Beer Mile

I've been seeing more and more stuff about the beer mile-- apparently it's becoming more and more of a thing these days. There's even a www.beermile.com website, with rules, FAQ, forums, and such. It also lists which beers were the most popular, as well as verified world bests. As of this writing, the world record beer mile is 4:47. Seriously-- someone ran a 4:47 beer mile! Shotgunning the beer is against the rules, so someone is really, really good at drinking beer quickly. Wow.

Yesterday I competed in my first beer mile event. You know the drill-- drink a beer, run a quarter mile, repeat until you've run a mile. I typically like to keep my beer and my running separated, but I had to give this a shot. It's not about the winning, but I was still a little nervous as to how I would respond-- would I barf my guts up (resulting in a penalty lap)? Would I feel miserable with all that sloshing around going on?

So I got a six pack of beer I wouldn't mind chugging and got out there. I'll enjoy the 'good' beer when time is not an issue.

It went a lot better than I expected, and it turns out people shouldn't be allowed to have that much fun. The sloshing around thing was not a concern, but the carbonation was. Feeling bloated was the biggest thing. As long as I could burp, I didn't really mind. The only time I felt like I might be sick was after my first quarter mile, when I felt like a beach ball. But three or four good rips and life got better.

As for the running, I was also pleased. No calf concerns arose-- still healthy on that front. I even ran an 8:06 mile, which is pretty solid. I was far more concerned about the beer than I was about the running part of things-- I didn't run to put up a good number, but I could have gone faster.

There were 11 of us altogether and I think I took 8th, with a time of 14:20.