Nick Symmonds Breaks U.S. Beer Mile Record

ZING! wrote:

Does anyone with exercise physiology knowledge have any input with regards to the affects of 4 beers in 5 minutes of running? How much of the alcohol is absorbed in such short time, and how does that alcohol affect the muscular and cardiovascular systems? It seems like a great way to get injured if you ask me. But it is only a mile. You know what would be REALLY stupid? A beer marathon. Can you imagine? 26 beers in 26.2 miles?

While running, I doubt any alcohol will really absorb into his body. When you run, most of your inner organs that aren't vital to running will slow down. Ex-your stomach doesn't digest much while you're running because the blood that it would be using to digest has been shunted away to your extremities and organs that are vital to running such as your heart. I bet you are feeling it when you finish due to the fact that you will absorb some alcohol and just ran a really hard workout/race.

Jack D wrote:

Agreed. Not to be uptight, but he's a little old for this. I thought it was stupid in college, but at 28, it's really pretty lame.

No. You are being uptight. Sorry if you had to get a corporate job after college and succumb to someone else's standard of behavior but Nick didn't.

More power to him.

48 fluid ounces of beer, 5% of which is alcohol. That's 2.4 ounces of alcohol in five minutes. A shot is 1.5 ounces. So that's slightly under a double shot. A nice buzz, but no danger of serious intoxication, especially with the metabolic rate so high.

assuming 15 seconds average time to consume each beer that is a 419 mile with ascending levels of beer in his system. Tough event. I ran 6 flat when i was a 425 miler. So awesome run

ExPhys/NutritionStudent wrote:

While running, I doubt any alcohol will really absorb into his body. When you run, most of your inner organs that aren't vital to running will slow down. Ex-your stomach doesn't digest much while you're running because the blood that it would be using to digest has been shunted away to your extremities and organs that are vital to running such as your heart. I bet you are feeling it when you finish due to the fact that you will absorb some alcohol and just ran a really hard workout/race.

So the % alcohol within the beer is pretty much irrelevant in the beer mile. It could just as easily be a 9% IPA and the runner would still be unaffected. However, I would expect it to be more difficult to chug a 9% IPA versus a 5% light beer.

kudzurunner wrote:

48 fluid ounces of beer, 5% of which is alcohol. That's 2.4 ounces of alcohol in five minutes. A shot is 1.5 ounces. So that's slightly under a double shot. A nice buzz, but no danger of serious intoxication, especially with the metabolic rate so high.

A shot is also only 40% alcohol., so 2.4/1.5/.4= 4

kudzurunner wrote:

48 fluid ounces of beer, 5% of which is alcohol. That's 2.4 ounces of alcohol in five minutes. A shot is 1.5 ounces. So that's slightly under a double shot. A nice buzz, but no danger of serious intoxication, especially with the metabolic rate so high.

Maybe where you come they take shots of Everclear, but most liquor is only 80 proof. 2.4 ounces of alcohol = 5-6 shots.

Four beers is four drinks, which is perfectly manageable for anyone without a metabolic disorder. Sheeesh.

Clam Evans wrote:

kudzurunner wrote:

48 fluid ounces of beer, 5% of which is alcohol. That's 2.4 ounces of alcohol in five minutes. A shot is 1.5 ounces. So that's slightly under a double shot. A nice buzz, but no danger of serious intoxication, especially with the metabolic rate so high.

A shot is also only 40% alcohol., so 2.4/1.5/.4= 4

A shot of what?

Seriously, this is poor. I recall either Ian Gillespie or Rob Whalley, then of Staffordshire university running sub 5 at the BUSA X-C either 1991 or 1992, and the results of the annual chunder mile at Loughborough can be found on this website.

http://www.chundermile.co.uk/chunder_results.php

This includes Chris Parr's 5.08 from 2006.

The thing is rather than drinking 48 fl oz it's a pint every lap, that's 76fl oz in metric for you.

Cambridge University's Richard Ward ran a 5.06 (unratified) run in 2007.

We used to do an even in college called the Rod Dixon run that involved 12 laps of a 1200m loop with a beer each lap (well placed throwing up was strategically required). From that event, I can promise it is impossible to drink beer from any native unaltered container (glass or cans) in less than 8 seconds. So with 32 seconds devoted to the beer, a sub 5:00 is absurdly fast.

False, I personally can put down a beer in 3 seconds from a glass and one in around 5 from a can or bottle. Obviously those time would decrease among the mile but the first beer sure as hell will be down in 5

I would love to see it because we would do heats of 1 beer time trials the week of Dixon and I could never get one down from a can in under 8 seconds and longer from glass (How do you do 3 seconds from a bottle?) and I just poured it straight non-stop. Air can't go in fast enough to replace the liquid. Now if I poke a hole in the can, I can get one down way faster, but that was against the Dixon rulebook. I tried it over and over. Maybe back then we had smaller pull tabs or something (I haven't had beer out of a can since I got a real job).

I could drink a beer as fast as I could pour it out.

Brian

"impossible" are you serious, 8 seconds woudl not have made my university athletics club 3rd team in boat races.

My wife can down a pint in under 4 seconds (she's actually slightly faster than me).

This is how it should be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rXBeGwYGXw&feature=related

It's no wonder some of you think Symmonds is fast if you are factoring in 32 seconds for drinking time.

Brian wrote:

(I haven't had beer out of a can since I got a real job).

I'm sorry. The canned vessel is underappreciated and many excellent craft beers can be found in a can.

fdasfadsfadsfads wrote:

Four beers is four drinks, which is perfectly manageable for anyone without a metabolic disorder. Sheeesh.

In ~4 minutes? You hyperbolificator.

Was this a real beer mile? Or was it just a beer 1600? Do we need a conversion time?

To the guy that drinks beer in four seconds:

You have to drink out of a standard bottle or can, so no widemouth, shotgunning, etc. If you can drink a beer out of a normal can in under 8 seconds I will be seriously impressed. Try filling an empty with water and dumping it out, it takes over 10 seconds. So to get under 10 you need to really be sucking it down. It is not hard to drink a pint from a normal bar glass in 4-5 seconds.

To the inevitable British guy (wow took a long time for one to show up):

The chunder mile cannot be compared to the Kingston Rules beermile. For one, while more beer is consumed runners may use glasses, which significantly decreases drinking time. Also, throwing up is not penalized so the optimal strategy always involves booting. The elite chunderers are impressive, but you cannot compare times between the two races.

Bunch of wimps wrote:

Brian

"impossible" are you serious, 8 seconds woudl not have made my university athletics club 3rd team in boat races.

My wife can down a pint in under 4 seconds (she's actually slightly faster than me).

This is how it should be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rXBeGwYGXw&feature=related

It's no wonder some of you think Symmonds is fast if you are factoring in 32 seconds for drinking time.

Read what I said - in a NATIVE CONTAINER!! Not a pint glass. A can or bottle unaltered. A can or bottle has physical limitations on pouring speed - liquid can only leave as fast as air can enter. Jesus.

I assume the beer mile doesn't allow you to pour your beer into the glass ahead of the event, does it?