We’ve all seen our share of bad event sponsorships. Most of the time sponsorships just look like another paid logo on the side of a banner or are randomly mentioned by an announcer during a sporting event. Last year I wrote about one of thousands of examples—that of State Farm insurance and its sponsorship of the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. But over the weekend I got to enjoy a very meaningful event that brought me closer to several companies and an entire state region.

Over the weekend I joined the inaugural Bourbon Chase run across the center of Kentucky. It was a 200-mile relay race with 170 12-person teams that started on Friday morning and went through the night until the finish Saturday evening. One of my friends asked to join a team with 10 strangers—all 30- and 40-something guys like me who were looking to put our running skills to the test in a fantastic challenge. The teams all begin with staggered starts that are aimed to spread out the runners and get them across the finish line in a similar window of time. Each runner took three turns of running without about 6 hours between each turn, with distance ranging from 4 to 8 miles per run. It was a fun and challenging event and I would highly recommend that anyone who can form or join a team for one of these long-distance relays to go for it.

As you can probably guess from the title, this run went through the heart of the world of bourbon and Kentucky whiskey brands. The region is home of distilleries for brands including Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam, Woodford Reserve, and Wild Turkey. And the “Bourbon Trail” is rapidly rising as a tourist destination experience. Like many wine regions around the world, the Bourbon Trail offers incredible scenery, history, education, and diverse sips of high-quality spirits.

From a marketer’s perspective, I really loved how these bourbon and whiskey brands threw themselves into the race with open arms and giving hearts. This race was the first of its kind in the area and most companies would probably be too cautious to embrace 2,000 sweaty runners coming through their distillery compounds at all hours of the day and night. But the people who work at these distilleries bought in and helped us have a wonderful time. I’ll always remember the good folks at Four Roses setting up a snack stand for us at 5 a.m., and I heard stories of the people at Woodford Reserve opening up their warehouse to shelter people who were stuck sleeping out on the grass outside. They all probably thought we were crazy, but they did their best to keep us fueled up and having fun.

Meanwhile, we had a chance to learn and sip along the way, too. I got to taste the difference between oak-aged and unaged bourbon during a Maker’s Mark tour. I learned that Four Roses bourbon combines five proprietary yeast strains with two separate mash bills to produce 10 distinct Bourbon recipes. And I got to see the Woodford Reserve “barrel run,” a kind of iron railroad track that is used to roll barrels from the distillery to the warehouse for aging. At the celebration event in Lexington Saturday night, all of the participating brands lined up to provide a free tasting for all runners.

By experiencing something about the makeup of both the bottles and people of these brands, we all enjoyed a special experience that we will remember for our lives. The running challenge, team camaraderie, beautiful countryside, and good people and brands of the Bourbon Trail will make this dark liquor an enjoyable staple for years to come. That, my friends, is how you meaningfully sponsor a sporting event.

I leave you with one picture of a teammate running through this gorgeous country near the Maker’s Mark distillery: