Irish Beer Mile Championships 28/6

dublin runner

TRR wrote: »

Ha ha brilliant. I didn't realise the recording would pick up the sound so well. My highlights are Drquirky telling that barking dog to shut up . Also myself and dublin runner were using the Podge and rodge bottle opener. It had a little saying each time. Nearly spat my beer out a couple of times when they were telling DR to feck off

Haha! That opener was hilarious (thanks again) I couldn't stop laughing! That opener cost me at least 20 seconds

dublin runner

I'll lob up my video later. It focuses mostly on the leaders but it's a race after all!

Cue the most reluctant prize giving ever......:) A very worthy winner (see you next next TRR.....:pac:)

BeepBeep67

dublin runner wrote: »

2 Guys - 1 Cup

Cleanman

Just saw the video now...epic stuff.

KC - I don't think you got one of your beers in the bin -I'd say Emer has a hard time with you at home!

The best part was Meno looking for the spare beer in the bag of broken glass. Tight Nordy bastid:D

pgmcpq

Great stuff ... . It seems on each lap the accuracy of the bottle toss improved. Maybe add a javelin event next year ?

Marthastew

Cleanman wrote: »

Just saw the video now...epic stuff.

KC - I don't think you got one of your beers in the bin -I'd say Emer has a hard time with you at home!

The best part was Meno looking for the spare beer in the bag of broken glass. Tight Nordy bastid

What a super video:D:D:D I also laughed at Meno and his missing beer:)

I loved the occasional "excuse me" as the beers were being knocked back. Mexicomeno looked like he just happened to accidentally wander out onto a track full of runners:)
Looks like I missed a great event and I'm delighted the Patron Saint of Beer Miles sorted the weather out for you. Well done to RD Emer and the other "marshals" and congrats to all on some super PBs. Epic performance yet again TRR, well deserved National Title:)

TFBubendorfer

dublin runner wrote: »

Oh, look how happy he is (TRR, that is !)

Chivito550

That video is absolutely fecking hilarious. Great camera work.

Will hopefully get a chance soon to do up my race report on it.

Gavlor

He can run, he can drink BUT he can't cut grass or paint a fence.... He's not a real man

Chivito550

Did up my splits from watching the video:

Transition 1: 0:05
Beer 1: 0:26
Run 1: 1:24

Transition 2: 0:12
Beer 2: 0:44
Run 2: 1:32

Transition 3: 0:09
Beer 3: 0:49
Run 3: 1:31

Transition 4: 0:05
Beer 4: 0:48
Run 4: 1:22

Total time: 9:07

Transition 1 should only be 1 second (time to touch the watch and twist off the bottle. Transitions 2, 3 and 4 should be about 5 seconds each (time to pick up your beer, compose yourself and open it). I lost 4 seconds on the first transition, 7 on the second, and 4 on the third (last transition was fine). So overall I lost 15 seconds because of my beer opening nightmare.

Besides that I don't think I could have done much more. Total running time was 5:49, which was surprising on that track in the runners. Drinking was a small bit slower than I would have liked.

TRR

Gavlor wrote: »

He can run, he can drink BUT he can't cut grass or paint a fence.... He's not a real man

I have the ability to cut the grass and paint the fence but am just too lazy. Very similar to your running career

yaboya1

Following on from Chivito550's breakdown of his splits and having watched the video again, I decided to hazard a guess at my own. It's only a rough estimate (20 seconds missing somewhere) and transition times are included in the beer splits:

Beer 1 - 23 seconds
Lap 1 - 1:40

Beer 2 - 49 seconds
Lap 2 - 1:41

Beer 3 - 1:36
Lap 3 - 1:44

Beer 4 - 1:42
Lap 4 - 1:35

I'm sure I could improve a bit on the lap times, but I think it's blatantly obvious from the splits where the real work needs to be done. Mastering the chugging so that my beer splits are much closer to beer number one, rather than as slow as some of my lap times is definitely where the big improvements can be made. I look forward to this block of training :pac:

tunguska

Well done lads, looked like great craic. Although could you not have roped even one girl into racing? Big bleedin' sausage fest.......

TRR

tunguska wrote: »

Well done lads, looked like great craic. Although could you not have roped even one girl into racing? Big bleedin' sausage fest.......

We had 100's of female cheer leaders just off camera!

AuldManKing

tunguska wrote: »

. Although could you not have roped even one girl into racing? Big bleedin' sausage fest.......

TRR wrote: »

We had 100's of female cheer leaders just off camera!

ah jaysus, here we go again..............another thread derailed.

TRR

AuldManKing wrote: »

ah jaysus, here we go again..............another thread derailed.

you can't see them as they are doing the washing and making our dinners

tunguska

TRR wrote: »

you can't see them as they are doing the washing and making our dinners

Oh dear, the Men-imists will be all over that one......Im outta here

TRR

tunguska wrote: »

Oh dear, the Men-imists will be all over that one......Im outta here

I hope it's quite clear that I firmly have tongue in cheek

Chivito550

Background:

This would be my 4th beer mile. My first was the 2012 Parkville Beer Mile where I recorded a 9:20 with Hahn Super Dry (4.6%, 330ml). 7 months later at the 2013 Autumn Classic I recorded a big PB of 8:19 with Hahn Super Dry on a famous night in Australian sport when Josh Harris broke the world record.

