Sudsy race puts runners through their paces
Oakville woman trained with Muskoka cream ale for suddenly famous Beer Mile
The concept is simple: drink a beer, run a quarter-mile, then do it all again three more times.
But just ask Lianne Girard and she’ll tell you the Beer Mile is anything but easy.
“The thing is, it’s not how good you are at beer drinking and it’s not how fast you can run the mile — it’s how well you can do both at the same time,” the Oakville native said.
On Saturday, the finest beer milers from around the world gathered in San Francisco to see if they could stomach the challenge of chugging four beers over the course of a mile.
A self-proclaimed “tomboy” and national-level runner, Girard was among them, representing team Canada in the elite women’s race.
The 23-year-old finished sixth with a time of 7:27; the fourth fastest Canadian woman at the event.
“I’m very proud because it was a windy day, the course was slow and I had almost 100 km of running in my legs from that week’s training,” she said in an email to the Star. The race wasn’t without hiccups. Girard, who usually drinks Muskoka cream ale for its flat, smooth taste, had to drink Samuel Adams summer ale because her beer of choice wasn’t available in the States.
She also fumbled with her bottle opener off the start, putting her a bit behind, but quickly caught up during the first leg.
As a smaller person — Girard is 5-foot-8 and weighs 125 pounds — she said she finds the drinking tougher than the running.
“It’s just such a heavy feeling and then you’re running and everything is getting all mixed up,” she said. “It’s one of the more awful feelings I’ve had in my life.”
Girard prepared for the event by attempting to chug two litres of water and by creating a sort of “beer beep test,” where she would drink a beer and then try to run 400 metres before two minutes was up.
Various drinking-and-running events can be traced back to the 1980s and ’90s, when high school and university cross-country teams across the U.S. and Canada competed in underground races.
The race garnered international attention last year when an American athlete, James “the Beast” Nielson, posted a video online claiming to have set a new world record.
Since then it’s grown in popularity and profile. This year’s race was covered extensively by ESPN.
Girard said her first attempt at the beer mile came courtesy of a boy she was trying to impress, adding that she never expected to be representing her country in the event just a few years later.