but the first few miles were a bit to fast and I had to slow down. I passed 5 other runners on my leg, which really doesn't mean much in a race like this, since they are starting several different teams all day, but having some competition made it more interesting. I handed off my wrist baton to Jane soon, and off she when. I walked over to the van and jumped in, wanting to get out of my wet cloths and dry off. We all piled in and the van took off to where Jane's exchange was going to be. I stuffed my shoes with news paper and put some dry stuff on.
LEG 14: 6.44
Van ONE had done our 6 legs and handed off to VAN 2, who then did their 6 legs, . We toured Maker's Mark Distillery, dunked a bottle for fun, and then we went to O'Chalies to eat, then to rest in the parking lot where we would exchange between Van 2 and ours again. Mary had then taken the baton in the dark and rain and we went to my exchange, at a Baptist Church in the middle of nowhere. At 11:03pm, in a wonderful cold dark rain, I took off again. This was mostly on the side of a divided 4 lane highway that had loads of construction, so I had to run very close to the white line, in the road when no cars were coming, or in a muddy puddle, which I mostly avoided. We all were wearing head lamps and red blinky lights, as well as reflective vests. On the long straight parts, I could see a long line of red blinkies in front of me...and I began to pick them off one by one. The rain looked wild in my little head lamp, and I was keeping my pace just under 7. There was some good hills, but they didn't seem to slow me down, and because it was dark and I could't see the top or how long they were, it never really every freaked me out or discouraged me, like seeing a huge hill might. Finally, I rounded a corner and began to come into a town that was all lit up. I could hear the screams and see all of the people at the transition, as well as several people lining the streets. Again, I handed off to Jane and finished my 6.44 miles, wet, and cold. I had passed a coffee shop just a few yards from my handoff, who was nice enough to be staying open all night, but I just climbed in the van to get dry and warm, and head to the next transition.
We did our next 4 legs, and then it was time for our van to take a rest. We drove for over an hour to Woodford Reserve, a really cool Distillery. We were about to all take a very uncomfortable snooze in the van, when one of the workers drove up (it was 4am) and asked us if we wanted to sleep inside the distillery. HELL YEA! All of the buildings are VERY OLD stone buildings, and as we went inside, we saw the HUGE, open topped vats that the preBourbon was fermenting in. There were people sleeping in sleeping bags on the wooden floor all around them. Very surreal. We went into the next room, where large brass boilers were. I put my bag next to one that was nice and warm and closed my eyes to catch just a few hours of shut eye, only to wake up at 7:45. Not nearly as much sleep as someone would want, but as much as we could afford. We were expecting VAN 2's last runner here soon, to hand off to Mary and get our Van's legs going. I went to our van, had a peanut butter bagel, some boost and some water and began to get dressed for my upcoming leg of the race. While waiting for Mary's leg to start we had a chance to look all around the Distillery, which was VERY VERY exclusive. We had some samples, bought some momentos, took loads of pictures and met with the gang in VAN 2. Mary took the baton band, and we loaded up the van, after buying several more things, and hit the road, off to my last leg.
Leg 26: 4.2 miles
This was going to be a short leg for me, but there were apparently 2 extremely hard hills. I took my baton on some little back road and took off. The first mile was mostly flat, but when the hill came, it came on hard. It was well over 1/2 mile long and a real doozie! I put my head down and got a great pace going and passed 3 people. On the down hill, I passed 5 more people. YE HA! The down hill on the other side was glorious, but I knew what was coming, so I hauled ass on this part to try to equal out was the next hill would surely do. Just as I hit the dip in the downhill, I heard a person just over my shoulder, I had yet to have anyone pass me during this entire race. Soon, the intruder make HERSELF known! This girl just cruised right pass me, and I was already at my limit on this flat, just before the hill. I thought about trying to keep up with her for a second, but a second was all it took to realize that she was in a whole other class than me, so I settled back into MY race and started on this hill.....this 1.2 mile crazy ass, steep ass hill. Finally, if flattened off and I knew I only had about 1/2 a mile to finish, so I put the hammer down to make up for that hill. In the end, I still pulled out a 6:50 average pace, so I was very happy....happy to finally be done. The shortest leg of the race was definitely the hardest.
I walked a bit to cool down this time, and we eventually got back in the van. No rain this time, just nice cool, overcast skies. Finally. We did the last 4 legs of our van, saw off the other van, then took off for Lexington, where we had hotel rooms and where the finish line was.

For the race itself, nothing. We did a great job as a team, I felt good about each of my race legs. We were there to have fun, and fun was had. It was a neat experience, and one I hope to do again sometime. I really hope Mary does it next year in my place and perhaps we can trade it off like Ironman races until the kids are old enough that we can do it together.

WE went to Lexington, got cleaned up, ate great food and ran across the finish line with our last runner! WOO HOO. Pictures were taken, and then we went to the PARTY, where each of the distilleries set up a station where you could try all of their products. Too little sleep, to little food and probably a bit dehydrates still put me in a great position to NOT be drinking the 15ish shots that I probably did in about 45 minutes. I was taken back to my room where I promptly passed out. I'm sure it must have been a wonderful party.


Nothing.


WOW. If you don't do this race, your nuts.