Drove out to Lane Community College and headed down to the track about 15-20 minutes before the race was to start (9pm), but the people who were putting on the All-Comers meet didn't want us to use the track there so they had put up the locking barriers that some tracks have that close off lanes 1-4. So all the Beer Milers headed to the track at SEHS, which was great for me since that's the one that's about a block from my house. I drove home and put my beers, flats, and jersey in a backpack and walked to the track. There was a pretty good crowd out there. Unfortunately I only had a few minutes to warm up--I'd been hoping to get a couple miles in and go to the bathroom and stuff, but instead I had to hurry just to get my flats and jersey on before the start. The Race Director (the guy who invited everyone on Facebook) had everyone go to the start/finish line and he tried to answer questions as best he could with about 25-30 runners and as many or more spectators. I was back about 9-10m from the finish line, and when he asked if anyone had any last questions, I shot my hand up and then asked, "Yeah can we do a Beer Mile?" and he looked confused for a second, and I continued, "Instead of a Beer 1600-Meter?" and everyone was like "Oh man yeah!" and stuff and they all backed up to the actual start, where I was. Then he was answering a few more questions here and there and at one point was near the outside of the track and answered "No!" a little too loudly and those on the inner half of the track all opened their beers...the rest of us went "Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing??" and we realized they'd thought he'd said "Go!" So I guess those people are all disqualified for opening their beer early...
Anyway, once everyone was actually ready, he actually said go, and we all started drinking. I finished my beer first and as I sprinted away I heard one of the spectators say that it was seven seconds, which seems about right, but very fast. Right away I felt terrible, whereas in previous Beer Miles I've felt not that bad. About 150m in I felt like throwing up, and at 200 I actually did a little bit, but in my mouth, and swallowed it. Sorry for the grossness; hopefully you weren't eating when you read that. Anyway I thought, okay, no penalty lap, I'm still okay. I think I got to the second beer first, but I felt godawful and took probably over 20 seconds to finish it. About 100m into the second lap I had to walk to keep from throwing up, and I heard a spectator on the other side of the track yell, "Leader walking!" Someone passed me soon after, and it took a lot of walking and slow running to get to the third beer intact. I think I was about 5 seconds into drinking when the leader finished his beer and took off, and it took another long while to finish the third one. About 60m into the third lap my stomach gave up and I threw up. There were a couple runners near me (I don't know if I'd lapped them or they were tied with me at the time...there were runners around the whole track pretty much at all times, it was pretty chaotic), and they saw me puke. I said to them, "Penalty lap..." and then as I started running I realized how insanely much better one feels after vomiting, and said, "...but it'll be fast!" and took off. The last 300m of my third lap was probably around 55. The fourth beer went down okay, probably 15-18 seconds, only really had to stop to take a breath once. Finished my fourth lap in second place, I think less than 100m behind the winner, and then ran my penalty lap fairly quickly too. I didn't have a watch on it (I was too busy drinking to hit my watch at the start) but I think I heard someone say 7:57 as I crossed. Somewhere around 8 minutes anyway. My worst Beer Mile performance ever, and I was pretty disappointed. My stomach was just not having it on this particular day...hopefully next time goes better.
The winner ran 6:15, so I pretty much had no chance of winning even if I'd felt good. Second place was Josh Gordon in 7:14 (his PR is 7:02) so I should have at least gotten second. Oh also the winner was 40th at the Western States 100-miler a couple weekends ago. Beast.
Another great story, with lots of wonderful vomity ingredients. You can't be too disappointed for an event like this, can you? Do I underestimate the importance of drunk running?
ReplyDeleteI think I may have taken it too seriously...which probably contributed to the relative slowness.
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