Beer Marathon

oh yeah that's doable. I know some people that crush a 24 rack of beer on a regular basis, training the gi track would be the hard part.

Of course it’s possible. I think the question is could a human train to break 3 hours in this event? Sub-4 would be an epic feat for most mortals, and I’d expect it would come from a large positive split (1:40/2:19 or so).

John Wesley Harding wrote:

Of course it’s possible. I think the question is could a human train to break 3 hours in this event? Sub-4 would be an epic feat for most mortals, and I’d expect it would come from a large positive split (1:40/2:19 or so).

Back up a sec.

Who can run a half marathon and consume 13 beers in 1:40? That would be a major challenge on its own.

I’d say a 1:40 beer half marathon would be way more feasibly than a 4:00 beer marathon because of the excessive volume (beer and miles) of the marathon. Still a crazy feat.

I think a beer marathon would be dangerous for anyone to do except that tiny venn diagram intersection of high-functioning alcoholics and people who run >50 mpw. 26 beers is a lot of beer unless you spread it out over a day. but that's not really in the spirit of the event IMO.

beer 10K sounds pretty nice actually. you get plenty of time for each beer to settle (as opposed to a beer mile - damn what a painful event) and get a nice level of drunk by the end. sign me up.

I would say very unlikely due to the volume of liquid that would be in the stomach. The average human stomach has a capacity to hold 1 liter, expanding up to 4 liters due to the stomachs ability to stretch. 4 liters is appx. 135 ounces or 11.25 beers. 24 beers is equal to appx. 288 ounces.

Research has shown that most runners' stomachs can empty only about 6 to 7 ounces (180 to 210 ml) of fluid every 15 minutes during running, representing about 24 to 28 ounces (720 to 840 ml) per hour (from google). For a 4 hour marathon your stomach would empty appx. 104 ounces.

So if you had to consume 288 ounces over 4 hours and you only lose 104 ounces, you would be left with 184 ounces of beer in your stomach which is larger than most peoples' stomach capacity. I suspect lots of vomiting and DNF's for all!

My mistake, plug in 26 beers for calculations. Still not likely.

I think i could probably do 1:40 for the half if i had a couple of months to train. Im a pretty heavy drinker so I dont think the beers would start having a significant effect til im up towards 5-6. So i think it would be reasonable for me to get to 6.5 miles in 38:15 (5:30*6.5 plus :30 per beer). That leaves 61:45  for the second half. Take out 7:00 for the last 7 beer, that leaves 54:15 for 6.5 miles of running. So basically just have to average like 8 min miles over the back half, which seems possible but difficult.

it would for sure be extremely painful and require peeing my pants multiple times, but i think id have a chance. The real limiting factor is how drunk youd be around 10-13 beers. Youd have to have an empty stomach to handle the volume without puking but thats fonna make the drunkenness worse. Eating a stick of butter might help.

the marathon is impossible in any reasonable amount of time. Ive done a 30 rack in about 15 hours before and i cant possibly imagine compressing that two a third of the time plus adding running.

I think most won’t be able to walk after 10-12 beers. I would love to see someone do it. Is there a YouTube video of someone actually completing a beer marathon? That will be amazing, more amazing than Kopchege sub 2. 

I wonder if a liquor marathon (a shot a mile) would be more feasible

A four hour marathon would be a beer every 9:15.

It's probably fake news but I feel like liquor just hits you different. Like you would get drunk way faster and not be able to process it fast enough between miles. Beer presents a different challenge of the volume of liquid.

The only way I might be able to do something like this:

Run 26 miles, drinking a beer every second mile, if that's even possible. Hang out and drink the final 13 beers over the course of hours. Walk the remaining .2 miles to the finish. 

So would there be a zone in which the beer had to be consumed? The milers chuck four beers, with all the volume issues others mention, I can't imagine chugging 26 beers. If at all possible, I'd think a drink as you go rule would be needed.

I think the 1:40 beer half would be feasible for me too, and I’m only a 1:17 guy (1:16:59 as a matter of fact). I’ve developed a high tolerance for alcohol at one time or another; though admittedly, my periodic tolerances for running and drinking have tended to be mutually exclusive.

The first 6-8 miles/beers would be pretty easy, and I’m fairly sure I could hold up through 10 without much trouble. Average of 6:39 mile pace (66:30), slowing progressively no doubt, + 45” per beer (7:30) + 2 thirty second urination breaks (1:00) = 1:15:00, leaving 25:00 to stagger the final 5k and down the last 3 beers.

Okay, it might be tough. But I’m not all that good at running. The fact that a human has run 26.2 miles at 4:34 pace gives me hope that a human could be trained to an unbelievable Beer Marathon if properly incentivized.

The event should be called “The Michelob Ultra”.

I thought about this further and realized that I didn’t really consider the effect of the alcohol. 4 beers in a beer mile is fine, but 13 I a lot more, and 26 is insane in the timeframe you’re talking about.

Say a person metabolizes or ids their body of o e beer per hour, then after an impossible 4-hour beer marathon it would be as if they had just instantaneously consumed 22 drinks.

Only a raging alcoholic could get halfway through this challenge. I don’t know what the time that I would consider is probably outside the realm of possibility would be, but I’ll make a first guess: A 9-hour beer marathon would be nearly impossible. I think an alcoholic would have an extreme advantage over a runner. The kind of person that would achieve the best result probably leads a lifestyle that wouldn’t allow them to run regularly.

I mean of course its possible, its just a case of how long would it take. I've got a pretty high alcohol tolerance, not like Andre the Giant tolerance but I'm guessing my marathon ability significantly outweighs his lol. I keep all my co-ordination even with extremely large amount of alcohol and I dont spew. But running on a stomach full of beer is really uncomfortable, nevermind trying to shotgun a beer every mile, I imagine that would seriously mess with even the most lead clad stomachs of drinkers so imagine by the time you got to 20 or so beers and 20 miles, it would be taking 20+ minutes just to get the beer in to you and your miles would be ridiculously slow.

Honestly, the best strategy would probably be something along the lines of gallowalking. Doing the miles really slow so the beer settles better. And I'd probably guess that something between 6 and 7 hours would be World class. Thats an average of 14min/mile+beer to 16min/mile+beer which still sounds insane when I think about it. Thats if you didn't collapse due to severe dehydration or Hyponatremia.

Is the happy medium here a wine marathon? Less volume than beer, and easier absorption rate than liquor? Still a horrifying prospect

The best related thread from a few years ago was the 100 beers / 100 miles in a week.