So I did my first beer mile. First off, let me say that this was mostly a fun social race, as opposed to an official one. The timers were people holding iPhones. The course was not exactly 1/4 mile, but it was pretty darn close. And from what I understand, we may not have followed all the rules. Supposedly you’re supposed to all drink the same beers from their bottles. Not sure if that is true, but we didn’t do that anyways. It was BYOB, and most people had Mich Ultra, Miler Lite, or the like. I had Guinness. This surprised many people and they said I was crazy, but I saw it as an advantage. It’s less carbonated than those fizzy light beers, it tastes better when it’s not ice cold unlike those other brews, it has a little less alcohol too, and since it takes time to settle I had them poured into red Solo cups. Drinking from a cup helped me too cause there’s more surface area for air to touch the beer and help add pressure to help push it out of the cup and into my mouth. Trust me, I’m a scientist (no I’m not).
I also had a “pit crew” whom I relied on to have the beer waiting for me after each lap. She not only poured the beers while I was on the previous lap, but could hand them to me – easier than searching for it on a table of a bunch of other beers.
BTW, I guess I need to explain what a Beer Mile is. You drink a beer, run a quarter mile, repeat until you reach one mile. I was fortunate enough to come in 2nd place – beating several runners who are much faster than I. I think my strategy of drinking Guinness helped. Plus I did a two mile warm up run to get loose. I ended up finishing in 9 mins 49 secs. Not bad!
A trophy, yay!
Here’s the breakdown: Beer one, everyone pretty much chugged em down pretty fast and we were off and running. My plan was to keep a steady pace and not go out too fast. Just like any race, there are always the majority of folks who go too fast at the start and struggle at the end. Negative splitz is the goal! Indeed people went all out the first lap. I finished in somewhere near 10th place. Then came the second beer – all the sprinters were gasping for air and the cold fizzy beers went down very slowly. I still had control of my breath and was able to down mine pretty quickly. From that point on I was in 2nd place. I wasn’t able to catch the super speedy dude ahead of me and nobody else could recover after the first lap to catch me. I hear there was a barfer or two, and some people had to drop out. But everyone who competed is still a champ!
It was not an easy race. Lots of people complained about being hard to run with full bellies. I lucked out on my 3rd and 4th laps because I was so full I didn’t think I could run anymore, but after a few bouncy steps….BEEELLLCHHH! Apparently chugging a beer, when you’re already huffing and puffing, traps a lot of air in your belly. Who knew? After the burps, I was back to my pace. Funniest moment came when I was trying to get those burps out – both times this guy next to me kept saying, “It’s coming up! It’s coming up!” I’m not sure if he puked or not, but was funny to hear him narrate it like that.
It was an interesting experience, I’ll say that much. We even made some new friends as a baby shower that was going on at the same place asked if the mama could take her picture with us. They said we were as much a part of the night as their own people. I guess we were entertaining to watch.
Our group with the mom to be (hint – she’s not wearing running clothes)
OK, off to the track. Gotta get faster for the next one!
Holla!
Piratebobcat 