This is a two day 12 person relay. 400 team wave start at Jim Beam distillery. 36 legs following the bourbon trail. Weather was an off and on rain with temps in the 50s and 60s. Our team was MFSB (Must Find Some Bourbon). Our roster had 7 women and 5 guys. All of us were in our 30s, 40s, and 50s (except my brother-in-law which is 28) One member was a no show, another was pregnant and walked her 2 or 3 legs leaving one of the guys to pick up the other. Yet, another was unable to finish. I ran four legs for a total of 26.6 miles. The 11 runners were split into 2 vans. One van was "on" and covering 6 legs while the other was "off" and resting. This meant that there were 5 major exchanges. We all then ran the last block together in downtown lexington.
I Captained the team. I had been packing, and readying things for this race for weeks. My wife and I booked hotel rooms in Lousville for the start, in Danville for the exchange and Lexington for the finish. We also had to get two big vans for runners and gear. On, thursday, I was picking up the vans and shuttling them to my house for the designated drivers to pick up and take to Lousiville. There was an insurance snafoo with van 1. Little did I know that anything over 12 passenger rental vehicles now require additional insurance. Luckily, by coincidince, I had booked a 12 not a 15 at TNT bodyshop. The other van though was a 15 passenger, so I went to Jim's Bodyshop at noon (a bit earlier than planned) to pick it up and go through the additional paperwork. To my suprise, it "was not ready" even though I booked it 3 months ago and verified its availability last week. Around 3:30 I got a call letting me know that they had actually sold the van I booked that day. There are 400 teams renting 2 vans each in this area. No other vans were available. Luckily, my mom was able to help out by driving from Shelbyville to the Indianapolis Airport to rent a van at the last minute (literally), then to Louisville KY. My mom and dad end up driving for us and arrived in Louisville at 11 pm. We had to pick the first 6 runners up at 6am friday morning. Also, as mentioned above, one runner called on monday to back out.
Luckily, that was the end of the major suprises. All went as planned at the check in and our first runner was on his way at 8am friday morning. I headed back to my Hotel room to relax, get a shower, and eat. We picked up the other four runners and headed to Makers Mark for the first major exchange. It was cool, foggy, with a light drizzle. Van 1 was running about 23 minutes behind our schedule. Arnold, my brother-in-law was first up. He was able to make up a couple of minutes. I then ran my leg. 9 miles starting at 3:37 pm. This was a little hilly and a net gain of 100 ft elevation. 61 degrees with a 5 mph cross wind.
6:56, :47, :28, :53, 7:18, 7:01, 7:40, 7:05, 6:41. Nine miles in 1:02:52 for a 7:00 mpm pace
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/610894429
Arnold picked up the additional leg. Our van finished around 7pm and we went to the Danville hotel to shower, eat and rest up.
(go to tomorrows blog for the rest of the story)
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