REDMOND — Craft beer enthusiasts are willing to run dozens of miles for the chance to savor Central Oregon’s most sought-after ales, IPAs and lagers.

“Beer’s a form of carbo-loading, right?” Portland’s Matt Merritt asked Saturday at Wild Ride Brewing, one of the stops along the second annual Bend Beer Chase.

Merritt was one of nearly 800 beer drinkers in Central Oregon this weekend running in the Bend Beer Chase, a 70-mile relay race with stops in Bend, Redmond and Sisters. Teams of six or fewer started at Bend’s Worthy Brewing early Saturday morning before heading north to Redmond, west to Sisters and then back to Bend. Legs of the race varied, with some as short as 3½ miles while the longest measured almost 9 miles. Exchange points in town were held at local breweries and stops in more remote areas were sponsored by brewers.

“It’s a perfect way to see Central Oregon,” said Allie Dashiell, who came down from Portland to help support fellow members of her NoPo Run Club who were running in the Beer Chase. “You get to see the Sisters, the city (of) Bend. All three towns (Bend, Sisters and Redmond) really. … The loop hits up everything.”

Once teams made their way back to Bend they ditched their team vans and ran the final 2 miles — the Keg Leg — together, a fast-paced pub crawl that hit four breweries and one cider-maker before concluding at Crow’s Feet Commons.

“All the legs are really runnable and it’s just a one-day event,” said Mary Chen, another member of the NoPo Run Club. “You can make a whole weekend out of the race. It’s not like a marathon where you can barely walk the next day. The recovery time (after a couple of relay legs) is so much quicker. You just follow up the next day with a Bloody Mary and brunch it out.”

The brainchild of Scott Douglass, who owns and operates the Cascade Lakes Race Group, the Bend Beer Chase was conceived and carried out last fall in less than two months. The initial turnout of about 400 people was encouraging, Douglass said, especially since the group only advertised the race for about three weeks. This year 120 teams signed up — and approximately 100 individuals who just did the Keg Leg — 70 percent of whom, by Douglass’ estimate, hailed from outside Central Oregon.

“I get phone calls daily about Bend,” said Douglass, whose group also stages the popular Cascade Lakes Relay and the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay. “The beer, the running. We’ve got teams from Seattle and San Francisco here.”

Highlighted by Runner’s World as a “Can’t-miss craft beer race,” the Bend Beer Chase looks to double again next year to 1,600 participants. Each brewery stop will become a mini-festival unto itself, Douglass said.

“Breweries love it because for about three hours they get this mass of people,” Douglass said. “They don’t need parking and in some cases it’s at hours when they normally wouldn’t even be open. ”

“It’s been really fun,” added Merritt, whose team was using the race as a warmup for the Hood to Coast Relay. “I mean, you get beer support at every exchange point!”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829, beastes@bendbulletin.com