This was the first ever "House of Payne 5 KM Beer Race". As a matter of fact, it is the first ever 5 KM beer race in the World as far as we could tell.
The rules were simple. Bring 6 cans of beer, at least 12 ounces and 4% alcohol. When the "gun"goes off, each person drinks one beer, shows it's empty by putting it over their head, and then starts to run their first kilometer on an out and back course. When they get back to "The House of Payne" they drink their next beer and run their next kilometer. This would continue until all 5 kilometer's were run and their last beer was drunk. Before the start of the race, each of the participant predicts the time they think it will take them to finish the race and that is recorded. Then all watches are removed so nobody knows how much time it is taking them to finish. The winner was the person whose actual time is the closest to their predicted time. And the final rule was that if you happened to "throw up", you drank another beer and did another 1 km.
By all accounts the Inaugural event was a huge success. Eleven hearty souls took on the challenge and showed up at The House of Payne (THOP) ready to do a beer run. Nobody, and I mean nobody knew what to expect. Was is going to be easy? Hard? Fun? Not so fun? But there was definitely an excitement in the air.
The race was first rate. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. Everyone received a race packet with a waiver to protect the THOP, a race number and a beautiful shirt. Of the eleven runners, 4 were Ironman Triathletes (with a combined 7 Ironman finishes), 2 serious Age group runners, a mixed martial artist fighter, a flag football world champion, 2 neighbors that have not run for a long time and a third neighbor who was a university student. We also had 6 volunteers who did a great job.
At the beginning of the race, I took some time to explain the rules of the race dressed as a beer bottle, then we took a moment to play the Canadian National Anthem. When that finished, to the music of "Eye of the Tiger" of Rocky fame, the siren when off. For the most part it is hard to chug a beer and run. Most did the beer drinking "sips" at a time, as fast as they could do it, while not getting too gassy. After that first beer everyone was off and running. By and large everyone did really well, of course everyone went out a little hard at first and usually started to slow down by the 3 kilometer mark. The fastest runner to finish was Hernan Bancalari in 24:29 and the last to finish was John Fortuna and Richard Kun in 1:09:49. Whe everyone finished they were given an Hawaiian lei. It was said to all the participants that if they finished they were guaranteed to get lei-d.
The only person that "threw up" was Jay Yakabowich, or should be now say Jay "YAK". He did it on his very last beer and being a good sport did an extra KM and had an extra beer. All in all we collectively covered 56 KM and had 67 beers . Reid Payne was driving around on his "mini" bike making sure everyone was okay.
After the race we relaxed having beer and cigars before a barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs. In the end the overall winners with the closest predicted times were as follows:
1. John Barclay - .09 seconds
2. Bryan Payne - .20 seconds
3. Tony Valentini - 1 minute 30 seconds
It was a FUN event by all accounts. The energy and camaraderie was excellent. Afterwards many of the participants wanted to hold the next one at their house. Then it even got to discussions that we should "brand" the "House of Payne 5 KM Run" to others, allowing them to use the name to have their own runs and then once a year have the Official House of Payne Run, just like the Hawaiian Ironman. I'm not sure if they really want to do that or if it was just the beer talking.
Unfortunately two people who really wanted to do the race were unable. Lisa Fortuna couldn't make it, but ended up coming to THOP and having a LOT of drinks and ran a KM in Bryan's snowboard shoes later that night, so see ended up getting a shirt. And Bill Wodhams got the original invite that had the wrong date and showed up a day late on Sunday with beers in hand. He ended up sitting in Bryan's bar and having a few beers then running home.
In any event, it was decided that the original participants, including Lisa and Bill would always be invited and accepted to The House of Payne runs. If the events ever get too big and participants need to be limited, the original runners will always be accepted regardless.
We ended up taking a pre-race and post race photo with everyone standing in the same position. We did this to see the difference 6 beers and 5 kilometer of running makes. You be the judge. From left to right is John Fortuna, Andrew Kun, Derek Baranowski, Alan Adcock, Bryan Payne, John Barclay, Richard Kun, Tony Valentini, Jay Yakabowich, Hernan Bancalari, and Carl Lyte. In a separate picture with Bryan Payne is Lisa Fortuna and Bill Wodhams. The volunteers included Alice Payne, Jacob Fortuna (our photographer), Nicole St-Onge, Alyssa Payne, Reid Payne and Lionel Ditz. Also, thanks to Brian Paul for the gift basket.
It was a great time and I encourage anyone to do one. By all feedback, everyone had a great time and a few were a little sleepy later in the day.
Keep checking the blog for next years date.
Cheers!!!!
B
More photo's can be viewed and downloaded at the following link:
http://web.me.com/brybrarobry/Site/House_of_Payne_Beer_Run.html
