2007 Race Report #2

“The Guinness Challenge”

By Lisa Butler

I never thought my developed beer-chugging ability would ever become a resource for income. However, I “cashed-in” this past weekend!  I participated in the McNellie’s Pub Run and entered a distinct category called “The Guinness Challenge”.  The pub run is a creative invention to boost community participation in running, seeking to appeal to the college-days-beer-chugger in all of us, awarding a $300 beer tab to the overall male and female, $150 for second and $50 for third, with proceeds going to Catholic Ministries. This year, the run was a 3.5-mile hilly run through downtown Tulsa at 3 PM on Saturday, November 10^th (to maximize participation and allow for those Friday night partiers to wake up and get to the start line). Those runners participating in “The Guinness Challenge” were required to drink three pints (36 ounces) of Guinness before crossing the finish line – stopping at three designated “Guinness Beer Tables” to drink a pint of Guinness before a group of “judges” to assure you consumed the entire pint. These judges meant business.  I witnessed them digging an unfinished cup out of the trash and making the drinker finish before proceeding!  Also, “no hurling allowed” was strictly enforced – you had to keep all 36 ounces down to be deemed worthy of the title Guinness Male/Female.

Though I was a late bloomer in the beer-chugging scene (late twenties, when I attended my first Tulsa Hash House Harriers run whose club motto is “a drinking club with a running problem”), I believed I had been properly honed for the challenge.  The catch was, it was the Friday after IM Florida, I hadn’t run a step since the marathon, and the pub run was the next day.  So, I decided to put my body through a 4-mile test run on Friday.  Whew!  Little stiff, to say the least!  I genuinely didn’t know how I was going to do it, but decided it was worth the challenge – $300 tab, you kidding me?

Pre-race preparation was a little different than IM Florida.  With no transition or special needs bags to analytically prepare, no bike to prepare for check-in, no wetsuit to squeeze into, being a runner seemed like much less of a hassle!  I did stay with my meditation-CD-feet-up-the-wall relaxation time and shower-and-shave.

At the starting line, looking at the college students toeing the line, I got the retro-feel of what it was like to run during the Prefontaine era.  These guys had on striped knee socks, sweatbands in long hair, facial hair that was begging for washing and clippers, and a distinct group wearing t-shirts with “CREAMERS” across their chests.  Checking out my female competition was really a bust because my test-run gave me no confidence.  However, I didn’t see many women that I deemed were capable of out-chugging me.  So, I resolved that this would be what it would be, and I would run a tactical race – go out as hard as I could, just hang on and hope I could out-chug my competition.

When the race started, I don’t know what came over me!  My body took off!  I was somehow running a 6:23 mile, when the day before I could barely break 10:00!  I was leading for the first quarter of a mile until this long-legged college chick (I’ll call “Legs”) I hadn’t seen at the start, caught me and passed me.   I went with her and just tried to stay within 100 yards of her the entire race.  After the first mile mark, we encountered the first huge overpass we had to climb and I remember thinking “where’s the beer stop” because at the crest of the hill, it was nowhere in sight and more than the beer, I needed to stop for air!  Down the hill and nearly two blocks later, I encountered the first stop.  “Legs” easily beat me to the beer stop by ten seconds and was already drinking.  I selected my cup, quickly trying to choose the one with the least amount (never thought I’d say that) and was astounded at how huge 12 ounces seemed!  I was only halfway through mine when “Legs” was off and running – strongly! 

The turn-around cone was a welcome sight, until I realized the course retraced the entire course I had just run, including the overpass after a huge cup of Guinness!  So, in light of the “no hurling” rule, I decided to scale back through the crest of the overpass, assess the damages “Legs” had put into my race, and then push through to the end.  Well, to my surprise when I re-engaged to race mode, “Legs” was within a block of me and we were nearing the second beer stop.  Though “Legs” was in and out of the beer stop before me, I had a feeling her Guinness went down a little harder than mine, and I knew it was time to close the gap.  My instinct was validated when our eyes met as “Legs” was turning the last corner into the finish area, knowing we had one more beer to chug less than 10 yards from the finish line.  Like both other stops, “Legs” arrived first; however, I was only seconds behind her.  I selected my cup ($300 tab!), choked down my last Guinness, and dashed to the finish line.  I waited at the finish line to congratulate “Legs” as she finished, as well as the other female finishers.

Cooling down, I retraced much of the course in conversation with a four-time Ironman finisher and now Guinness Male.  We contemplated the appeal and possibility to adding this form of carb-replacement during an IM race and believe there could be great potential!

Chugs,

Lisa