Both the above performaces were recorded with "pussy beer", so I decided that for my third beer mile, the 2013 Parkville Beer Mile, that I would be fully compliant with Kingston Rules. I chose the truly awful Coopers 62 (5.0%, 355ml) and managed 8:27, not beating my unofficial PB, but recording an official PB, and a better overall performance give the beer difficulty. The greatest day in my beer mileing life.

Beer of choice:

This time I decided to go for an Australian beer from Tasmania, by the name of James Boags Premium Lager. With an Australian beer mileing background, the importance of twist off bottle caps has been ingrained in my mindset. All the greats use twist off: Josh Harris, Ash Watson, Charlie Blanch, stalwarts of this most technical of track and field disciplines. Being able to waste as little time as possible in transition between run to beer is talked about very rarely, but it's often where the game is won or lost.

With that in mind I went with the only beer I could find which met the Kingston Rules criteria, but also had twist off caps. That beer was James Boags, 375ml in volume, more than necessary, and 5.0% ABV.

Preparations:

On the previous 3 occasions I was able to train hard in preparation. The timing always suited - either at the end of the track season while I was on a break, or a few weeks before a long track season started (end of the Cross-Country and Road season). For the Irish Beer Mile Championships I would have no such luck, with it being held smack bang in the middle of the track season.

As a result there would be no beer 800 and no beer 1200, sessions which have become hugely park of my training programme. In addition there would be very little base mileage. I couldn't be going out on mad nights on the lash with important track sessions being held on both Sat and Sun mornings. So I had to make the best use of what I had. My training was as follows:

Tuesday: 2 x 1 beer with 60 sec recovery

Wednesday: 3 x 1 beer with 60 sec recovery

Fr:day 2 x 1 beer with 40 sec recovery

I had a disaster trying to open the caps off the bottles on Tuesday. For whatever reason, possibly due to air pressure if imported by air the caps were about 20 times harder to open than when on Australian soil. So for my first 2 sessions I loosened the caps gently, without letting the gas out, before beginning my session. However on further inspection this appeared to be against Beer Miles regulations, so for my Friday session I used a bottle opener. It was a nightmare, as a 40 sec recovery became 55. I ditched the bottle opener idea promptly, and opted to use my t-shirt for grip on the day. My confidence was a little shot and feared that this issue may rear it's ugly head again come race day. I wasn't rehearsed enough in the technique of opening these beers.

But my drinking was good. The beer slid down well, and I expected a big performance come the day in this department.

Conditions:

It was perfect beer mileing weather. Comfortable temperatures, a bit breezy, but not a cloud in the sky. No doubt this would spur on some big performances.

Expectations

In the past I have used racing flats and spikes on the Melbourne University track, but on this occasion, on a cinder track I opted for the road running shoes. I didn't expect to run as fast as a result, even though I am much fitter than when I ran my last beer mile. Overall if I could get somewhat close to my 8:27 PB I would be very happy, with a solid sub 9 being a reasonable target.

The Race:

13 brave souls toed the line in this year's Irish Championships, perhaps a bit smaller than hoped, but still a very respectable number. Only seconds in and disaster strikes, the stupid cap will not come off. 5 seconds were wasted before I was away. In these early stages I heard somebody say "feck off" in a very squeaky voice, which turned out to be a Podge & Rodge bottle opener, setting the tone, so to speak, for the rest of the evening.

The first beer went down well, in 26 seconds of actual drinking time, but by the time I have finished it I am in 12th out of the 13. This didn't surprise me as I am usually slow off the mark with the first beer. I didn't panic and knew that others would come back to me. On the first lap I went past about 3 runners, nestling in behind DrQ with 100m to go in the first lap. Lap 1 was recorded in a solid 84 seconds.

The second beer, and further misfortune, this time 12 seconds squandered before I get into beer 2. I need a couple of breathers here, and manage to empty the bottle in 44 seconds, not the finest display of speed drinking, but solid enough to eat up ground on the weakest drinkers who were ahead of me at this point.

By the time I am into my second lap, the whole field is spread out. Now I get the feeling of the Loneliness of the Beer Miler. However 200m in I pass somebody who is now feeling the pinch, and with a long way still to go I fear for him. At this very point Timaaay comes storming past, with the look of a pure middle distance runner about him. How can somebody run that fast with beer in the gut I ask myself? It was very Josh Harris-esque (minus the ability to actually drink the beers quickly!). Lap 2 was 92 seconds, with DrQ moving a bit ahead of me by this point.

