DRAFT Magazine

Or at least live a lot longer.

Whether you raced this weekend, overindulged with friends, or both, you’ve done your lifespan a favor.

Flickr photo by Chez Worldwide

Recently, two independent studies extol drinking and running for promoting longevity.

Time magazine picked up on a paper that found that heavy drinkers outlive teetotalers. This goes beyond the conventional wisdom that moderate drinkers are the only ones to experience health benefits from alcohol consumption. This finding holds true even after controlling for several outside factors, such as socio-economic status and number of friends.

According to the article:

Abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one’s risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers… These are remarkable statistics.

While heavy drinkers outlive those who abstain completely from alcohol, moderate drinkers still have the lowest mortality rate. Over the course of the 20-year study, more than 69% of the never-drinkers died, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

Of course, people have been aware of the health benefits of beer a lot longer than this study — maybe even longer than we thought. Turns out, ancient Africans drank beer to soak up natural antibiotics nearly 2,000 years ago, long before the modern age of antibiotics in 1928.

Meanwhile, Men’s Health UK just published an article on how to live to 100. In that article, Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study, said that running five times a week has been shown to add 16 years to your life. Genes may play a part, he said, but 70% of how you age is due to your lifestyle.

So to paraphrase a semi-famous line in the book “Born To Run” - ”You don’t stop running and drinking because you get old; You get old because you stop running and drinking.”

…to pedal while you paaaaaar-ty.

Breakin' the law?

Europe seems to have something against beers on bikes.

We reported a year ago that the Pedal Pub — the multi-rider, pedal-powered bar on wheels — had originally come under fire and then faced an ongoing battle in Amsterdam.

Now Germans — of all people — are rising up against the tourist-filled Pedal Pubs, complaining about “indiscriminate peeing,” noise and nuisance for pedestrians and motorists alike. Municipalities throughout the country are trying to ban the bikes.

Meanwhile, the self-propelled mobile tavern continues to gain popularity stateside. The Pedal Pub in the Twin Cities, for instance, just opened a new route.

You hear that? We embrace beers and bikes. Suck it, Europe.

Thanks to Joel for the heads up.

I figured it was a good time to pack up the bike and grab the first shuttle outta Dodge because THE ENTIRE CITY OF MILWAUKEE IS UNDER WATER.

The Great Milwaukee Flood of 2010 chose a really bad time to hit one day before I departed to Iowa for the legendary Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, aka RAGBRAI.

I spent 15 hours yesterday gutting our completed soaked first floor, including all of our carpeting and dining room floor. Check out freaking insane video of a city street turned into a Class III rapids in front of popular liquor store Otto’s.

The good news is after all that, a beer has never tasted sweeter.

Fortunately, we had friends and family come to our rescue, and we’re safe and sound. My wife, 12-week old daughter and I will be staying with my in laws for the forseeable future, and now there’s nothing to do but hope the fans and dehumidifiers work their magic while we wait for the place to dry out completely.

There will be plenty of work ahead, but for now RAGBRAI will be a welcome diversion for awhile. If it ever stops raining.

For the uninitiated, RAGBRAI is a massive week long party on wheels that rolls through Iowa each year. Beer, burgers, homemade pie, fresh corn on the cob and conveyor belts of pancakes power some 15,000 of cyclists from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. It is a traveling circus that just happens to be surrounded by corn fields and pig pens.

I rode four days of it a few years ago and was blown away not just by the size and scope of the event, but by the amount of beer consumed. Today will be no exception.

This morning our Shuttle Guy bus gets into Sioux City for Day 1 and the expo, and to kick things off Tim Hynds from the Sioux City Journal was kind enough to write a beer guide for all the visiting cyclists. That’s how you get RAGBRAI started right.

On the ride, several teams get custom jerseys and give themselves a beer-theme team name. It’s my goal to be on the lookout for them all week and blog about it daily here.

