Did 14 beers two nights before marathon cause me to miss my goal time?

Short answer: Maybe.

Long answer: Depends on you and how much you usually drink.

If you drink frequently and are used to running long or hard workouts after consuming large amounts of alcohol, then no, the binge drinking 48 hours before probably didn't contribute much to you missing your goal (albeit didn't help!). This is because I assume you're used to hydrating well and know all the little tricks to curing a hangover as well as your body is adjusted to the abuse.

If you are a non-frequent drinker such as a social drinker (at worst) as opposed to someone who is a true alcohol abuser or alcoholic then, yes. Yes it's very possible the beers could've led to you missing your goal if everything else went as planned.

Finally, in no ways did the beer help the situation, but people commonly miss marathon goals. Five minutes isn't a terrible result in regards to marathon'ing and "blowing up". Regardless, lesson here is: DON'T BINGE DRINK WITH IN 48 OF YOUR MARATHON!!! Give yourself at least 5 days... lol

toomuchbooze wrote:

Have run the Rock N Roll Arizona every year, generally around 3:20. A couple weeks back, I thought I was in 3:15-3:20 shape. Hit halfway right on target, but around mile 18 started to slow. Had a personal worst at that race by nearly 5 minutes.

At first I thought it may be related to me following the Hanson's program. Still not sold on marathon training that maxes out your long run at 16. But then I got to wondering whether me having 14 beers Friday night before the Sunday morning race may have factored into the poor performance.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it wasn't a good idea to consume 14 beers two nights before the marathon.

You probably should have had at least 20; haven't you ever heard of carbo-loading? It definitely sounds like you were carb depleted on race day.

1.4/10

I am a frequent drinker but not often at that level of consumption. Agree with everything you've said, especially that that much drinking cannot help. Lesson learned. You'd think by my 49th marathon I'd have this down.

In the week before my 2:42 pr I put back 2 cases of bud light and a gram of coke. It's all what you're used to.

You will beat your goal time by ten minutes if you get to 30.