Leg 1: Lookout Wonder Woman 6.6 miles. Evan started the race for Team Birmingham Bigfeet. “It was good wet fun. Competing against Evan was a runner dressed as Wonder Woman” The highlight of his leg was besting her. Even with her invisible jet she couldn’t handle him.

Leg 2:  6.2 miles. Morgan’s Blue Poncho. Morgan picked up the race in a downpour. 100% rain, 50% bobbing and weaving through construction barrels. But even with the downpour, Morgan stayed dry in his Blue Poncho.

Leg 3: Catch the Girl in Red. 4.0 miles. Beth took over on leg 3. Let me show you guys how to do it. “That last hill was a @#%&*!!!” …and I would like to thank who ever talked me into this. “I was trying to catch the red team. I almost had her.”

Leg 4: Still trying to catch the team in Red. 5.1 miles. Jere took off trying to catch the red team as well. Dodging semi-trucks and mud, the first half of the run was a bit hairy. The second half of the race was nothing but hills.

Leg 5: RoadKill. 4.5 miles. Dale continued the race through the back roads of Kentucky. When asked about his experience he said, “5 Road Kill and having fun.” Morgan went to help another team’s van get unstuck in a Cemetary. He was joined by a local farmer with a Silverado pickup which easily pull the van to freedom.

Leg 6: Chappy Burns up the Road. 6.0 miles. Matt took up the gauntlet with leg 6. He burned up the road and finished at Makers Mark. An interesting distillery with a lot of runners.

Leg 7: Ashley’s debut. 5.6 miles. Ashley takes over to conqure the hills. “Everything is great so far!”

Leg 8: Colean Conquers the Hill. 5.7 miles. Colean was amazed at how easy the hill were so far. She loved the town of Lebonon. “It was so quaint!”

Leg 9: What was that Smell? 8.1 miles. Jim had a great run. 8.1 miles in 77 minutes. “What was that smell?” Jim was accosted by numerous smells along the way. He also kept getting confused, thinking the light from the head lamp was from the moon. No matter how hard he looked, he never could find the moon.

Leg 10:  Where’s Evan? 7.1 miles. As Sheena made it to the exchange point on a long dark highway, Evan was removing a rock from his shoe over by van 1. It was so dark, no one knew Sheena was finishing until Dale happened to look up and see her running by almost to the exchange point.

Leg 11: Flares. 7.5 miles. A little drier than his first leg, Evan passed numerous livestock and barking dogs. “Very dark with hills.”  As Evan approached the end, local law enforcement lit flares to slow traffic at the exchange zone. A great idea, but it gave the runners a bit of a scare when the flares were first lit.

Leg 12: Fresh Legs. 5.7 miles. Birmingham Bigfeet against the Fresh Feet. As we were on you second legs, the other teams were still on their first legs. The last 5K was a duel between Morgan and “Blue Blinky”. They battled back and forth with Morgan pulling it out and not only winning that leg, but got the interview with www.singlemalt.tv.

Leg 13: In the dead of the night and in the pouring rain. 4.4 miles. A steady rain, the”slap, slap, slap” of someone’s shoes and the bob of a headlamp following me is what I remember about this leg of the race.  Someone was behind me, close.  I never turned around but could hear their feet slapping the wet pavement and see thier headlamp bobbing in front of me .  That gave me the push to go a bit faster, but then a car began to swerve toward me and I stopped with my arms out saying “what are you ;doing?!!!!”  Now the slap of their shoes was even closer.  We headed to our first hill and I powered on and soon lost them.  They couldn’t keep with my pace. Then I was all alone, in the middle of the night, with no one.  I hoped the boogie man wouldn’t catch me, and he didn’t!

Leg 15: Anothr Stuck Van. 6.0 miles of a dark and lonely roads on a leg called the “Dark and Lonely”. A productive run passing 10 other teams. The end of the leg was punctuated by one of the other teams getting their van stuck in a field next to a church. With the help of several teams, they were finally able to free the van and return to the race.

Leg 16: What Happened to Chappy? 6.6 miles.  We don’t have much data from Matt because he collapsed immediately after he finished. Momma Colean looked after Matt, tucking him into bed and nursing him back to health.

Leg 17: Follow the Blinkies. 5.1 miles. Ashley ran through a rotting possum.  Other than the possum, it was a prett run although a bit dark and lonely. “The reflective vests were a God send.”

Leg 18: Blinkey, Blinkey, Blinkey. 6.1 miles.Colean couldn’t stop talking about the blinking lights on everyone’s vests. She is now in the market for a highend reflective vest with built in blinkey lights, probably from Victoria Secrets.

Leg 19:  The snow was  gently falling. 5.8 miles. It was on this run Jim decided the entire run was uphill. He also was came to the realization the vests and headlamp made him a good target.

Leg 20: Another dark run. 4.9 miles.   Sheena had another run in the dark. This time Evan was there on time but the time keeper wasn’t. “If this is an Easy run, I’m in trouble on the others.”

Leg 21: Run for the Roses. 5.8 miles. A good run in the dark for Evan. “Not too bad although there seemed to be numerous liquor stores.” A nice down hill finsh into the FourRoses Distillary.