Jeff of Team Beer Me

It didn’t take me long to find one during our 10-hour bus ride from Chicago to Sioux City. My seatmate,Jeff, will be experiencing RAGBRAI for the first time via Team Beer Me. They made Fat Tire their unofficial sponsor and logo.

(Random side note: Jeff is from Fighting Irish football hero Rudy Ruettiger’s hometown of Joliet, Ill., and his dad wrote Rudy — you know, that Rudy — a recommendation letter to get into Notre Dame. These are the kinds of stories you hear on RAGBRAI.)

I’ll post here daily, but if you want to get updates from me throughout the day, follow @thebeerrunner on twitter.

See you in Iowa.

There was beer. There were bikes. There were burlesque dancers.There was… a super sized cutout of Tony Danza with gigantic arms embracing the entire crowd.

Hold me closer Tony Danza

Yes, the Tour de Fat’s inaugural visit to Milwaukee was all that I hoped for and oh, so much more. For starters, I’ve probably never seen so many bikes and beer drinkers together in one place at once.

I had the pleasure of serving up Rangers, Skinny Dips, Fat Tires and Mothership Wits at New Belgium’s traveling celebration circus of bikes and beer. This meant I got to interact with the many costumed colorful characters at the event.

All profits went to benefit the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. And speaking of bikes, a guy named Christopher took the transportation transformation and traded in his Saturn for a brand new set of wheels from Shadow Bikes.

“Congratulations,” the emcee said, “You just saved a fortune on car insurance with Shimano.”

It was also a veritable reunion of past beer runners, including Joe Stephenson, Sara Santiago, Mike Collins, and Joe Regan.

Following a bring-down-the-house performance from old-timey band Mucca Pazza, the grand finale featured a Elton John impersonator singing “Hold Me Closer Tony Danza.”

So who’s the Boss, now? New Belgium, that’s who.

I’ll find out the answer to that question tomorrow, when the traveling New Belgium Tour de Fat bike festival rolls into Milwaukee for the first time.

There celebration of bikes will have a bike parade, costumes and general weirdness at the 13 cross-county tour stops.

“This is something that you will remember for the rest of your life!” New Belgium promises.

What really makes this bike festival stand out is someone will give up their car entirely in exchange for a new hand-built cruiser bike from New Belgium. That’s commitment.

“It’s about weaning yourself off the petroleum teat,” New Belgium says. “It’s about becoming a better, sexier person.”

And speaking of becoming a better, sexier person, there will be New Belgium beer. Even better, all profits go back to support the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

I’ll be pouring beer from 1:30-4 p.m., so stop by and say hello. And if you have any costume suggestions for me, let me know.

Team Awesome soaks up their post- Great Milwaukee Race rewards

Maybe someday the Great Milwaukee Race will be as synonymous with the Brew City as beer.

I just got back from the inaugural race, which was the brainchild of Fit Milwaukee and InStep Running and Walking Center.

It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve never had more fun in a race.

The premise of the contest was like the Amazing Race. At the start, teams of 4-6 people were given clues to find and go to 11 Milwaukee landmarks, like Lakeshore State Park and the Bronze Fonz.

To collect their stamps, teams often first had to complete challenges, such as wheelbarrow races, running up and down courthouse stairs, or finishing a word search. Teams could also earn bonus points for challenges like getting a six strangers to form a human pyramid or snapping a team photo at the AJ Bombers oversize chair.

The race had an interesting dynamic, because you saw others all over the city (in their color coded shirts), but you had no clue what place you or anyone else was in. Passing others on the streets of downtown, I felt more camaraderie than competition. Passersby noticed and commented, too.

“Are you on TV?” one girl on the riverwalk shouted at us. We kind of felt like we were.

In the end it took our team about 90 minutes to finish, and we covered some 6-8 miles, and stopped at some of the city’s coolest landmarks. We even got in some cornhole next to a Lake Michigan lighthouse at one of the destinations.

I’d say the whole experience made me feel like a kid again, except for the beer reward that awaited the finishing teams at the Milwaukee Ale House.