Again, more poor bottle opening technique led to 9 seconds being spent opening up the bottle. This beer is starting to hurt but I just throw the head back and get on with it. No point feeling sorry for myself at this point. As Harris famously said "the 3rd beer is the one that separates the men from the pussies", so I just had to power through. 49 seconds of pain, and I was off again, this time completely isolated from the everybody else, with the red t-shirt of DrQ well ahead of me.

Lap 3 was a bit of an uneventful one, which I can remember very little of, but the pace remained steady, at 91 seconds. At this point I assumed my finish time would be well outside 9 minutes, and at times I feel like I didn't push the pace as much as I could have in the running department as I felt the PB chance was gone. Mentally I was struggling a bit, and just really wanted to get to the end at this point.

Beer 4 was my one and only good opening, taking 5 seconds, which is what you would expect it to take, by the time you pick up the beer, compose yourself, and then open the bottle. I had finally mastered the specific technique needed to open this type of beer. Too little, too late though, as 15 seconds at least had gone astray over the first 3 beers. Beer 4 felt a lot like beer 3, with a few breathers, before grinding my way through in 48 seconds. As I started the first beer TRR comes through to claim back to back titles in a hugely impressive sub 7. I vaguely recall the second place runner coming through a bit later, which turned out to be dublin runner, and just as I finish the beer, Krusty finishes out the podium.

Entering the final beer I was well down on DrQ, but by the end of it he had vanished. He was nowhere to be seen in front of me. I had a clear track in front of me and it was just me against the clock now. I see 7:45 on the clock and I felt then it would be a tough ask to get a sub 9, but thought I may aswell give it everything and have no regrets. I look behind me with 350m to go and it appears that somebody else is finishing (turns out to be a battle for 4th and 5th). There is literally nobody else ahead of me for the rest of the lap. I up the pace significantly, trying to utilise my speed, not that it is much use in an event like this. With about 200m to go I feel the stomach issueing gentle warning signs. I ease it back slightly around the bend, before going hell for leather down the finishing straight, finishing in 9:07, a pretty average time by my standards, but given the bottle opening fiasco, and the slower track, was a pretty decent performance. Final lap was 82 seconds.

I was in a bit of a daze after, as I shuffled my way over to a group of others, who I could only assume in such a hazy breathless state, were the other finishers. I counted 5, so made the very intelligent guess that I must be 6th, as I joined them in watching the rest of the field endure the closing stages.

The official results confirmed I finished 6th of 13, well down on 5th, so the bottle mishap made no difference to my overall placing, and well ahead of 7th. I was sort of in no man's land really - not good enough to challenge the likes of TRR and Krusty, far superior to the poor drinking endurance of DrQ and Timaaay among others. Overall, I was very satisfied to finish 6th in what was a fine fine event.

Aftermath:

A great night was had in the pub in Leeson street and things started to get very hazy. Most of the 13 of us were there along with significant others of some. The hangover the next day was among the filthiest I have had in some time, and the grind at Irishtown the next morning had me crying inside.

A big thanks to everybody who took part, particularly DrQ for organising a great event, and also to those who helped out with timekeeping, video-recording etc.

I look forward to the next edition.

RacoonQueen

ummm where were the ladies?

TRR

RacoonQueen wrote: »

ummm where were the ladies?

You tell us!

digger2d2

RacoonQueen wrote: »

ummm where were the ladies?

Probably busy filling in membership forms for Knocklyon-Grass-Joggers

theboyblunder

digger2d2 wrote: »

Probably busy filling in membership forms for Knocklyon-Grass-Joggers

dancing on a veneer of ice digger. on the verge of being offended......

gerard_65

digger2d2 wrote: »

Probably busy filling in membership forms for Knocklyon-Grass-Joggers

You do know that your club originated from a women's 'mini-marathon' meet and train group in Bushy. I'll say no more at this stage due to the happenings over the last few days, but be warned, I've loads of ammo. So behave yourself, like a good aul-o chap.

Chivito550

Where'd Drquirky go?

Ososlo

Chivito550 wrote: »

Where'd Drquirky go?

He got into a spot of bother over on the Rant Thread this morning. I'd say he might be taking a little break from us for a while. He'll be back before we know it no doubt.

pa4

Ososlo wrote: »

He got into a spot of bother over on the Rant Thread this morning. I'd say he might be taking a little break from us for a while. He'll be back before we know it no doubt.

Spill the beans.. we all want to know what happened! :pac:

Ososlo

pa4 wrote: »

Spill the beans.. we all want to know what happened! :pac:

You snooze you lose! It was epic!

pa4

Ososlo wrote: »

You snooze you lose! It was epic!

I always miss the action, the threads are usually closed or the posts deleted by the time I get around to reading them

gerard_65

pa4 wrote: »

I always miss the action, the threads are usually closed or the posts deleted by the time I get around to reading them

Ah no, can't believe you missed it, once in a lifetime event:D. But he went out with a bang, so to speak. I even have a screen shot of his parting shot. BTW he wasn't banned, just closed his account.