A running buddy of mine has a tradition: her friends meet her in the last 500 metres of her race holding a cold beer, which she quaffs before dashing to the finish line. As a strategy, it’s so contrary to everything that I’ve ever heard about how to run well (hydrate, hydrate, hydrate), that I have to admire it.
Then again, the more I think about it, the more I realize that boozing and running have a lot in common. For example:
§ They both give you a high.
§ A little makes you feel great; too much makes you feel like hell the next day.
§ If you are serious about either, they can become pretty all-consuming hobbies. You can read about them, take classes about them, buy expensive specialized equipment to do them, and, of course, blog exhaustively and entertainingly about both drinking and running.
§ Both require stamina if you are going to do them well.
§ It’s not a good idea to phone people while doing either.
Sure, there are differences. Here are a few I can think of:
§ You can’t drink with your dog.
§ ... But you can drive after running.
§ It is possible to successfully juggle while running.
§ They make different parts of your body hurt.
Still, these are minor differences as far as I concerned. They are two highly complementary activities – though I don’t quite have the panache to do both at the same time. So I’ll settle with doing one at the beginning of the day and the other at the end, and leave you to guess which is which.
Don't know if you saw it but in the latest issue of Runner's World they had an article about drinking beer and running. Here were some of their conclusions.
1. Beer is good because it contains flavonoids which are heart-healthy compounds.
2. Beer contains useful vitamins
3. Too much slows recovery and makes you dehydrated.
4. Beer carbs are stored as fat.
5. Drink a water chaser when you drink beer.
I've run 23 marathons and dozens of other races. I've never found drinking beer during or after a race was much of a negative.
Good luck with the marathon.
Posted by: Perry | March 03, 2008 at 07:42 AM
Thanks, Perry. Y'know, I have to confess that I don't even like beer. Another hurdle to incorporating it into my race strategy.
I like the "10 Tips for Marathon Training" you have posted on your blog. Don't think I'll ever use the tips for joggling but then again, I never thought I'd run a marathon either so you never know...
Posted by: Reluctant Runner | March 03, 2008 at 09:23 PM
Hmmmm, maybe I should try it. I would probably puke though. But I do have a drink or five AFTER a run!
Posted by: P.O.M. | March 03, 2008 at 11:02 PM
For a New Year's race, I drank 4 shots of vodka while running. I actually felt pretty good about the race too, though I was running with friends who were slower than I so I found the pace very easy. Not sure what would happen if I drank while running at my usual pace...
Posted by: Laura | March 04, 2008 at 06:06 PM
Ok, RR, I can't resist.
Another difference between drinking beer and running
Beer makes you have to pee... 'nuf said.
And another similarity, nobody wants to go home with either the guy (or gal) who just drank too much beer, or just ran as both will be rather stinky.
Posted by: Mary | March 06, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Here are a couple of other blog posts related to beer and marathons (the first one is a bit more beer than marathon, to be fair):
http://1pumplane.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/30-pack-marathon/
http://1pumplane.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/snowdonia-marathon-24-october-2009/
Posted by: Slow Ride | July 07, 2010 at 06:33 AM