No not that way.
But, after getting out and exercising for four straight days, I’m getting the urge to get into competitive shape again. Unfortunately, the Phi Psi 500 no longer exists. But there is another possibility:
The Beer Mile is a unofficial worldwide competition where competitors drink a beer, run a quarter mile, then repeat three more times.
A friend of mine here in State College, Kevin Becker is one of the organizers of the local version of the competition. In fact, there is a YouTube video of the 2005 State College Event (it’s held every Labor Day). The event is nothing like the Phi Psi which drew about 2000 entrants and 10,000 spectators. The State College Beer mile draws maybe a dozen entrants and another couple of dozen spectators.
You can see the SC Beer Mile video by clicking here. My buddy is the guy with the shaved head that appears several times in the video. He won the event that year (you can see him cross the finish line at about the 4:30 point in the video – he’s also the guy doing the cartwheel/moon at the end of the video).
While I don’t feel I can be competitive with Kevin (he trains a lot, runs marathons and triathlons, and even ran a 50 mile race two years ago), I certainly feel I can be competive in my age group. I just went to the beer mile records page and I see that, while there’s no official 60+ record only a super-Masters group that starts at 50, the fastest time for a 60+ entrant worldwide is 9:54. While it would be tough to get to that level this year, I certainly don’t think that number is out of my reach in another year or so. The best time for a 62 year old is 10:35 and that’s not out of the realm of possibility (I would have to alter one of my strategies though – in the Phi Psi, I always forced myself to throw up – in this race, if you ralph, you run an extra lap).
I’m in for next year.
No challenge from Ron yet. Do you think he learned his lesson? 🙂