Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/652152
W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A . C O M 59 LAP 4 By the time I finished waddling through the third lap, I was ready to quit. Or vomit. Or both. e carbonation had built up to the point where I could no longer belch. My already overfilled stomach felt as if it had been shaken violently and the cork was ready to pop. But to puke is to lose. Rules vary — the Livingston rules say if you vomit before crossing the finish line, you can't win. Beermile.com rules say you must run an extra lap. Either way, I needed to pull it together. I had ceased to care about the competition. I was now in what run- ners often refer to as "e Pain Cave" (although the term is generally reserved for runners suffering through the final miles of a marathon, or a 100-mile race. I had only run three-quarters of a mile). e final drops drained, I tossed the cup to the ground and set out at a blistering stagger. e world slowed down. I could see people ahead of me — people who should have been far behind me. I needed to stop the beer from sloshing violently in my stomach, so I switched from the bounce of a runner's gait to something with less up-and-down motion. I call it my "smooth hustle." Others might call it walking. FINISH LINE ey will tell you it's all about the camaraderie of accomplishing a feat. ey will say it's just a fun social event that brings runners together. Some even suggest it's simply the uniqueness of getting to drink and run that draws them in. But the truth goes beyond that. When the cop and the copy-machine repairman, the doctor and the firefighter toe the line at a beer mile, the playing field is leveled. No longer does the fastest runner or strongest athlete automatically win. Davis, a shorter-than-average runner, recalls the year a tall, athletic-looking woman with "super long legs" showed up to the race talking smack right from the start. "She dropped after two laps," Davis said. Davis admits she will never win a standard running race. But she finally earned the beer mile trophy this year. at's the beauty of the beer mile, it transcends the rules of nature. And everybody likes to win. Josh Pierce has won the Livingston Beer Mile four times over the last several years. "I hate running with a passion," Pierce said, but he can pound beers fast. Beer selection is an important component of the race. Some choose the lightest beer possible, others try to mix it up.