Drinking four beers during the course of a one mile run paid off for a former Goodrich resident.
Erin O’Mara, a 2002 Goodrich High School graduate, recently set the women’s beer mile world record, winning the second annual FloTrack Beer Mile World Championships in Austin, Texas with a time of 6:08, topping the previous world record mark of 6:28 set by Chris Kimbrough in Nov. 2014. She earned $5,000 for her efforts.
The rules of the beer mile run include drinking a full-sized 12 ounce beer, running a quarter mile, then repeating the process three more times. The four beers and the running of four quarter miles is the beer mile. The race-process is timed from when the beer is opened. Runners have a ‘chug zone,? 10 meters, in which to drink the 12 ounce beer and may select the beer of their choice as long as it’s a minimum 5 percent alcohol.
O’Mara entered the championships with a 6:40 beer mile time, which she ran at the Michigan Beer Mile, a regional qualifier held in Flat Rock Speedway in Carleton, Mich. O’Mara, who said she did practice and selected 6 percent alcohol Budweiser Light Platinum for her race beer.
‘The beers are a game changer,? said O’Mara, 31, a long time runner who qualified for the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. ‘I had a good day in Austin’all the the runners were faster than I was’the beer made the difference.?
According to news reports, O’Mara led the first chug with an 8.98-second split and remained behind leaders Kirsty Jahn and Elizabeth Laseter throughout the first 400 meters. She kept the lead on the second chug and continued to stay in the lead through 800 meters. On the third beer O’Mara threw down a four-second lead. By beer four, the race was O’Mara’s to claim as she had a 10-second lead over her next competitor. The lead extended even further into the finish as she closed in 6:08.51.