Leg 22: World Record 3 Minute Mile. 8.1 miles. Morgan’s hardest leg. “My body was just not into it.” The first 30 minutes of the run was still in the dark - Morgan was FULLY expecting this to be a daylight run. He kept looking for the 1 Mile to go sign but non  were to be found (everone REALLY liked the 1 mile to go signs). When he saw the 1 Mile to go sign, he shook his head in disbelief and almost started walking… Fortunately the sign was misplaced or the world record time for the 1 mile just got SMASHED: he finished that last mile in 3 minutes flat!

Leg 23: The Beautiful Bridge. 3.8 miles. The description made it sound dangerous, but it was beautiful  A high bridge over the Kentucky river.  A mill or distillery down on the banks and the gorgeous trees changing colors all along the sides of the hill.  But soon the beauty was over and it was climb, climb, climb.  Beth was passed early on the flat of the bridge (I was enjoying the scenery) by a woman and the chase was on for me.  I soon caught her on the first rolling hill and she couldn’t keep up after that. . Morgan: “Quit enjoying the view and watch where you are running!”

Leg 25: Distillery Graveyard. 6.3 miles. Although declared as possibly the best leg of the race, the course turned out to be a tour of dead distilleries. But Dal was very happy because this was Dale’s first leg of the race in dry shoes. “Thank God for dry shoes.”

Leg 26: The Concrete Factory. 4.2 miles. Van 2 had trouble finding this exchange in the middle of the night, then was blocked in by the first two vehicle to arrive after them. This was Chappy’s 3rd leg of the race. It had very difficult hills but he “found his grove”.

Leg 27: Be a Leader, not a Follower. 5.0 miles. Ashley was following a group who took a wrong turn and led her down the wrong hill. Once lost, they stopped cars to ask for directions. As it turned out, legs 27 and 28 overlapped and several runners were confused. 

Leg 28: The Capital. 3.9 miles. Colean had a very scenic run beating her estimated time by 4 minutes.

 Leg 29: Lions and Tigers and Bears. 4.7 miles. Jim was hearing things as he ran through the forest.

 Leg 30: Are we still going up? 4.5 miles. Sheena’s last leg of the race was also her most difficult. This was also her 1st and only leg of the race in the sunlight.

Leg 31: Dry Shoes. 4.3 miles. It was a good run in the daylight with dry shoes for Evan. “Easy? Not if it’s your 4th leg. Sill passed  3 people.

Leg 32: Let ‘er rip. 4.9 miles. Legs or no legs, Morgan left it all on the course, finishing in 33:48.

Leg 33: The final leg. 3.9 miles. It was tough to wait around for our 4th leg.  Too many people were finished and celebrating.  My body ached and the downhill to the bridge on leg 23 had my quadriceps sore.  More hills again and more beautiful countryside.  But I was too sore and tired to see much of anything…except the FINISH LINE!  Hallalulah!  Time to pass off to Jerry and I am DONE!!!!!

Leg 34: Catch the Walker. 4.3 miles. “Starting my 4th leg, all I wanted to do was catch the walker who had started a good 5 minutes before me.” I caught the walker and was then told by a spectator I only have a mile and a half to finish. Looking at my watch, I saw I was making great time. My last leg, the hype of the race. I guess it was only adrenalin. Of course it was the longest mile and half of my life. I think the spectator was a little off about their estimation.

Leg 35: Happy to Slappy Chappy. 5.1 miles. A tough start until van 1 “woohoo’d” Dale.

Leg 36: Construction and Bad Directions. 6.2 miles. Chappy expected the rest of the team to run faster at the finish.

When all was said and run… Team Birmingham Bigfeet finished 70th out of 150 teams. Not bad for 10 people competing against 12 man teams and most of which had nerver run this type of relay before.

http://www.bourbonchase.com/images/2009_results_overall.pdf

The adventures of Team Birmingham Bigfeet

10 runners strong (so far) ar set to run in a relay covering 200 miles over a 36 hour period. In case you are new to this, I’m refering to the Bourbon Chase in Kentuck, Oct 9th and 10th.

Team Birmingham Bigfeet is headed up by co-captains Colean and Jeremiah, the team began forming about a month ago. Colean’s enthusiasm about the event has infected us all. She is the force behind the team.

Jeremiah, who thought he was going along for an interesting run has assumed the duties to technology guru.  If you don’t like the website, it is his fault.

With less than 3 months before the race, we will be sharing our experiences as we organize, train, travel and participate in the race.  We’ll profile each runner and plan to blog each leg of the race.

Please join us on this adventure.

To find out more about the race visit http://www.bourbonchase.com/

Top of the Mountain

Our trip to North East Georgia for hiking and geocaching was fantastic. Great weather, great surroundings and great company made for an enjoyable and exciting adventure.

Which way did he go?

Our first stop was Black Rock Moutain. Miles upon miles of beautiful hiking trails and scenic overlooks.  Although at one point we weren’t sure which trail we were on and which way to go.

It would be a great place for a bigfoot sighting.

No, Really, There were goats on the roof!

Old Goat