On behalf of all the participants, I’d like to thank all the organizers, volunteers and teams that came out. Thanks for putting on such a cool event showcasing the best Milwaukee has to offer.

Photo by Jim Kruzit

This photo sort of sums up this weekend’s 26th annual Fat Tire Tour of Milwaukee, which combined beer, bikes, and bowling.

The theme of this year’s ride was The Big Milwaukski, in honor of the Big Lebowski. The bar crawl took them (among other places) to the Holler House, a legendary South Side bar with the oldest bowling lanes in the country in its basement.

Some of the highlights included biking up and down the steps of dive bars, bike bowling and whatever’s going on here.

But I’m not sure anything can quite top this from last year.

“Thirteen days, twelve breweries, and 740 miles through scenic Montana, on a bicycle. How could that not be fun?”

That’s how Bill Schneider, Travel and Outdoor Editor for New West, kicked off his attempt to ride the Great Divide Brewery Trail. The route is one of nine around and through Montana that highlights the state’s craft breweries on the new Montana Brewery Trail website.

Schneider will be posting daily updates about his trip on the Adventure Cycling blog. He’s calling it the “Beers and Gears Tour.”

“To me, (the routes) look like scenic and historic bikeways between Montana’s craft breweries, ideal for microbrew-loving roadies like me — and my partner on this trip, Will Selser,” he writes.

You can also follow their journeys on Twitter.

Whitney College may be the only college in the country with an official school Beer Mile.

Whitman College campus

Of course, you won’t find mention of the 20-year-old spring tradition anywhere on the website of the highly selective, liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington.

“Since becoming a college in 1882, Whitman College has a history of graduating ethical, unpretentious leaders,” an official description of the college reads. “The tree-lined campus is home to an intellectually dynamic, diverse, active and supportive community.”

The student newspaper The Pioneer shows another side of students. According to an article by the current Whitman female Beer Mile record holder:

The beer mile is known predominantly throughout campus as the epic night before Reading Day when Whitties shed their inhibitions and their clothing (often with the help of silly costumes, group reinforcement and of course, at least four guzzled cans of liquid courage), and run around Ankeny.

Each year, members from the cross country team meet with the administration to get the OK and go over general rules. “It shows a true Whittie-ness that’s really original to Whitman College: to have this freedom,” said one senior.

According to the article, there are actually two campus Beer Miles, in which participants run four laps and drink a beer each time around. One is the school-sanctioned event, and the other is a competitive race between the cross country team. The records today stand at 9:20 for women and 6 minutes flat for men.

You can read more first-hand accounts and memories on the Whitman Facebook page.

The following is one of the most entertaining race reports I’ve ever read. Jim Cummins originally shared his experience at Verona, Wisconsin’s first ever 4.6-mile Mud Run with the TriWisconsin e-Group. To me it symbolized the essence of Beer Running so well, I asked permission to post it here. Cheers!

Racing TriWisconsin style

Well, the Mud Run was a complete success. The costumes arrived just in time, and I picked up the few remaining supplies on my way home Friday - face paint, Tiki Cups, Palm Tree straws, little paper umbrellas, a quart of Rum and two quarts of fruit punch.

We drove to Verona (near Madison, Wisconsin), Scott and I and another TriTeam member. We checked in to the hotel, and headed to State Street - the main hangout in downtown Madison for college kids. Lots of bars.

We ate at the Fat Sandwich Company. They serve very harmful food in great quantities. I had a Fat Badger - fried chicken fingers, fried mozzarella sticks, ranch dressing, and french fries all crammed into a hogie roll washed down with a Schlitz beer for old times’ sake.

We then hit a couple of bars for Guinness, and then Scott decided we needed more supplies so we picked up three 6-packs and a pint of Tequila. Back to the hotel to watch the end of SNL and then to bed. Scott snores. He claims I snore - I don’t. Scott snores like Homer Simpson - reminded me of my ex.

Race morning was beautifully sunny, but pretty cool, low 40’s. First thing Scott did - and I mean the very first thing - was to drink a 16 oz beer in bed - and then another. We were only a half-mile from the race, so we had plenty of time to get ready.

