DRAFT Magazine

Urban Iditarod Flickr photo by Misserion

As the 38th Iditarod makes its journey across Alaska, one of the more unusual beer-fueled races unfolds today through the streets of downtown Portland.

The annual Urban Iditarod — sometimes also called the Idiotrod — features teams of dogs, sleds and checkpoints spread out through four miles of the city. Except the dogs are actually absurdly-costumed runners, sleds are shopping carts and checkpoints are bars.

There are no prizes awarded in this race, though you could say anyone running through the streets dressed as an astronaut or bullfighter while hunting for beer is already victorious. In years past checkpoints have been Bridgeport Brewery, Rogue Public House and the Marathon Tavern.

Here’s a description from the Portland State student newspaper The Vangaurd:

As might be expected, costumes play an important role in the race. Last year presented a wacky mix of both predictable and absolutely original team themes. There were Ghostbusters, Devo and Troll dolls. Over-the-top Italian chefs threw flour at people. A team of Richard Simmons fitness instructors turned on a CD player and did a dance workout routine. Another team, called Speedos and Tuxedos, stormed through the crowd while dancing on a pole affixed to their cart.

The Portland race is expected to attract around 1,000 participants. Don’t live in Portland? There are also Urban Iditarods in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Brooklyn and Ann Arbor. Or you could start one in your own town.

Hood to Coast movie trailer

The craziness of the world’s largest relay race  will make its bigscreen debut this week at the South By Southwest Film Festival.

“Hood To Coast is basically a party for most of the teams on the course,” said Anna Campbell, producer of HOOD TO COAST and a veteran of the race. “And the beer tent on the beach is all the motivation people need to make it 197 miles from the top of Mt. Hood to the ocean.”

She added: “I should mention I also both run and drink beer.”

HOOD TO COAST follows four unlikely teams — including one whose training consists of beer drinking — among the legendary Oregon race’s 1,000 teams and 12,000 runners. Director Christoph Baaden (Campbell’s husband) ran the HTC race for the first time in 2007, and when he finished he vowed to shoot his first feature documentary about the event.

The film makes its debut on Saturday, March 13 at SXSW. You can see the trailer here.

“We’re madly putting finishing touches on the film now,” Anna said, “but by Thursday we’ll be in Austin for the festival.”

Cowtown Marathon - Ft. Worth Star Telegram photo

Deep in the heart of Texas, they love beer and running.

In Fort Worth on Saturday, nearly 5,000 people ran distances from 5K to the marathon — and afterward raced through 60 kegs of beer.

“The funny thing is I don’t even like beer, I don’t drink beer on a regular basis, but after a race it’s what I want,” marathoner Lisa Tessarowitz told a Dallas-Fort Worth TV station. “Tastes great, replenishes your body, does all the right things you know.”

“You see the shirts that say “will run for beer,” there’s a reason for that,” added beer distributor Brian Butner.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram also noticed the beer angle of the race with an article that highlighted one serious runner’s reasoning for a post-race beer:

Stacy Caudell, 57, of Lucas, is one runner who has no qualms about going straight for the beer. And it doesn’t seem to be hurting him. He’s finished a marathon in all 50 states and he’ll continue by running in the Cowtown Marathon.

“Having a few beers after a marathon is a great way to get started rehydrating and soothing the achy muscles,” he said. “The body is craving liquids and carbohydrates anyway, and the taste is noticeably more appealing.”

Be smart about it and you should be OK, Caudell continued.

“Right after a marathon, although my stomach is empty, it takes a few minutes to settle down before I am ready to start eating,” he said. “Beer is a good way to relax the stomach in preparation for the feast to come. I think that just drinking beer, without food or other liquids, would not be beneficial, since the body needs to make repairs to the damage done by the marathon.”

The winning marathon time was 2:31:58 by Logan Sherman, and Camille Riggins paced the women with a 3:01:59 finish. There was no official time for who took down the fastest post-race beer.

Congrats to Brian Yaeger and Derrick Peterman for organizing and running a beer run during the recently wrapped-up San Francisco Beer Week.

“Since we both love beer and both love running,” Brian said, “we figured, why not organize an actual beer run?”

