Blizzard Beer Mile

Cold. Wet. Windy. Ridiculous. Hilarious. Tough. Drunk. Fun.

The Blizzard Beer Mile registration was at 2:59pm. Race at 3pm. Bring your own 4 beers and a trash bag to clean it all up. So said the message from D.

We assembled on the local high school track at the height of the blizzard. The track hadn't been plowed, so we were going to be running/shuffling 4 laps through knee-deep snow. And drinking a beer before each lap. The snow was thick and wet. The beer was cold. The group was ready.

R took the race seriously and stripped down to his racing singlet. Good move -- he was the overall winner. D took the snow seriously and stripped off his outer layers, too -- to reveal this one-piece purple Mizuno suit. He probably won for being warmest. Maybe. Or he won best outfit.

We hit the start button on the watch, began our first beers, and then started around the track for the first lap. The snow was so deep I opted to run in my boots, instead of the cleats I'd brought. Good move. The running was tough -- we tried to stay in each other's footsteps, but somewhere on the back side of the track we weren't so good at it and cursed each other for not being able to run in a straight line to create a path.

We got winded easily, felt tipsy quickly, and laughed a ton.

R lapped us all and won easily. The rest of us started making our way through our last beer and lap, and then J -- bringing up the final spot -- pulled off his layers to run his last quarter mile shirtless. There was tackling, snowball fights, and snow angels.



















We've had record snowfall here this winter. It just keeps coming. It's making my running tough, it's forcing back-breaking shovelling over and over again, and it's causing my school year to be extended. And all that is frustrating. But, in the middle of it all, we're having some fun with it, too.

Pigtails freezing in the heavy snow, I finished my first beer mile -- with a smile on my face.