We put on the orange Mohawk wigs, securing the rubber skullcap with spirit gum. Then we went for the grease paint makeup. I chose to be mostly red, Scott had a red-white-blue theme. Then the Hula costumes. They had a lot of padding around the waist, and extensive boobs. We secured the grass skirts with safety pins since we were going to run. While we were getting ready we had a couple of Mai Tai’s, complete with paper umbrellas.

We were ready - but decided to take advantage of the free breakfast. We attracted some attention - poor weary travelers getting their coffee and finding a Hawaiian nightmare eating donuts and waffles. As we passed the front desk, the clerk looked up - “We’re going to Church,” I explained. He looked startled and said “What???”

Got to the race, plenty of folks in various beach gear, but we really stood out. Got our teams race numbers, and set up the bar at a picnic table right in the middle of everything. Fastened the rubber pig to the pole we were going to use to carry it, and we were ready. Mai-tai’s all around, and Scott opened the Tequila. First thing that happened was the local TV station interviewed us.

Then it was one person after another who wanted to have their picture taken with us. We were Rock Stars.

At some point, the race started. There were 560 starters, and we ended up in the middle of the pack. Thank god it was cool - the costumes were kind of bulky, and the wigs were hot. We took off at a pretty good clip, the pig was kind difficult since we each had to hold on to the pole with one hand, but we got the hang of it. It was a cross-country course, mostly wet grass, a bit hilly.

The first obstacle was easy, just a few hay bails to jump over - no problem. We were starting to sweat, and I had to remember not to touch my head since the grease paint would come off and get all over. The other obstacles were more challenging - we ran through tires, had to climb over 6 foot walls, and a few places where we had to crawl under ropes for 8 or 10 feet. Usually we had to stop for a minute or two at some of them to wait our turn - I liked that, it gave me time to cool down.

I had expected Scott to suffer due to the Mai-tai’s, tequila, waffles, and little chocolate donuts, but he did just fine. I was feeling pretty good after a couple of miles, and greatly enjoying myself. I had to reign Scott in when he wanted to run across the field of a La Crosse game we ran past - we went down the sidelines instead.

The mud pit was at the end. When we got there, we stripped off the Hula costumes, I had my best Hawaiian print speedo, and lent Scott my aqua-blue with palm tree print speedo. Not that you could see that after we hit the mud. Scott did a belly-flop right into it, and I dove in with the pig.

That mud was darn cold. We both got right into it and were covered head to toe. The pit was a good 15 yards long, and had ropes across it about a foot off the ground to encourage crawling. We were both laughing hard and throwing mud. We took it as long as we could, then the run to the finish.

Back to the bar for a bracing shot of Tequila and a fresh mai-tai. One of my team-mates fetched the Hula costumes, I waited in line for the garden hose to rinse off, and Scott was trying to get the mud out of his contacts. It was still in high 40’s or maybe 50, nothing like a cold shower from a garden hose attached to a fire hydrant to wake you up.

We put the hula costumes back on for warmth, but I was still so cold I could hardly hold my mai-tai. The picture-taking requests started again right away, and we took some team photos ( credit to Ann for the photos ).

We had to hang around for the awards - we were sure we won the best costume prize, and indeed we did. Scott and I got $15 gift cards to a local college food joint - Quaker Steak and Lube. We ran about 49 minutes - not bad for all the stopping and our other handicaps.

We did some dancing in costume with the pig to the live rock band - we were a bit loaded by this time.

I had asked for a late check-out so we could clean up after. We got cleaner, but the room got much dirtier. I climbed in the shower and just couldn’t stop laughing. The red grease paint coming off me recalled the shower scene from Psycho - then the mud turned the tub completely black. By the time Scott finished you could plant potato’s in the tub.

I left a tip for the housekeeping with all the cash I had, and we split.

I’m a little wiped out from the liquor and bad food, but we had more fun then I’ve had in years. God knows what we are going to do for the October version of the race.