Pre-Running the 2014 Great Race Route

Great Race director Jeff Stumb has just returned from a week on the road finalizing the second half of the 2014 Great Race venues with some of the greatest cities on the East Coast. One stop in particular will stand out on next year’s race, he said, after traveling from Virginia to Florida. “Over the years on the Great Race, we have stopped at some of the most iconic places in America,” Stumb said. “Most of the time, we are right in the center of downtown in places like Traverse City, Mich., or Crowley, La. But occasionally, we will have a stop at a unique place like the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, N.Y., which was one of the all-time favorite stops of the participants.” And in 2014, there will be another stop that racers will enjoy. On Friday, June 27, the Great Race will stop at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., and have dinner on the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier in the harbor overlooking downtown Charleston. “If that doesn’t put a lump in your throat, nothing will,” Stumb said. The original Yorktown was sunk by the Japanese at the battle of Midway in World War II. This Yorktown was built in 1943 and helped win the war. It is now a floating museum which is visited by hundreds of thousands each year. Three nights earlier while in Norfolk, the event will have a Navy theme as well, although not directly. Norfolk is home to the naval fleet, and just across the river from the venue is the navy shipyard where an aircraft carrier was in dry dock. Racers will also travel through the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on the way in to Norfolk for that evenings stop. “It is definitely going to be one of the most exciting routes we have ever

had on the Great Race,” Stumb said.