The Drambuie Pursuit is a grueling 100-mile race consisting of hiking, rafting and biking. Oh yeah—it takes place all in one day. The trail follows Bonnie Prince Charlie’s famous flight through the Scottish Highlands in 1746. This year Drambuie extended invitations to Americans and of all people, the actor Jerry O’Connell accepted Europe’s premiere iron man challenge. We wanted to know why.
PLAYBOY: Why?
O’CONNELL: By no means am I a professional athlete. They reached out to me and said, “We’d like you to be on the American team. We are going to hook you up with people who will make sure that you don’t die.” There was a writers’ strike, nobody was really working and I figured that it would be a good way to get back in shape. It could be fun.
PLAYBOY: We didn’t really peg you as a thrill seeker.
O’CONNELL: I’m not at all. My father once told me that fear is a good emotion because it is a sign of intelligence. I remember going skiing a couple of times and walking down the backside of a mountain. I think this could be good for me.
PLAYBOY: Any more added motivation?
O’CONNELL: I am a quitter by nature. I’m somebody who likes to quit when it’s too much and by talking to you about this I now feel like I have to finish so I’m a bit worried about that. Also my brother is going to be on an opposing team and we’ll have a side bet. I’m motivated to compete under the American flag, but truly I just want to beat my brother.
O’CONNELL: No, but she is pushing me to do it because she’s an outdoorsy type. Secretly I think she just wants me out of the house, though.
PLAYBOY: Have you trained at all?
O’CONNELL: I have been training with former Giant Jason Sehorn. He is a kickass mountain biker now that he has retired and he got me a very hi-tech mountain bike so I intend to do very well in that event. I have also been doing a lot of trail running and tend to do well in that event. The whitewater rafting I am a little nervous about but Drambuie promised to set me up with a female tour guide from Oregon who is pretty nails. She is going to get me through that.
PLAYBOY: In your training did you drink Drambuie instead of Gatorade?
O’CONNELL: Was I supposed to? I had always thought of Drambuie as an after dinner liqueur but recently I’ve been enjoying it mixed with soda water and a wedge of lime.
PLAYBOY: So if we walked into a bar and ordered a “Jerry O’Connell”…
O’CONNELL: The bartender will look at you funny. Unfortunately my name doesn’t have the same ring as, say, Tom Collins, Shirley Temple or Will Ferrell.
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Comments on this entry:
Nice work. This post captures the new scale of assessing the value of anything:
"Sehorn" = Absolute piece of shit
"O'Connell" = Decent, but forgettable
"Drambuie" = Surprisingly good and worth the mocking by friends
"Rebecca Romijn" = I'd set a puppy on fire for it