Winter (?) and the Beer Mile

In my previous post the Pirate and I were getting ready for her first marathon. Long story short: she crushed it, qualified for Boston and now has plans to do 3-4 marathons in 2013! For me the race was a blast. I'd done 3 marathons before and always laid it all out and felt absolutely drained physically and mentally at the end. For this one I paced the Pirate and the feelings of joy and frivolity were something I'd not had in previous long races. Compounding the good vibes was how fresh I felt; at that pace I think I could've done another 10 miles without too much stress. So while this year was the year of running without pain, next year will be the year of long. We've got a local ultra here in late July and I think I'll use that to see how far I can go. I won't try more than 50 miles, but I think I'm game for trying.

With that goal in mind the weather has been an unreal helper so far. We'd got some snow in October, but since then we've been in the 50s until just yesterday. Nothing like running around in a t-shirt in December. The nice weather gave me a chance to get a couple rounds of disc golf in over the weekend and I lucked into my second ace. I did it on my least favorite hole: 272 ft, dodge some trees and poles, and just in the last 20' it drops over a hill and you can just see the top of the basket when you throw. I actually didn't even know I'd aced it until I walked up and couldn't find it on the ground! What a great surprise! This last Saturday the weather was fantastic and we hit the course again, but no luck for aces. If I can get a couple a year then that will be pretty great.

Fortunately, later that day we had the first annual Beer Mile.What is a beer mile you may ask? Basically when the clock starts you drink a 12-oz beer then run 400-yds and then repeat 3 more times. This got a little publicity last spring when the U.S. Olympic 800-m champion completed the feat in 5:19. The world record is 5:09! Well, I had no hopes of getting anywhere near that fast for several reasons: 1) I'd be lucky to run a 5:09 without stopping to drink beer, 2) anybody who's ever drank with me knows I drink slow, 3) I'd never tried to drink 4 beers in under 10-min (my goal) in my life!, 4) I'm not in drinking shape and don't think I'd even drank a beer since after the marathon and that was Utahan 3.2 beer! (the official rules (yes! official rules) require it be at least 5.0%). Adding to my list of general excuses the beer we used was an award winning Amber (my favorite style) from a local micro-brewery and drinking it fast just seemed a travesty. Well onto the race. The competition looked stiff especially given that Mighty was there and a bunch of other hardened ultra-runners. The advantage of high class folks is then there's no pressure my goals were to have fun and make it fun. The gun sounded and I tipped up and drained it as quick as I could. Not before Burly and Mighty got there's down. As the race went on it was clear Burly was practiced up: I don't think he took more than 3-sec a beer. Well I finished and started in third, but tore off. Not 100-m in I passed Mighty and then got Burly in the next 100. The whole time I was wondering what these super fast guys were doing? I was soon to find out. I got to the end of the first lap and pant, pant, pant. Drink, nah, sip, pant, pant, pant, sip, pant, pant, pant.... you get the picture. Burly strolls up and 3 sec later he was gone! Mighty popped in just behind and 20 sec later he was gone! Then Red Hot made it in just as I finished my second. Well that was a learning experience!  I paced it out the next lap, but still came in panting with ambition. Course Burly was off as soon as I'd finished my lap and Mighty not too far behind. Red Hot came in just as I dared to drink. This beer I got drawn into the fun. It was fun to watch Burly and Mighty go at it, the beer was unreal tasty, the laughter intoxicating. Then Red Hot was gone! Ah crap! I put my head back in the game, finished up, and put the pedal to the medal. Wrong choice! 50-m in I was burping and had no choice, but to real it or suffer the consequences: if you heaved you had to do another lap! Well, by the time I'd finished the lap Burly and Mighty were gone and Red Hot was on his way out. By this time I had the breathing down and was able to get this one down almost without stopping. The stop I did have was when Mighty and Burly came tearing in for a photo finish at 7:44. I took off just as the celebration cleared enough room for me to cross into the next lap. 48-oz of beer is a lot in a stomach as I came to find out and the first half of the last lap was a struggle. I pulled myself together and finished it up in a 9:28. I'd achieved my goal. As can be imagined my next 1-2 hours ( I can't quite remember) was splendid. Finally I was able to enjoy great beer and nursed another while eating and cavorting. The bonfire was a rare pleasure. I'll have to train up for next year though.