The 5K run went into Golden Gate Park and started and ended at Magnolia Pub & Brewery.

“Now that we’ve earned a pint, I’m going to get a pint of Dark Star Mild,” Brian said in this interview. “That’s my rehydration trick”

Now I have to figure out where I can find me some of these socks.

ITT winners Ethan Brown & Karen Smyers

Who needs a yellow jersey if you win the coveted Podium Bar Stool?

Such was the prize when Harpoon Brewery recently opened its warehouse to cyclists for its annual Indoor Time Trial - and beerfest.

The Harpoon ITT pitted cyclists on stationary trainers against each other on an 8K course, surrounded by beer and the scent of hops.

“The Harpoon ITT celebrates the intensity of indoor cycling,” the brewery proclaimed, “and the camaraderie of a post competition beer.”

The event has swelled to nearly 300 riders in its second year, up from about 180 in its inaugural year in 2009. One of the race sponsors said it is the largest indoor time trial of its kind in the country.

Prizes included cases of Harpoon beer and spots in Harpoon’s annual brewery to brewery ride in June, which has already sold out.

Motivated by the post-race beer, former Ironman World champion Karen Smyers came in first overall for the women in just over 21 minutes and paced Team Psycho to the team title.

“I get distracted by the smell of the hops. I’m a very well-known beer drinker,” Smyers told NPR in Boston. “It’s hard, it’s hard to stay focused.”

(Thanks to Collin Burton for the tip)

Proof I survived Death Valley

I’m not really sure why anyone would voluntarily travel to Death Valley, much less run 26.2 miles here.

This is the most godforsaken place I have ever found myself on the planet. And I biked through southwest Nebraska.

To be fair to the nation’s largest national park, our marathon was supposed to be in gorgeous Titus Canyon. Then the park that set a record for highest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere - 134 degrees - had a snow and ice storm that shut down our regularly scheduled course.

So today, about 165 of us ended up on a mostly flat out-and-back primitive dirt road surrounded by salt fields, barren rocky landscape, remote mountains, and approximately zero signs of life. My friend Kyle (who set a new marathon PR today) claims he saw a solitary crow. Creepy.

But weather conditions at the lowest point in the continental U.S. - 282 feet below sea level - couldn’t have been more perfect, maybe 60 degrees with a constant breeze. When we started it was downright chilly.

I felt good the whole way and finished about 10 minutes off my PR in 3 hours, 38 minutes and 30 seconds, which was surprisingly good enough for 23rd place overall. I’ll take it. Winning time was 3:01.

Unfortunately, there’s no beer at the finish line, but Kyle and I stocked up at a quirky beer and soda shop called Galco’s in Los Angeles. Now we’re relaxing in our bare bones motel room with Big Sky Brewing Moose Drool.

The highlight for me was watching a woman named Cheri cross a marathon finish line for the astonishing 239th time. I watched her after the finish, assuming I could pick up a thing or two from a woman who says her favorite race of all time was in the Andes Mountains.

Here’s what I learned: You know that saying about scoring a touchdown in football, “Act like you’ve been there before”? Same thing applies to marathons.

Just 234 more marathons and maybe I can reach that level.

Photo from http://kcsprints.blogspot.com

What is there to do in Nebraska during the winter?

Have an indoor bike race, drink beer and occasionally make use of a puke bucket, if you’re one bar in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Recently Duffy’s Tavern hosted KC Sprints - a Kansas City-based bike racing series - pitting two stationary bikers onstage head-to-head for 500 meters.

I’m not surprised. I’ve biked through Lincoln, and it boasts an impressive cycling scene.

And this being a bar setting meant that beer, a puke bucket and a cheering crowd were also part of the festivities.

“It kind of started out as a drunken bar idea, and it evolved to getting sponsors and taking it on the road,” Ryan Jones, KC Sprints co-founder, recently told the Lincoln Journal Star.

So how are the races for the participants? The paper gave this account from Rhino Albeez, who drank  a bottle of beer before his sprint.

“That was a lot of fun,” he said post-race. “It’s a great workout, but, uh, it sucks at the same time.”

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favor and sign up at DailyMile.

