yoman wrote:
AB2914 wrote:
I’m attempting my first beer mile on Friday.
Any strategy pointers? I can’t decide if trying to go out conservatively and evenly pacing is a better idea, or going full tilt and hoping to survive is the way to go
It is about three things.
1) chugging the beer as fast as possible
2) burping without throwing up
3) being comfortable being uncomfortable
No matter what you are going to feel like crap, especially on beer three. For some reason beer/lap four isn’t so bad. The trick is chugging as fast as you can...you will see many that struggle to finish the beer...this just wastes time. Then as you are running you have to do a lot of little burps which relieve some of the pain in your stomach but you have to be careful because sometime some liquid wants to come up with them.
As for pace, I would go all out. Running at 80 of 90% is going to hurt just as much so might as well go all out.
As a multi Beer Mile Race director (in multiple countries), and very experienced Beer Miler, here are my tips:
1) Sometimes you need to run slower to race faster... from experience, the times that I throw down 65-68second quarters, I tend to end up much slower, because beers 3 and 4 are absolute hell... The races where I hold back a bit on the run pace, and focus on drink pace, I tend to end up significantly faster (5 to 10sec/quarter slower, tends to equate to significant time savings on beer 3 and 4)....
2) Burping without throwing up is key, the better you are at getting deep belly burps, the better you are at releasing the gas from the carbonation which is what drives up the penalty lap odds
3) Never drink a beer you really like... Obviously, it needs to be Kingston rules compliant (min 5%abv, which is hard depending on the country, I had to hit 4 stores in Denmark to be able to find compliant beers for our beer mile, ended up with a strong beer (not strong by canadian standards, but it was 5.7% which is strong there), but if things go south (or I guess north as the case might be), you don't want to ruin your favorite beer by tasting it for a second time... so pick something palatable, but that you wouldn't be deeply saddened if it became dead to you...
4) Don't take it too seriously, have fun with it, dress ridiculous, we usually have ridiculous tinfoil trophies for my races, but it's the bragging rights you want...
5) There are tactics in beer miling, even the tactical puke (I saw a ladies title won with the tactical puke, two ladies were dueling for the title, one puked on beer #3, came in neck and neck with her competition to Beer 4, realizing that she already had to do a penalty lap, she slammed the beer in one go, and then projectile vomited everywhere, the site of which, made her competition puke, and she coasted through the last 800m for the win...)...
6) Beer #3 will go down like sandpaper... be ready for that, most races are lost on beer #3...
7) Lap 4 is a mental battle, because you're usually on shakey burp/puke ground, so smooth strides are key, jolty running usually means you'll be running an extra quarter...
8) There is no correlation between drinking ability, running ability and beer miling prowess.... Yes, to run Bellmore type times you need to be a sub 4 miler, but I have buddies that can outrun and outdrink me, but have beer mile PBs 6min slower than mine, because they can't do both together...
None of the nonsense of cups, pre-opens, etc. Sealed cannisters, if you need an opener, you need to run with it (I actually set my first sub 9min beer mile with bottles and an opener (I had rigged it to an elastic band around my wrist)... And the traditional rule was when you finish your beer, you need to put it top down over your head to show it's finished... I've gotten more relaxed lately with the ones I organize, since we usually do it as a race after party, so we allow relays (2-person alternating laps) or even wine... But the glory race is always the classic kingston rules solo beer mile...
I'm neutral on the warm-up beer, but a big fan of the cool-down beers...