Takes 10 seconds. I’ll wait.

….

Done? Fantastic. Now get ready to chronicle your training, hear from supportive athletes of all ability levels, and meet many of them in real life for training — and beer.

“DailyMile is all about having fun and socializing with other athletes,” says John Hegstrom, a California runner who has attended five DailyMile meet-ups. “People are encouraging and friendly.”

He’s planning a DailyMile meet-up for tonight at the Goose Island Clybourn brewpub in Chicago — and you’re invited.

“I travel to Chicago for work fairly often, so I thought it would be fun to meet up with fellow DailyMilers,” Hegstrom says.

DailyMile visitors, according to Compete.com

I recently jumped on the DailyMile bandwagon bigtime, and I’m far from the only one. According to compete.com, DailyMile has more than doubled its visitors since last year. Runners, walkers and cyclists have used the site to track more than 4.2 million miles, find races and events, and meet and motivate other athletes locally and across the country.

Previously Hegstrom has met fellow DailyMilers for beer after the San Ramon half marathon, the Portland marathon and the California International Marathon in Sacramento. There’s also a DailyMile meet-up planned after the Kaiser-Permanente Half Marathon in San Francisco on February 7.

These runners go big even after their races.

“The beer boot seems to have caught on in the DailyMile community,” he says.

DailyMilers don’t always limit their beer consumption to after the race, either. Take, for example, the DailyMile 3×3 event at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. This was a three-lap running race with a twist: eat a hotdog and drink a beer before each lap.

“There is no elitism or snobbery,” Hegstrom says of fellow DailyMilers. “That’s not to say that they aren’t strong athletes — many are.”

Flickr photo by Yannell

Beer and running is a beautiful combination.

But award-winning journalist, part-time boxing instructor and dedicated domestic engineer — and explosive combination if there ever was one — Tricia Booker just took that up a few notches.

In her blog (”My Left Hook: curious digressions by a writer fighter mom”) she describes what she calls “a perfect day” - workout, sex, beer and nap.

“Before I had children,” she writes, “this was my favorite way to spend a Saturday afternoon.”

You start by going to the beach, state park or scenic area with lots of hiking trails. And then, I’ll let Booker explain:

Set your timer. Start walking at a nice pace to warm up. After 10 minutes, take it to a jog. Jog for 10 minutes, then slow to a fast walk for the next 10.

Continue with the 10 minutes walking, 10 minutes running routine for an hour. If it’s summer, you can occasionally stop to take a dip in the ocean.

When you’re done, go home and drink a really cold beer. Then drag your significant other into bed and have sex. (If you have kids, you may have to rent a hotel room for this part of the workout.) Then you’ll obviously take a nap.

BeerSexNap Runner, anyone?

Irish Beer Runner

What began as a way to take advantage of a slow bar night in Tampa has turned into a runaway success.

The Four Green Fields Running Club’s weekly non-competitive 5K followed by beers at the Irish Pub has become so popular that the St Petersburg Times recently covered the event.

Sixty-five runners attended the first event last St. Patrick’s Day, and now it averages about 200 participants a week, with a record 238 runners at a recent Tuesday night.

Four Green Fields co-owner Colin Breen never thought the events — which have no prizes or official times — would last this long. Today there are regulars, volunteers that keep track of the long list of participants, and those that complete 10 runs get awarded a Four Green Fields Running Club T-shirt.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, participants range from walkers and moms with jogging strollers to hard-core marathoners and Hash House Harriers.

Investment banker Richard Alley, 36, holds the record for most Tuesday night runs, with nearly 40 under his belt. Alley started jogging a year ago to train for his first 5K, and now he finds running and a pint or two of Guinness the ideal way to unwind from work.

Today, he’s running the Walt Disney Marathon.

“It seemed like almost an insurmountable challenge at the time … getting ready for that race. I remember mentally struggling through running that 5K,” he told the paper. “Since then, things have changed.”

UPDATE: Some embedded reporter photos and commentary from the running club, thanks to Ryan Johnson.

Pre-run gathering

View from the course

Post-run beer gathering

Since this is about running and BEER, a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

The coveted Four Green Fields Running Club shirt